The 140th Anniversary of Albania’s First Museum

TIRANA, February 14

The first museum in Albanian was established in Shkodra on February 14, 1880, by the Jesuit Fathers. The main items in the museum were archeological objects, a numismatic collection, old rare weapons, Albanian traditional clothes, and other objects from world cultures. The Jesuit fathers also created a botanical and an ethnographic museum.
Father Shtjefen Gjecovi, known as the collector of the Lek Dukagjini Code, gave a major contribution to the enrichment of the museum collection. He had created a fund of over 500 archeological objects. Many of those objects now are found in other major European museums in London, Berlin, Rome, etc.

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Source: QMKSH

Photo: Old image of Shkodra from the Purger Postcard collection from Albania during 1914-1918