Medieval Albania
In issue 18 of Medieval World: Culture & Conflict, Dr. Dorian Koçi - a historian of Albanian civilization and director of the National Historical Museum in Tirana - published an article titled “Ruined Heritage: Albania’s Shirgj Church.”
The article explores the architectural, political, and religious significance of the Monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, located near Shkodra. The piece highlights how this sacred complex, rooted in Romanesque-Gothic designs and tied to the Benedictine Order, served as both a religious sanctuary and a strategic port connected to Adriatic trade routes. Its layered history - from a 6th-century foundation to the royal patronage of Queen Helen of Anjou and her son King Milutin - offers a lens into the medieval entanglement of faith, power, and commerce in Albania.
Dr. Dorian Koçi approaches the Middle Ages through the interweaving of archival sources, material culture, and spatial memory. His academic background in history and museology has allowed him to focus on sites that hold untapped value in reconstructing Balkan and Mediterranean networks. The Shirgj Church is a prime example of a monument whose ruins still echo the rhythms of cross-cultural interaction and political ceremony - as shown by its role as a meeting place between the king of Rasha and the envoys of Ragusa in 1330.
What drew him to this article was precisely the complexity of the site: it embodies the transformation of a sacred landscape into a diplomatic and economic node. The surviving inscriptions, some preserved at the National Historical Museum and others discovered in the Buna River, anchor the monument’s voice in the historical record. In researching the article, the author worked with museum archives, archaeological surveys, and diplomatic documents from the 12th to the 14th centuries.
Dr. Koçi also shared: "What I value most about Medieval World: Culture & Conflict is its commitment to unveiling lesser-known medieval histories with academic rigor and narrative accessibility. The platform gives voice to scholars and regions often left at the periphery of European historiography. It is an ideal venue for a transregional, humanistic conversation about the Middle Ages."
Related to his research, he added: "I invite readers to explore Albania’s medieval past as a palimpsest of overlapping identities and spaces. In doing so, we not only preserve cultural heritage, but also challenge conventional geographies of medieval Europe."
