Prime Minister Edi Rama and the President of the European Council Charles Michel continued the visit agenda with an inspection of the work on restoration of Albanians’ mosaic, the largest of its kind, on the façade of the National History Museum building in Tirana’s main Skanderbeg Square. The 400-square meter mosaic, one of the most important cultural heritage works completed by a group of Albanian artists in 1981 for the opening of the museum, is now being built back under the EU-funded 4 Culture programme and UNOPS in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture.
The Minister of Culture provided an overview of the mosaic restoration project, saying its implementation extends beyond the façade on which it has been created.
According to the Culture Minister, the interest in visiting the museum will grow once the restoration project completes. “National History Museum is one of the most frequently-visited museums in the country with more than 100, 000 people visiting the site annually. Once the project completes we expect a larger number of people to visit the museum, which was one of the cultural heritage sites sustaining damages due to the devastating earthquake two years ago and the restoration project is funded by the EU,” Culture Minister Margariti said, underlining that the support under the Eu4Culture programme is one of the most generous funding provided for restoration of the cultural heritage sites.
“Worst-damaged parts of the mosaic, one of the most important sites, are being restored as part of the restoration projects we launched under the EU4 Culture programme. It is the most generous assistance of over 40 million euros we have received for reconstruction of around 30 cultural heritage sites in the wake of the earthquake. It is the most post-earthquake support we have been granted for the cultural heritage sites in the areas undergoing the reconstruction process. We are working on the overall restoration of the National History Museum, which hasn’t been upgraded since it was opened in 1981 and nothing has changed since then, except for some minor restorations. Here with us are the Albanian and international UNOPS staff members. UNOP is the implementing agency for the EU 4 Culture programme. It is a new reality for them too, as they have never been involved in cultural heritage preservation projects previously,” Margariti said.
Specialists are working on arranging the mosaic pieces in this part. More than 120,000 different colours have been identified. Each of them, piece by piece, and the special story is that we have also identified the factory in Venice, Italy, where these pieces were taken from in 1981and we have now established contacts with the very same factory that is reproducing them. So this marks cooperation between Albania and Europe too, namely Italy in this case. This is the largest culture heritage site we are currently working on and the mosaic actually contains a large number of examples of late Albanian Socialist Realism still to be seen in the country. However, it is one of the most beautiful artistic projects ever implemented in Albania,” Margariti said.
Prime Minister Edi Rama and the visiting European Council President Charles Michel walked along the Skanderbeg Square, with the government head saying that the square has been transformed into a modern infrastructure for the citizens. “We have transformed Skanderbeg square. The greenery you see around here has been designed in a specific way. This surrounding green vegetation did not exist previously. The concept has been completely changed,” the Premier said.
