Ardenica Monastery

The Orthodox monastery Ardenica (Albanian Manastiri Ardenicës i ) located in the district Fier in the Albanian landscape Myzeqe medium. Near the monastery there is also a small village of the same name.

Location

40.81861111111119.5925Koordinaten: 40 ° 49 '7 "N, 19 ° 35' 33" E

Ardenica is located about ten kilometers north of the county town of Fier, near the village of Kolonja and the road to Lushnja on a 237 meter high hill that dominates the otherwise relatively flat landscape. In ancient times, was about one kilometer south of the monastery a Beiweg the Via Egnatia, which then followed the valley of the Devoll inland.

History

It is believed that the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II in 1282 was built the monastery on the hill of Ardenica and that this foundation is associated with a victory of the Emperor of the Neapolitan troops at Berat. Already at least a century, there were at the same place a chapel of the Holy Trinity (Greek Αγία Τριάδα, Albanian Holy Evangelist Triadhë ) was consecrated. The new main church but was placed under the patronage of the Blessed Mother.

There is a hypothesis that this chapel was built on the foundations of an ancient temple, which was dedicated to the goddess Artemis. From Artemis the modern place name is derived Ardenica. Near the monastery ancient building remains were found in fact that probably belonged to spas.

In an Ottoman Defter the Nahija Myzeqe from the year 1431/32 the village Ardenica is called the place with eight taxable houses. 1451 married the famous Albanian prince Scanderbeg Donika Arianiti Muzaka in this monastery.

1743 was Methodius, Bishop of Berat, who came from Bubullima in Myzeqe, make extensive rebuilding and extension in Ardenica. In essence, the present condition of the monastery corresponds to this last major construction in the 18th century.

Around the same time the cleric Nektarios Terpo lived ( monk name Jerome) in Ardenica monastery. The learned monk wrote in Greek, Latin, Albanian and Aromounisch and he taught these languages, the young monks of the monastery. 1773 a religious textbook by Terpo was printed in Venice.

1780 Ardenica received a Greek-speaking primary school; it was expanded in 1817 to a high school and was as such until shortly before the Second World War. Since the 17th century, the monastery was a center of higher learning. It had a last 32,000 volumes with very large library. It contained not only tracks from the Orthodox culture, but also works from Western Europe, Hungary and Poland, which store an eloquent testament to how far ranging the spiritual connections of the monks in the 18th century. Most of her books Ark moved into the monastery Ardenica about the commercial city Voskopoja, in addition to Konstantin Opel was the most important cultural center in the Balkans at that time. 1932 has fallen victim to a fire the entire library of Ardenica.

In 1967 the monastery was forcibly disbanded by the communist authorities, but not destroyed like so many other religious buildings in Albania, but declared a cultural monument and maintained as such. In the late 1980s the monastery was converted into a tourist hotel; the monk cells served as a room. In 1992, the Orthodox Church of Albania back the monastery church. Immediately thereafter, a priest, was sent to Ardenica who held church services regularly again. It took many years to find the outbuildings were returned. Since the mid- 1990s revived a community of monks in the monastery.

Buildings

The monastery complex covers an area of 2500 m². The complex includes not only the St. Mary's Church and the Trinity Chapel several narrow building with the cells for the monks, an oil mill, a bakery, stables and the gatehouse. The main church is a basilica, all typical of the Byzantine type of church premises ( Exonarthex, narthex, naos, etc. ) has. The stones in their construction are largely taken from about 18 miles away ruins of Apollonia. The bell tower with approximately square plan is 24 m high. On the south side of the church extends an open portico, which is spanned by overlapping on short columns and archways. The nave is divided by two wooden pillars pairs into three parts.

Pictures jewelry

The monastery church was built in 1744 painted by Constantine and Athanasius Zografi from Korca with frescoes, both have been active in Voskopoja and on Mount Athos. Shown are scenes from the life of the Virgin and the life of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles at Pentecost. Notable among the icons is a representation of the Byzantine musicologist and monk John Kukuzeli from Dyrrachium, of which there are very few pictures. In the narthex the entire east wall is occupied by a representation of the Last Judgement.

The iconostasis was built in 1744. The woodwork refer to the Technical Training School of Voskopoja. Creator of the icons was Konstantin Shpataraku. On one of the pictures of saints there is also an image of the Albanian prince Karl Thopia. The rulers of the 14th century are added as attributes crown and scepter. He was remembered four centuries later so as king.