Old photographs are reminders of the story of the Jews of Corfu

The Holocaust Memorial by Georgios Karahalios (2001) remembers the 2000 Jews of Corfu who were murdered in Auschwitz in 1944 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

As I continue to sift through old files and photographs from discs that I once thought lost but that have now been recovered and transferred to a memory stick, I have come across photographs I took in Corfu 12 years ago when I was one of the lecturers at the Durrell School of Corfu and that year’s summer seminar, ‘The Emergence of Modern Greece: Politics, Literature and Society’ (21-27 May 2006).

The photographs include some of the 2001 Holocaust Memorial, with its harrowing bronze statues by Georgios Karahalios, and they reminded me of the stories and history of the Jews of Corfu.

In the past, I have written about the Jewish communities in Athens, Thessaloniki, Rhodes, Rethymnon, Chania, and Zakynthos, so it was good to be reminded in the past few days of the centuries-long stories and traditions of the Jewish Community in Corfu.

The remnants of the former Jewish Ghetto are found beneath the walls of the New Fortress, a stark reminder of the once vibrant community that lived in Corfu Town for almost a millennium. All that remains of the vital Jewish presence in Corfu today is a small and highly assimilated community, numbering about 80 Jews, most survivors of the Holocaust, and La Scuola Greca Synagogue, built in the 18th century and still standing in what was once the ‘Jewish Ghetto.’

The first written evidence of Jews in Corfu is found in the ‘Itinerary’ of the Spanish Rabbi Benjamin Ben Yonah or Benjamin de Tudela, who wrote that during his visit to Corfu in the 12th century he met a lone Jewish dyer named Joseph.

The first Jews in Corfu came first from Romaniote or Greek-speaking communities in the Balkans, and Corfu became a centre for study of the Torah in the 13th century. In 1267, ‘numerous Jews lived in the island.’ Corfu was conquered that year by the House of Anjou (1267-1336), which passed decrees to protect the Jewish community.

At times, the Jews of Corfu were persecuted by both Byzantine and Angevin rulers, but in the 14th century they obtained some rights, including documents of protection and exemption from most taxes.

Since the earlier years the native ‘Romaniote’ Jews of Corfu lived on Kambielou hill, later called Ovriovouni, Ioudaico Oros, or Hebraida (‘Jewish Hill’ or ‘Mount Judaic’). It is still known by this name today.

The Venetians occupied Corfu from 1387 until 1797. In 1425, they forced the Jews to live among the Gentiles in Corfu. In 1492, some of the Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain settled in Corfu. They were joined in 1494 by Jews who had been expelled from Apulia in Italy.

In the narrow streets of Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The first synagogue built by these immigrants, Kahal Kadosh Italiano Corfiato, or Poulieza, was destroyed in 1537. Another synagogue, Vecchia or Midrash, was built in the Jewish quarter on Palaiologou Street.

The new immigrants wished to integrate into the local Romaniote or Greek-speaking community. However, the Romaniotes feared they would lose the privileges they had gained under Venetian rule, and the immigrants formed the new ‘Apulian’ community in 1551. They lived within the citadel and had their own synagogue and cemetery.

When the Venetian State decided to expel the Jews from its territory in 1571, the Jews of Corfu were exempted because, according to the resolution of the Senate, ‘this Jewish Community has proved beneficial to the city and to the island.’

In 1589, some former Marranos from Portugal, led by Don Samuel Senor, also settled in Corfu.

The Venetians passed a decree in 1602 imposing a ‘badge’ on Jews – a yellow cap for men and a yellow head cover for women, or a round yellow badge.

Some Jews on Corfu owned land, including vineyards. Others prospered under Venetian rule, lending money to the Venetian rulers, providing provisions for the army and even joining the ranks, and financed public works, including building a bridge.

The ‘General Pronoitis of the Seas’ imposed a harsher decree in 1622, forcing the Jews to move permanently to a ghetto that today includes Vilissariou Street, Aghias Sophias Street and Palaiologou Street.

In this densely populated area with many shops, Jews began developing their religious life and professional activities, but additional decrees were introduced in 1707. Yet Jews played a leading role in the financial, social, spiritual and patriotic life of the island.

Jews contributed to the Venetian war effort during the Turkish siege of Corfu in 1716, Isaac Abdelah fought against the Turks, Daniel Bessos fought in the Battles of Bizanio and Solomon Mordos fought on the Albanian Front. The date the siege ended, 6 August, was celebrated in the synagogue.

The Romaniote cemetery was on Avramiou Hill, towards the slope of the new citadel. This area was donated by Marshal Scholemburg ‘as a gesture of gratitude to the Jews for their bravery and gallantry during the Turkish siege in 1716.’ The Sephardic cemetery was in the Saroko area, near the Monastery of Platytera. It was ceded by the Venetians in 1502 in return of land.

The Venetian decrees were abolished when the Democratic French occupied Corfu in 1797-1799. More Jews came from Italy and the Ottoman Empire, and by 1802 the Jewish community had grown to 1,229, out of a population of 45,000 on Corfu. The new privileges and freedoms were still valid when Napoleon occupied the island in 1807.

The Liston is part of the British architectural legacy in Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The British seized Corfu and the other Ionian islands in 1814, limiting some of the Jews’ privileges. A ‘blood libel’ in 1856 led to continuing attacks on Jewish homes and businesses. The fate of the 4,000 Jews rapidly worsened, due to a series of discriminatory measures, including the loss of the right to vote.

When the Romaniote Jews left the Kahal Kadosh Toshavim or ‘Greca’ Synagogue on Ovriovouni, during British rule, they built the Nuova or New Synagogue, which his still open today on 4 Velissariou Street.

Jews supported the integration of Corfu and the other Ionian islands into the modern Greece state on 2 June 1864, and the Greek state granted the Jews of Corfu equal rights with the rest of the population. Since then, the Romaniote and Apulian communities that had once been separate, have integrated. At least three Jews joined the city council, and Eliias da Mordo became a deputy mayor and in 1870 he became Mayor of Corfu.

In the late 19th century, the Jewish population numbered almost 5,000 people, most of them poor and some working in menial jobs. They spoke a mixture of Greek, Hebrew and Pugliese Italian. The wage earners among them were porters, street vendors and the owners of small shops. Education was minimal, with most young men leaving school to help their parents raise large families, and most young girls never attending school.

This is the community that produced Lazarus Mordos, a prominent doctor, the Olivetti family of typewriter fame, Albert Cohen, the famous poet and the grandparents of George Moustaki, the internationally acclaimed French singer.

In 1891, the Jewish Community – then about 5,000 people – suffered another series of attacks stirred by a second ‘Blood Libel,’ and fuelled by religious superstitions, commercial competition and political interests.

Ironically, the young murdered girl, Rebecca Sardas, was Jewish. But the mob attacked Jews and looted houses and shops. Over half the community moved abroad, mainly to Egypt, but also to France, Italy and England. Those who were left behind were the poorest and the least able. Two further ‘blood libels’ in 1915 and 1918 caused further emigration, and some Jews left for Palestine.

Despite the community’s financial difficulties, the Talmud Torah school continued holding sessions until the early 20th century. In 1915, the Chief Rabbi, Abraham Schreiber, assisted by teacher Moissis Haimis, founded an evening school for the needy Jewish pupils who were offered free meals. The number of pupils rose from 30 to 230. Rabbi Schreiber founded a Rabbinical School in 1925.

In the Jewish school, the subjects included Hebrew, Italian and Greek language. In 1939-1940, 208 boys and girls were at the elementary school and 76 at the kindergarten.

The novelist and playwright Albert Cohen (1895-1985), who lived most of his life in Geneva and wrote in French, was born Avraham Cohen in Corfu in 1895. The family left for France in 1900. A large plaque on the synagogue’s outer wall bears the inscription: ‘A child was born in this neighbourhood and here he took his first steps. That child was Albert Cohen.’

He is the author of a trilogy about the Jews of Kephalonia, but his masterpiece id Belle du Seigneur, set in Geneva in the 1930s and published in English as Her Lover .

The French singer and songwriter Georges Moustaki was born in Alexandria to parents from Corfu. Two of his songs are said to have become resistance hymns to the Greek military junta.

Lawrence Durrell, his brother, Gerald, and other members of their family moved to Corfu in 1935. Prospero’s Cell: A Guide to the Landscape and Manners of the Island of Corcyra is Durrell’s coming-of-age memoir. He married Eve Cohen, of Alexandria, and later married Claude-Marie Vincendon, a descendent of the Montefiore family.

Church and State come together in Corfu to remember the island’s incorporation into the modern Greek state (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

At the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish community of Corfu numbered around 2,000, most of them elderly or young children.

After the fall of Italian fascism in 1943, the Nazis took control of the island and Corfu’s mayor at the time, Kollas, was a known collaborator. The Nazis formed the occupation government, and additional anti-Semitic laws were passed. By April 1944, the Germans had lists of all the Jews, who had to attend frequent roll calls on the Spianada or esplanade.

The last rabbi to hold office in Corfu was Rabbi Yakov Nehama (1931-1944), was arrested by the Nazis and was deported to Auschwitz, where he died on 8 June 1944.

In early June 1944, the Allies bombed Corfu as a diversion from the Normandy landings. The end of World War II was in sight. But on 8 June 1944, two days after D-Day, an ordinance was passed ordering all Jews to remain in their homes.

On 9 June, about 1,800 Jews were brought to the Kato Plateia (lower square) and then held in the nearby Old Fortress, where they were forced to hand over their valuables. On 10 June, the Nazis rounded up prepared to deport the men, women and children to extermination camps and slave labour camps.

About 200 Jews managed to flee, and many local people provided them with shelter and refuge. But the rest were held at first in the Old Venetian Fortress in dank, cramped quarters. By 17 June, all had been taken in small boats to Athens to begin a long overland journey by train. The final destination was Auschwitz-Birkenau, where 1,600 of the Jews of Corfu were immediately sent to the gas chambers.

By 17 June 1944, the Jewish people were taken in small boats from Corfu to Athens to begin the journey Auschwitz-Birkenau (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The mayor of Corfu issued a proclamation, thanking the Germans for ridding the island of the Jews so that the economy of the island would revert to its ‘rightful owners.’ Their homes and shops back on Corfu were looted.

Farewell My Island, a brief documentary by Isaac Dostis, relates the roundup and deportation of the Jews from Corfu and includes survivor testimonies in Greek, with English subtitles. It is 22 minutes long, precisely the time it took to get from the roundup area to the deportation barges.

The losses were significant on islands like Corfu, Crete or Rhodes, where most of the Jewish population were deported and killed. In contrast, larger percentages of Jews were able to survive in places where the local population was helpful and hid persecuted Jews, including Athens, Larissa and Zakynthos.

Of the 1,900 Jews of Corfu, about 180 survived the Holocaust. Many of them emigrated to Israel or settled in big cities. In 1946, the Jewish community of Corfu had 140 members, and the synagogue and the school were almost ruined. In time, the community re-formed and resumed normal life.

The few survivors were joined in Corfu by survivors from other places, in total 185 people. By 1948, there were only 125 Jews, and by 1958 only about 85.

In the narrow streets of Corfu, close to the offices of the Durrell School (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Corfu has about 60-65 Jews today, including doctors, engineers, mathematicians and business figures. Only a few Jews live in the ghetto, an area still known as Evraiki (Jewish). The community celebrates Passover together with a Seder and services, and a cantor from abroad leads High Holiday prayers in the synagogue, but there is no regular minyan. The last Jewish wedding was in 1993.

A prominent area in the old town is known to this day as Evraiki, meaning the Hebrews’ or the Jews’ suburb, recognising the Jewish contribution and continued presence in Corfu city. But little is left of the Jewish quarter today: the shells of bombed-out buildings, former shops, and one active synagogue, the only one of the three synagogues at the time of the Holocaust.

The Greek synagogue or La Scuola Greca is on Velisariou Street, next to the former Talmud Torah. The synagogue (open daily from 10 to 4) is a yellow stucco, two-storey building with a gabled roof, dating from the 18th century.

In Venetian style, it dates back to the 17th century. The prayer room is located on the second floor, with a section for women on the mezzanine. The tevah and aron kodesh, made of wood with a Corinthian colonnade, face each other to the west and east, in a style similar to the synagogue in Chania in Crete.

Outside the Church of Aghios Spyridon, the patron saint of the island, a bust commemorates the late Bishop Methodius, who used to attend all holiday services at the Greek synagogue.

There was a special kaddish for the Jews of Corfu, followed by a candlelight procession, at a reunion of Corfiote Jews and their descendants on 10 June 2002, 58 years after the deportation of the Jews of Corfu. A memorial plaque with the family names of those who died in the Holocaust was installed in the synagogue.

Research by the Association of Friends of Greek Jewry (AFGJ) documented these family names: Akkos, Alchavas, Amar, Aron, Asias, Asser, Bakolas, Balestra, Baruch, Ben Giat, Besso, Cavaliero, Chaim, Dalmedigos, Dentes, Ftan, Elias, Eliezer, Eskapas, Ferro, Fortes, Ganis, Gerson, Israel, Johanna,Koen, Kolonimos, Konstantinis, Koulias, Lemous, Leoncini, Levi, Matathias, Matsas, Minervo, Mizan, Mordos, Moustaki, Nachon, Nechamas, Negrin, Osmos, Ovadiah, Perez, Pitson, Politis, Raphael, Sardas, Sasen, Serneine, Sinigalli, Soussis, Tsesana, Varon, Vellelis, Vivante, Vital and Vitali.

In an arson attack on the synagogue at Passover in 2011, some prayer books were destroyed.

Off Solomou Street, in Plateia Neou Frouriou (New Fortress Square), just in front of the wall of the New Fortress, stands the bronze Holocaust memorial. The sculpture by Georgios Karahalios on a stone base was erected in 2001 by the city and the Jewish community.

The sculpture shows a naked woman who cradles an infant while a naked man seems helpless in protecting a boy who hides his face in the man’s thigh.

The Holocaust memorial was dedicated on 25 November 2001.

A plaque at the base memorial reads:

Never again for any nation

Dedicated to the memory of the
2000 Jews of Corfu who perished
in the Nazi concentration camps of
Auschwitz and Birkenau in June 1944
by the Municipality
and the Jewish Community of Corfu
November 2001

Outside the Church of Aghios Spyridon, a bust commemorates Bishop Methodius, who attended all holiday services at the Greek synagogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The climate is changing for the ‘frontistirio’ in Greece

One of Rethymnon’s successful and enduring ‘frontistirio’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Is the Frontistirio soon going to be a thing of the past in Greece?

A frontistirio (φροντιστήριο) is a private cram school in Greece where students go to learn English either because of the low quality of English teaching in state schools or because they want to work in the tourism sector.

Sometimes it is perceived that all but the most gifted students can pass university entrance and language examinations and so many frontistiria also cater for university students.

There are job openings in the frontistiria, usually at the beginning of the school year in September. But on top of a degree and the usual TEFL or TESOL qualifications, aspiring teachers need a teaching licence from the Greek Ministry of Education, which can take a few months.

Once, this was an easy and fashionable way for people in their 20s to live in Greece for a few years and meet their living costs. But the frontisteria scene has changed in recent years, with two out of three schools closing down, and the remaining ones having piles of CVs from people looking for jobs.

With the present economic crisis in Greece, ESL salaries have been cut, with most teachers earning about €10 an hour, which includes Greek national insurance. Despite the crisis, there is still a demand for people to know English, and while payments have been cut, there are still some opportunities for full-time and part-time TEFL work.

There are still hundreds of small private language schools or frontistiria, and it is estimated that the majority of Greek children will attend one‘frontistirio for English after their normal school hours.

Greek parents are obsessed with their children obtaining English qualifications and children are often pushed into English proficiency exams at an early age. The most popular exams are the Cambridge and Proficiency exams, and Greece is one of the main reasons why Cambridge introduced an FCE for schools due to the high number of young Greek candidates.

Most frontistiria are open during the school year, from September until May or June. But a few stay open for short intensive summer courses. TEFL jobs are usually advertised in local Greek newspapers, but surprisingly most of the time these notices are in Greek. The best time to start looking for ESL posts in Greece is towards the end of May.

When I started coming to Greece in the 1980s, people of all ages were applying for frontistiria teaching posts. But this soon changed, and as expectations rose and as the age limit came down.

I became aware of a shift in the frontistiria culture 20 years later, when I was invited to spend a week in Corfu as a visiting lecturer in 2006.

The sensible business way of trying to get to Corfu was to book connecting flights from Dublin to London to Athens and from there to Corfu. But the cheapest and most efficient way to travel there was to book a “flights-only” deal on a package holiday organised by Budget Travel.

I was travelling on my own, and dressed appropriately for the reception I was prepared to receive in Corfu. But a single traveller in a shirt and tie created much amusement and diversion for a large group of women travelling together at the back of the plane.

“Where are you staying?”

“Corfu.”

“Of course you’re staying in Corfu, the plane doesn’t stop anywhere else on the way.”

“Yes, but I’m staying in Corfu town.”

“Corfu town’s not a resort, which resort are you staying in?”

“Actually, I’m staying in an hotel in Corfu town.”

“Well, you should come on to Benitses with us. You’d have great fun. There’s nothing in Corfu Town.”

“No?”

“No, there’s nothing to do there.”

“Oh.”

“What you are going to do there?”

I bit my tongue, but decided to answer anyway.

“I’m going to teach.”

“Ah there’s not much use for English teachers in Corfu anymore. All the Greeks speak perfect English now. It’s only the Albanians who don’t speak English – and they don’t pay much, they can’t even pay much.”

“Oh, I see.”

“And you’ll need to have all your papers. Did you bring all your certs? You’ll need to have them to start looking for a job.”

“Oh, I think I have all that sorted out.”

“That’s very clever. How did you manage that? Have you done this before?”

“Em, well I teach at home.”

“So what are you going to teach in Corfu then?”

Once again, I thought I might as well be honest and await the response.

“I’m going to teach early 19th century Greek history.”

“You’re going to teach early 19th century Greek history! Well there can’t be much demand for that in Dublin. No wonder you have to go to Greece looking for work”

And after that the conversation deteriorated and the exchanges are unrepeatable on a polite blog such as this.

Herculean task of restoring Acropolis

The Parthenon is clad in scaffolding as work continues on restoration of the Acropolis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2006)

Letter from Athens
Patrick Comerford

In the heat of the summer sun in Athens, tourists pick their way across the rocky top of the Acropolis from early morning, crossing mini-rail lines, ducking under overhanging cranes and scaffolding on the Parthenon, and watching in amazement as stonecutters chip away at marble blocks and archaeologists push ahead with their efforts to restore the most important classical landmark in Greece.

According to Greece’s deputy culture minister, Petros Tatoulis, the long drawn out work on restoring the Acropolis should be largely completed by the end of next year. However, the Parthenon will be the last monument to be renovated, and the entire project will not be ready until 2020.

“This is a national effort for which money is no object,” Tatoulis says. Almost €18 million was invested in the project between 2000 and 2004, and a further €14 million is being spent in 2005 and 2006, the vast majority provided by the EU.

Earlier this year, Tatoulis hinted that the government might seek private sponsorship, breaking a taboo that has been in place since the conservation project began 30 years ago.

Tatoulis says work is “progressing at a satisfactory pace”, but so far, the only monument to have been fully conserved and partially restored is the Erechtheion temple, at the northern end of the Acropolis.

Scaffolding on the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Propylaea Gates will come down by the end of next year, but restoration work on the Parthenon may then resume, according to Dr Maria Ioannidou, head of the official organisation overseeing the works, the Conservation of Acropolis Monuments (YSMA).

More than half the marble blocks from the three monuments have been treated and put back in place, but there is still much painstaking work to do. “We are treating each piece as an individual work of art. There has not been systematic support for the Acropolis monuments since the age of Pericles, so any delay is justified. The essence is the quality of the work involved and not the time,” says YSMA president Prof Haralambos Bouras.

Three basic restoration programmes on the monuments are on target and are expected to be completed by the end of this year, according to Prof Bouras. The Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Propylaea Gates have suffered from exposure to pollution and from damage caused by failed restoration efforts in the past.

Another view of the Parthenon, which will be the last monument to be renovated on the Acropolis. The entire project will not be ready until 2020 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2006)

However, new challenges continually arise as the restoration work continues. In the YSMA's latest annual report, Dr Bouras points out that the latest delays have been caused by problems on the periphery walls of the Acropolis.

Other problems include inscriptions which remain in the open air, as there are no final plans on where to move them and how to protect them. In addition, work on the Temple of Athena Nike is proving to be time-consuming, with two extra restoration techniques now being called for.

Greek officials say the construction of the long-awaited and much-delayed Acropolis Museum will be completed by next year and that it will open to visitors by the end of 2007. The original plan was to open the new museum in time for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The museum, in inner suburban Makriyiannis, is just 300m (984ft) south of the rock of the Acropolis. It covers 23,000sq m, and the ministry of culture says the entire project will cost €129 million.

Archaeologists digging at the foundations discovered antiquities dating from the late Neolithic period to the seventh century BC.

A special place in the museum has been reserved for the Parthenon Marbles, which are still on display in the British Museum in London.

Project director Prof Dimitris Pandermalis expects that glass partitions will be placed in the hall built to host the Parthenon Marbles by the end of July, and that the glass enclosure will be finished by August. Some of the heavy sculptures will be moved from the old museum on the Acropolis during the summer months.

Visitors will gradually start gaining access to the halls of the new museum, even while the antiquities are being moved.

The museum consists of four basements, a ground floor, an inclined level on the ground floor which will host the findings from the Acropolis, and a first floor which will host archaic and post-Parthenon collections. The two-storey building will be capped by a glass hall allowing visitors unrivalled views of the Parthenon.

The 14,000sq m exhibition area will contain more than 4,000 works – 10 times the amount on display in the cramped museum on the Acropolis. Most have been kept in storage for decades, and thousands have never been seen before by the public. “We are talking about masterpieces that have never been seen”, including bronze and pottery artefacts found on the slopes of the Acropolis, says one senior project official, Nikos Damalitis.

All the 2,500-year-old Parthenon sculptures in Greek possession will be displayed on a full-sized model of the temple inside the museum, and the Greek government is renewing demands for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, 190 years after they were stripped away by Lord Elgin.

This half-page news feature was first published in The Irish Times on 29 June 2006

Survival of Albania’s ethnic Greeks a tribute to resilience

Letter from Albania:
Patrick Comerford

In the backstreets of Saranda the street children selling cheap trinkets share only two words in English: “One euro.” But when they are asked their names in Greek, Pos se léne? (What’s your name?"), even they can answer fluently: “Me léne Christos, Me léne Florin.” Greek is commonly spoken in this corner of Albania but 10 years ago, Saranda and the surrounding villages in southern Albania were in danger of being deserted as the ethnic Greeks of Northern Epirus and their ethnic Albanian neighbours tried to cross the border in droves, seeking greater freedom and economic opportunities.

Today, those who fled or migrated are trickling back to Albania. Loretta, a schoolteacher, has seen them go and return. Although she quotes the official estimates that 20 per cent of the people of Saranda are Greek speakers, the response of the street children confirms local estimates that the figures are higher.

The survival of Albania’s ethnic Greek minority, with their language, culture and Orthodox Christianity, is evidence that Albania may be about to reverse its economic fortunes. Remittances home and returning migrants have brought a building boom to Saranda and the neighbouring villages, with new apartment blocks and hotels along the seashore. Mobile phone users are offered a choice of five operators – two Albanian and three Greek – and day trippers from Corfu are one of the primary sources of cash and foreign currency.

The survival of Albania’s ethnic Greeks is testimony to the resilience and fortitude of this minority throughout the Cold War, when Albania cut all ties with the outside world, becoming Europe's most isolated state and, from 1967, the world's only true atheist state.

Yet, throughout those decades, religion survived in the hearts of the people. Today, new churches, cathedrals and mosques are springing up again. The number of Albanians who are Orthodox Christians is now put at 30 per cent, including ethnic Greeks and ethnic Albanians.

The Albanian people claim descent from the original Illyrians, who populated this part of the Balkans in pre-classical times. One of the most important archaeological sites east of the Adriatic is Butrint, south of Saranda. The largely unexcavated site contains Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Venetian remains, with many important early Christian remains, including an early basilica and one of the most complete early baptisteries built between Venice and Constantinople.

Albanians believe Christianity was brought here by the Apostle Paul, who said he had proclaimed the Gospel throughout Illyricum (Romans 15: 19), and the Apostle Andrew. After the great schism that divided Christianity in the 11th century, southern Albania remained within the ambit of Byzantine Orthodoxy for centuries, and Albania's struggle for independence at the beginning of the last century was identified with the Orthodox Church, which was also seeking independence.

Efforts to organise an independent Orthodox Church of Albania began in 1908 with Fan Noli, a priest who later became a bishop and prime minister. The Church of Albania, which received independent status from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1937, survived efforts by the Italians during the second World War to force a merger with Byzantine-rite Catholics in Calabria and Sicily. Under Enver Hoxha’s regime, complete control was imposed and religious persecution began. Archbishop Christophoros died under house arrest, clergy and lay Christians were exiled, jailed, tortured and murdered, and when Albania was officially proclaimed an atheist state in 1967, hundreds of churches were torn down, many more turned into workshops, factories, warehouses, stables, cinemas or clubs, and monasteries razed or turned into army barracks.

Today, however, the Church is claiming phenomenal growth. Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos of Tirana, a former theology professor at the University of Athens, arrived in 1991 to complete desolation: 1,608 churches and monasteries were destroyed and the number of Orthodox clergy had fallen from 440 in the 1940s to 22. He called together the remaining clergy, re-established a general synod, appointed new bishops and says now that the Orthodox Church of Albania is living in “a resurrection atmosphere”.

Hundreds of churches and monasteries have been built, restored or repaired, the Orthodox Theological Academy of the Resurrection has opened at the Monastery of Aghios Blasios near Durres, and there are new children's homes, diocesan and youth centres, guest houses, schools, clinics, a printing press, and icon studios. The church carries out extensive social work through Diakonia Agapes (Service of Love), distributing food, clothing and medicine.

Greek-speaking villages abandoned in the 1990s are being repopulated slowly, and the Greeks who know this corner of Albania as “Northern Epirus” are no longer seeking union with neighbouring Greece.

This feature was first published in ‘The Irish Times’ on 9 June 2006