Berat - along the Osum

The direct way from the Berat castle to the Gorica neighborhood was full of adrenaline, thanks to crazy dogs. (I already learned in other parts of the world that throwing stones to dogs is sometimes the only solution but I still have scruple to do so.)

However, back at the Osum one can cross the bridge Ura e Goricës to enter Gorica. This neighborhood has a lot of small and steep alleys and while exploring them I found the church Kisha e Shën Spiridhonit në Lagjen with a nice garden at the entrance. At the door sat an old man who was overwhelmingly happy. I could not understand him but was very impressed. His eyes were like lights when he spoke and he gestured inside the church as if he had built everything by his own. What a situation: You enter a place you found by chance and somebody you have never seen before is so happy to see you as if you are his son who returns after he has been away for many years. He looked into my face smiling with tears in his eyes and finally I had tears too and I cannot explain why and what happened. Eventually I felt so thankful and was happy without a special reason. I wished that I could have understood at least a sentence. While writing these sentences tears come again into my eyes and I have to smile - thank you!

The Ura e Goricës.

View from the bridge at Gorica and its church.

The Kisha e Shën Spiridhonit në Lagjen.

The entrance.

The interior.

I was surprised to see so many churches because I thought that Albania is an Islamic country. But as I wrote in my last blog post the Ottomans respected other religions. When Albania was founded in 1912 the majority of the south Albanians were Christians while the majority in north Albania were Muslims. In the communist era all religious activities were forbidden, priests and imams were sent to prison and in 1967 Albania was declared to be an atheistic country. Since 1991 religions are again allowed and for example the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania was restored. Nowadays about 40% of the Albanians are Muslims, and about 35 % are Orthodox or Catholic. Depending where you search these percentages will differ because after 40 years without religion most Albanians are atheists despite that they are in member lists of a religious community.

Back to sightseeing. The most famous site of Berat is the Mangalem neighborhood - the so-called city of thousand windows. It consists of even more steep alleys than in Gorica and exploring them makes fun. You will find tiny bars where local people are drinking but also large and quite expensive restaurants for tourists covering several floors of a house. You will also find improvised stores where people sell things like honey and other local goods.

View from Gorica at the Mangalem neighborhood.

The same during the dusk.

It was a beautiful night and this old slushy song came into my mind:
Toploader - Dancing in the Moonlight
 
The dusk in summer is in general spectacular in Albania as I already wrote. Within a few minutes almost everybody goes out on the streets. Suddenly there are carousels and music is turned on. Take as example a walk at the Bulevardi Republika:

The dusk begins and the street gets crowded.

About 5 minutes later.

About 10 minutes later.

The street party lasted until half past nine or ten and it stopped as quick as it begun.

I assume you are curious about the large building in my overview images of Berat. This Capitol-like building is the Universiteti i Beratit. The building was open but only a single security men was inside and he couldn't speak English. People in the city told me that it is a private university with very high fees. Meanwhile it seems that something happened: The website is dead for months and googling around also gives no information. So either it is closed or it is now a branch of another Albanian university.

The west side of the building

The entrance hall.

The east side

Impressive, but there is no other building or a campus.