Many roads lead to Rome – NO, to the Balkans! More precisely, four different flight routes from Germany led us to Tirana, the capital of Albania. There our field trip began with our motley travel group. Students, doctoral students and lecturers from the fields of history, Art History and archeology, who come from different specialist areas, formed an interesting group constellation for the field trip. This diversity was also reflected in the program. It was an intensive week with many multi-perspective and interdisciplinary highlights on our tour through Albania and North Macedonia. We were supported by our Albanian tour guide Klanti and our bus driver Kidi.
The field trip started in Tirana. After a city tour that highlighted the city’s diverse history, we visited the Etem Bey Mosque with its beautiful murals and the National Historical Museum. There we also got a tour by a museum employee, who gave the word “National” a great meaning during his stories. Overall, we found again and again during our trip how strongly national pride is anchored in the Albanian population. On our first evening in Tirana, a friendly soccer match between Albania and Poland almost brought the city to a standstill. Everywhere the Albanian flag was to be seen and the game was running in every bar.
After our impressions in the capital, we visited the nearby fortress of Kruja. From the tower of the fortress, according to an ancient writing, you should have a view to the sea, which is why we wanted to check this of course. However, we did not come to a clear result. The originally planned iconographic museum was unfortunately closed, but we were able to speak with a member of the Bektashi. The Bektashi order, which developed from Islam in the Middle Ages, is the fourth largest religious community in Albania. The Bektashi prayer house, the so-called Tekke, had been so badly damaged by an earthquake that we could only visit it from the outside. A special personal highlight for us was the Sari Saltuk Sanctuary, which is why we would like to take it up in more detail:
After we had visited the town of Kruja, we drove with our tour bus up the mountains lying east of Kruja. On the mountain top a
breathtaking view should await us: Not only Kruja and the offshore plain could be seen, on the horizon we could even erahnen the coast of the Adriatic. But we had not only come because of the magnificent view. This atmospheric place houses the so-called “Sari Saltuk Sanctuary”.

On site, we explored the prayer site built into a cave and the associated spring. Quite in the tradition of other Bektashi prayer sites, the small chapel in the interior of the Grote had a round floor plan and was decorated with green wall paint. After we had all walked barefoot through the small memorial room and visited the cave niche behind it with numerous candles, we could take further stairs into the interior of the mountain to fill our bottles with the water of the holy spring. This water is said to have healing powers, which is why many people pilgrimage to Sari Saltuk. Sari Saltuk was, as we had previously worked out in the excursion-prepared practice class, a figure around which numerous legends entwine.

Thus, it is not clearly established whether he was merely the dervish of the Bektashi community in Kruja or whether he lived at the court of Sultan Orhan (1326 – 1360). Other legends say that he was a student of Haji Bektash Veli, the founding father of the Bektashi traditions. In any case, he owes his popularity to the symbolic character he has for the religious community. He is regarded as a symbol of the Bektashi’s tolerance towards other religions. According to other legends, he also traveled in Europe and converted Christians to Bektashism. So it is not surprising that the pilgrimage site built for him offers a view beyond the borders of the Albanian coast.
After we had absorbed the extraordinary atmosphere of the place and strengthened ourselves with the holy water, we drove back by bus to the plain in front of us. This bus journey alone would have been worth a field trip: the panoramic road that led us down the mountain during a beautiful sunset made us marvel at the beauty of the Albanian landscape. Filled with the impressions that the history of the Bektashi and their Sari Saltuk had revealed to us, we drove back to our accommodation in Tirana.
Our itinerary then took us to Durres, a port city that already had strategic importance in ancient times. In the “White Tower”, part of the fortifications, we were able to get a first impression of the ancient cityscape through a VR tour. It was a funny sight to see everyone putting on the VR glasses one after the other and then walking through the tower with amazed faces. After this special tour, we went back to the real world and visited the amphitheater with our city guide, who is an archaeologist. We were accompanied by her dog, who felt at home in the ruins that had not yet been completely excavated. The reason why only part of the amphitheater has been excavated so far is the many residential buildings that are directly adjacent to it. Afterwards we visited the ancient Forum. We also spontaneously visited the Fatih Mosque, which is the third oldest mosque in Albania. We made a short stop on our journey at the Orthodox Monastery of Ardenica. The Albanian national hero Skanderbeg is said to have married in this monastery. However, we were primarily interested in the Church of Mary with its beautiful and well-preserved frescoes. This monastery church was donated to the Mother of God. The frescoes therefore also depict events from her life.

Afterwards we drove to the Apollonia Archaeological Park. There we were guided through the remains of the ancient city by an archaeological employee of the park. The city has not yet been completely excavated, which is why we sometimes had to fight our way through bushes and scrub to get to the individual excavation sites. After this adventure, we visited the Orthodox church, which was built in the 14th century on the ruins of the city, and the park’s museum with
individual excavation finds. The evening was rounded off in a traditional Albanian restaurant in Berat. Of course, a glass of raki was a must. Although the group split into smaller groups at lunchtime to go out for food, in the evening everyone always ate together and exchanged impressions of the day.
The next day, Klanti led us through Berat, which is also known as the city of a thousand windows. The highlight was the beautiful Royal Mosque from the Ottoman period with the Halveti Tekke next to it. The murals and decorations alone are worth a visit. In addition, the 99 names of Allah adorn the walls around the dome of the mosque. As we discovered, you can spend a lot of time here with your head in your neck, marveling. Afterwards we drove up to the fortress, where we were given a guided tour by the director of the iconographic museum with many interesting explanations about the individual depictions of saints. There we also visited the house of a local family, which today also serves as an ethnographic museum. The daughter of the family not only showed us the house, but also served us desserts and raki in her living room. This showed the much-praised hospitality of the Albanians. Arriving in Saranda, a port city in the south of Albania, the impressive day was rounded off with an evening swim in the sea.

The next day we drove to Butrint. The archaeological park is one of the main attractions in Albania. Originally founded by the Greeks, the city experienced a heyday with many structural innovations during its membership of the Roman Empire. The theater built in this phase still has excellent acoustics today. Afterwards, we continued to Gjirokastra with a short stop at the Nicholas Church near Mesopotam. There we visited the Skenduli House, which is now uninhabited and serves exclusively as an ethnographic museum. A particular highlight was the
ceremonial room, which surpasses all other rooms with its wood carvings and murals and took us back to a time when women saw their future husband for the first time at the wedding. Afterwards we climbed up to the fortress to enjoy a beautiful view over the cityscape. On our own, we then explored the city in smaller groups, talked to locals and visited the Bazaar Mosque, which was built during the Ottoman period. Here, too, the 99 names of Allah can be found on the wall. The last evening in Albania dawned, as the border crossing to North Macedonia was scheduled for the next day. However, we first had to cross a mountain pass. In addition to a spontaneously newly tarred road, a small repair to the bus also caused a delay, for which the beautiful panoramic landscape compensated us. The strenuous journey ended in Ohrid with a North Macedonian beer directly on the banks of Lake Ohrid, which separates Albania and North Macedonia.

The next day we visited the old town with the famous Church of St. Sophia. This Byzantine church, built in the 11th century, with its frescoes influenced by both Byzantine and local styles, was converted into a mosque in the course of the conquest by the Ottoman Empire. Some frescoes were also painted over in the process. Afterwards we visited a medieval icon collection and the Church of Kliment. After this cultural program, a swim in the crystal-clear Lake Ohrid was on the agenda in the afternoon.
Under Klanti’s guidance, we found a secluded bathing spot and passed the Church of John of Kaneo, which lies on a hill directly on the lake. The last evening of the field trip ended in a large meal together. The next day we headed early towards Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, to fly home from there. A short stop was made at the Church of St. Panteleimon, one of the oldest churches in the country.
The field trip through Albania and North Macedonia was an incomparable experience that we will probably remember forever. We were able to get to know Albania from all sides: from the food culture to the hospitality of the population to the picturesque landscape in Albania and North Macedonia. In addition to these numerous everyday cultural insights of the present, we were also able to find traces of past cultures. The interdisciplinary group constellation enabled us students to immerse ourselves in the research field through the subject perspectives of Byzantine studies, Late Antiquity and Ottoman history. Thanks to our trained tour guide Klanti, the modern history of the country, with, for example, the Balkan wars and the fascist dictatorship, was not neglected either. If we had only got to know Albania and North Macedonia from the four walls of the seminar room, we would have missed a comprehensive insight into the complexity of the culture and history of the countries.

Travel report by Sarah Funk and Chiara Bach