Orthodox faithful and institutions in Albania this month have expressed criticism and even anger over a state-run restoration program for historic cathedrals and chapels around the southeast European country, whose population for nearly four decades endured extreme isolation, repression and poverty under a totalitarian communist regime.
The criticism underlines that, in many cases, work is haphazardly conducted, with damages incurred by historic ecclesiastical monuments instead of restoration and preservation.
In one specific instance, residents in the southern coastal town of Himara pointed to damages at a historic and architecturally significant church dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, at the Mesodi site.
