In English. Soft cover, 29x25 cm, 208 pp., ill.; net weight 1170 gr.Presents icons from the central and southern, preeminently Eastern Orthodox regions, of Albania that cover a chronological span of six centuries, from the 14th to the 19th, offering a panorama of the religious painting that developed in these areas. The icons of the 14th-15th century are mainly from the area of Korcë (Korytsa, Northern Epirus), from the hermit's retreats at Great Prespa lake. A distinctive kind of monasticism developed there at this period and retreats were built in inaccessible caves on the lakeside. Many of these retreats are still preserved in both the Greek and the Albanian sections of the lake. The icons, and also the wall-paintings that adorn them, are ascribed to the activity of workshops at Kastoria and Ohrid, and some of them reflect the Palaeologan art of Constantinople. After the conquest of the state of tsar Samuel by the emperor Basil II, the autocephalous Archdiocese of Ohrid was founded in 1019/20 A.D., centred initially on Prespa and later on Ohrid. In byzantine times, it was an advanced outpost of imperial diplomacy in the Slav world, and its spiritual leaders were men of learning who were sent here from Constantinople. The provenance of the post-byzantine icons in the exhibition covers a wide geographical range, the northernmost boundary of which is Tirana. They attest to the continuity of the Byzantine tradition in the religious painting of the Balkans after the establish ...