{"id":61855,"date":"2025-08-18T20:24:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T18:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=61855"},"modified":"2025-08-18T20:24:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T18:24:28","slug":"albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/","title":{"rendered":"Albania, The Frescoes That Survived the Atheist Fury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-127237\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/albania_atea.webp\" alt=\"atheist albania\" width=\"600\" height=\"315\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>In a small church, <strong>ancient frescoes<\/strong> appear, hidden under whitewash. They survived the <strong>atheist dictatorship<\/strong> of Hoxha\u2019s Albania, when churches were <strong>destroyed<\/strong> and clergy persecuted.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">They had tried to <strong>cover them<\/strong> with a layer of white plaster.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Recent excavations in a small church in <strong><mark>Albania<\/mark><\/strong> have <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/archaeology\/article-862075\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">brought to light<\/a><\/em><\/strong> Byzantine frescoes, <strong>hidden under whitewashed walls<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2>The 13th-century frescoes under the plaster<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is the church of <strong>St. Nicholas in Mesopotam<\/strong>, and the mural paintings date back to the <strong>13th century<\/strong>. They depict figures of saints painted with vibrant plant-based colors at a height of eight meters, a feature that contributed to their preservation for hundreds of years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Monastery of St. Nicholas seems to have been built during the reign of Emperor Constantine Monomachos, around <strong>1050 A.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2>The destructive fury of atheist Albania<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The building was among the few <strong>churches that survived<\/strong> the atheist regime of <strong>Enver Hoxha<\/strong>, remaining intact as a cultural monument, while almost all other places of worship were demolished and converted.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Albania was the first nation in the world to officially declare itself <strong>atheist<\/strong>, establishing in 1967 \u2013 and then with <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionarydemocracy.org\/archive\/AlbConst1976.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article 37<\/a><\/em><\/strong> of the 1976 Constitution \u2013 that <i>\u201cthe State does not recognize any religion and supports atheist propaganda to instill in the population a materialistic-scientific worldview.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Every religious expression was systematically <strong>erased or destroyed<\/strong>, and Hoxha\u2019s iconoclastic fury struck believers: almost all churches and religious structures were <strong>destroyed or converted<\/strong>. It is estimated that about 2,200 churches, mosques, and monasteries were destroyed or turned into warehouses, cultural centers, and gyms.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Priests were brutally <strong>persecuted<\/strong>: over 200 were imprisoned or exiled, hundreds of priests, imams, and friars were tortured or sentenced to death, especially Catholics associated with the Vatican, <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/countrystudies.us\/albania\/56.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">labeled<\/a><\/em><\/strong> as <em>\u201cfascists.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Even marrying in church, celebrating baptisms, or keeping religious objects <strong>became a crime<\/strong>: anyone found with Bibles, icons, or sacred texts risked up to ten years in prison.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Only with the <strong>fall of communism<\/strong>, starting in 1990, was freedom of worship allowed again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and even the Evangelical communities began a <strong>reorganization almost from scratch<\/strong>: thousands of churches were reopened or rebuilt, seminarians were re-ordained, and martyrs were recognized and beatified (such as the 38 Catholics beatified by Pope Francis <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.avvenire.it\/chiesa\/pagine\/beati-38-martiri-albanesi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in 2016<\/a><\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2>A symbol of faith\u2019s resistance<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In this context of <strong>intensified secularization<\/strong> (contrary to those who claim that no one was ever persecuted in the name of atheism), the survival of a small church is more than significant.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The reemerged and restored frescoes thus represent <strong>the symbol<\/strong> of a cultural and faith-based resistance that, despite secular repression, was never completely erased.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a small church, ancient frescoes appear, hidden under whitewash. They survived the atheist dictatorship of Hoxha\u2019s Albania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":18,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1748,1749,1750,1751,140],"class_list":["post-61855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-albania","tag-albania-atheism","tag-albanian-communism","tag-hoxha-albania","tag-state-atheism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Albania, The Frescoes That Survived the Atheist Fury - UCCR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a small church, ancient frescoes appear, hidden under whitewash. They survived the atheist dictatorship of Hoxha\u2019s Albania.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Albania, The Frescoes That Survived the Atheist Fury - UCCR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a small church, ancient frescoes appear, hidden under whitewash. They survived the atheist dictatorship of Hoxha\u2019s Albania.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UCCR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uccronlineng\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-18T18:24:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/albania_atea.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"webmaster\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"webmaster\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/\",\"name\":\"Albania, The Frescoes That Survived the Atheist Fury - UCCR\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/albania_atea.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-18T18:24:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/266504740f79258d3ff1428b591e842a\"},\"description\":\"In a small church, ancient frescoes appear, hidden under whitewash. They survived the atheist dictatorship of Hoxha\u2019s Albania.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/albania_atea.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/albania_atea.webp\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"albania atheism\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Albania, The Frescoes That Survived the Atheist Fury\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"UCCR\",\"description\":\"Union of Catholic Christian Rationalists\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/266504740f79258d3ff1428b591e842a\",\"name\":\"webmaster\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/author\/webmaster\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Albania, The Frescoes That Survived the Atheist Fury - UCCR","description":"In a small church, ancient frescoes appear, hidden under whitewash. They survived the atheist dictatorship of Hoxha\u2019s Albania.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Albania, The Frescoes That Survived the Atheist Fury - UCCR","og_description":"In a small church, ancient frescoes appear, hidden under whitewash. They survived the atheist dictatorship of Hoxha\u2019s Albania.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/","og_site_name":"UCCR","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uccronlineng\/","article_published_time":"2025-08-18T18:24:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/albania_atea.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"webmaster","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"webmaster","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/","name":"Albania, The Frescoes That Survived the Atheist Fury - UCCR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/albania_atea.webp","datePublished":"2025-08-18T18:24:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/266504740f79258d3ff1428b591e842a"},"description":"In a small church, ancient frescoes appear, hidden under whitewash. They survived the atheist dictatorship of Hoxha\u2019s Albania.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/albania_atea.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/albania_atea.webp","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"albania atheism"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/18\/albania-the-frescoes-that-survived-the-atheist-fury\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Albania, The Frescoes That Survived the Atheist Fury"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/","name":"UCCR","description":"Union of Catholic Christian Rationalists","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/266504740f79258d3ff1428b591e842a","name":"webmaster","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/author\/webmaster\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61855"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61858,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61855\/revisions\/61858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}