Tirana, 10.07.2018 Hermann Parzinger President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation Adress: Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz Von-der-Heydt-Straße 16-18 10785 Berlin Germany Subject: Demolition of Albania’s National Theatre building Honorable Mr. Parzinger, As a Member of Albanian Parliament and Chairwoman of the Parliamentary Committee on Culture, I am writing to inform you about some concerns related to the cultural heritage in Albania. Although a small country, Albania has a unique cultural heritage in the Mediterranean. Its territory was crossed by important ancient roads, and armies, crusaders, traders, refugees have passed through it. Many ancient civilizations have left their footprints and ruins in this territory, including Illyrians, Hellenes, Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans. There are two sites recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites for their uniqueness and importance to the collective interests of humanity. Unfortunately, due to country’s economic difficulties, Albanian government has never seen the cultural heritage as a public priority. This negligence has been more conspicuous in the past five years, which has led to the loss of some culturally important objects and monuments. Just to mention few of them: Hoshtova and Orgocka bridges, were ruined last year by storms and floods, after being left in need of repair and reinforcements for many years; Leshnica Monastery, was destroyed this year by a light earthquake, after many requests to authorities for intervention had gone unheeded; Gjirokastra Castle, one of Albania’s UNESCO recognized World Heritage Site 2005 the walls are falling apart; A number of post-Byzantine churches in Voskopoja and Vithkuqi, which are the most representative monuments of 17th-18th century ecclesiastical art in the Balkans and masterpieces of the post-Byzantine style—are under continuous threat of theft, as several museums and valuable articrafts and icons have been already stolen. To make the situation worse, the current government is actively demolishing some historical monuments and cultural heritage objects under the pressure of private interests for developments. In Durres, a new public project for developing a public square called Veliera is destroying the whole underground structure of Venetian tower which dates back to the Sixteenth Century. In June 2016, the “Qemal Stafa” National Stadium, a culture monument built in 1939, was demolished by Government, in order to build a new stadium with a high-rise commercial tower as part of it. In the Butrinti National Park, recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Sites in 1992, a commercial food and convenience store is being built, using heavy cement and steel structure, endangering the historical values of the site. Recently, Albanian Government has decided to demolish the existing building of our National Theater, in order to open the way for a large private commercial development in the area. As part of this plan, the government will grant a private developer public land, including land now occupied by the National Theater complex, and in return the developer will build a new building for the National Theater. The entire plan is extra-legal as Albanian legislation do not allow such exchange, and that’s the reason that the government has decided to legitimize the plan by a special decree of the Parliament, which violates Albania’s Constitution. Also this law is a breach of the Albania-EU SAA, namely articles 71 and 74, which provides that free and open competition are required for any public contract. The last Thursday, July 5th, by a simple vote of the majority the law was approved. Unfortunately the Constitutional Court in Albania has been blocked for the past three months, having only three members out of nine, as no new members can be nominated due to a judicial reform whose implementation has been very slow. The National Theater building was constructed in 1938, designed by the famous Italian architect Giulio Berté. It’s the first futuristic building in Albania, and has significant historical interest for its original construction technique — the shell of the building is composed by prefabricated “populit” material, an experimental composite of cement with poplar and algae fibers. In eighty years of its existence, many international and national shows have been performed at National Theatre by Albania’s the greatest stage and scene artists, including Mihal Popi, Kadri Roshi, Sulejman Pitarka, Sander Prosi, Nderk Luca, Marie Logoreci, Violeta Manushi, Robert Ndrenika, Prokop Mima, Margarita Xhepa and many others. Recently, DoCoMoMo International placed the building in their “Demolition Threat Category”. In a public letter of 12 April 2018, it called upon the Prime Minister Edi Rama, Minister of Culture Mirela Kumbaro, Mayor of Tirana Erjon Veliaj, and all other responsible government authorities to preserve the building. .