TIRANA, Sept 29 /ATA/ - The Ethnographic Museum and the orthodox church and museum of icons in the landmark castle in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Berat, south central Albania, have attracted a large number of visitors this month.

In September alone, more than 20 000 tourists visited the Onufri Museum in Berat, which houses Albania's finest collection of icons, the Minister of Economy, Culture and Innovation Blendi Gonxhja said in a social media post on the National Cultural Heritage Day on Sunday.

The Onufri Museum houses over 200 artwork objects, icons and liturgical items dated from the 14th century to the 20th, brought together from several churches and monasteries in the region. The icons are painted by renowned Albanian icon painters such as Onufri, Onufri’s son Nikolla, Onufër the Cypriot, David Selenica, Kostandin Shpataraku, the Çetiri tribe with Gjergji, Johani, Nikolla, Naumi, and his son Gjergji, as well as anonymous painters.

The iconostasis of the cathedral of the Dormition of St Mary was created in 1807. It is considered a finest piece of the Albanian woodcarving. The iconostasis decorations feature some Baroque-style features and principles, a dominant and distinctive trend of churches built in the Balkans during the 18th and 19th centuries. All these motifs are intertwined with other elements of Byzantine tradition.

The Purple Codex of Berat and the Golden Codex of Anthimos were discovered beneath the apse floor on August 12th, 1968 inside a small metal box hidden in the crypt.  They are also known as the “Codex Purpureus Beratinus” from the 6th century A.D, and the “Codex Aureus Anthimi” from the 9th century A.D, or as the Codices of Berat.

The two Berat Codices are monuments of culture and civilization, and genuine encyclopedias of the Christian thinking. They are inscribed on the list of humanity’s most important works, known as “Memoire du Monde” under the UNESCO protection.

/u.sh/