During October 9 and 10, the Academy of Sciences of Albania will hold the nationwide scientific conference “From the State of Arbër to Arbëria during the centuries of European humanism”.

More than 40 researchers and albanologists from the country and abroad are expected to participate in this conference.

The conference is organized in cooperation with the Municipality of Mirdita, the Diocese of Mirdita, and the National Reconciliation Committee.

The first day of the conference will start in the courtyard of the church of Saint Mary in Gëziq (Ndërfane) in Mirdita, where the participants will be received by Friar Umberto Boero.

Certificates of thanks will be distributed by representatives of families with contributions to the preservation of historical objects that prove the existence of the State of Arbër, 8 centuries ago.

Then the event is foreseen to continue with an artistic program with songs and dances from Mirdita. The second day of the conference will start at the Academy of Sciences in Tirana, in the “Aleks Buda” Hall, where 5 plenary sessions are envisaged to hold.

The sessions will be chaired respectively by Prof. Pëllumb Xhufi and Lucia Nadin (Venice, Italy), Neritan Ceka and Andrea di Giuseppe, Bardhyl Demiraj and Aristotel Spiro, Ermal Baze and Marenglen Kasmi, Albert Doja and Eno Koço.

The speeches that will be delivered at this conference will bring news about the Arbëresh population in the Middle Ages, the relocation of the Arbëresh in Italy and the process of assimilation in Venice, aspects of ecclesiastical organization in the territories of the Albanian bishopric over the centuries; the histories of Arbëresh cities and their contacts with other European countries, Arbëresh cults, the history of George Kastrioti Scanderbeg, the extent of Arbëria in the Middle Ages, and new data on Albanian manuscripts, including other issues of linguistics, religion, heritage, archeology and history, as well as new viewpoints relative to statutes of Shkodër, traditional Arbëresh music, etc.

/a.p./