The Et’hem Bey Mosque in Tirana was closed under communism, until about ten thousand people walked in on one day in 1991.
This is the Et’hem Bey Mosque, in the centre of Tirana, Albania, beside the Clock Tower.
Construction began in the 1790s, under Molla Bey. His son, Haxhi Et’hem Bey, finished it around 1821. Sources differ on the exact years.
It is an Ottoman mosque with a single dome and one minaret. Its porch is painted with trees, waterfalls and bridges, many of them imaginary. In the women’s prayer area, a painted view of Istanbul’s Suleymaniye Mosque shows its four minarets.
In 1948, it was declared a cultural monument.
Then, in 1967, Albania’s communist government banned religion, and the mosques were closed. This one stayed shut for more than two decades.
On the eighteenth of January, 1991, as communism was weakening, about ten thousand people entered the mosque, some carrying flags. Officials opposed it, but the crowd went in.
Many call it a milestone in the return of religious freedom to Albania.
.jpg?width=700)
