The Photo Collection of Edith Durham

Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, 1903 - 1913

ED001_RAI 400_13105 Albania. Shelcan. The village of Shelcan in the central Albanian Shpat region, near Elbasan (Photo: Edith Durham, 22 April 1904). “We crossed Kurd Pasha’s bridge, followed the river up-stream a little, and then struck into the Shpata district. It was a quite perfect spring day; the hillsides, well covered with copse-wood, were full of wild plum and cherry all blossoming, and the ground was gay with big butterfly and bee orchises. As for the lizards, they were the fattest and greenest I have ever met. The valley was but feebly cultivated. Men in cartridge-belts and fustanellas were guiding their primitive ploughs — crooked bits of wood, ironshod, each drawn by a couple of buffaloes — through what appeared to be very rich soil. We halted a few minutes at a very lovely spot, to which the town comes for ‘kief’ in the summer. ‘Kief’ means pleasure, and pleasure means doing nothing in the shade, by running water. A kavajee brings a tray of hot charcoal, on which he makes coffee, and everyone is content. A group of vast plane-trees shaded a grassy meadow, through which ran a clear and ice-cold stream which bubbled out of a cliff of gray rock that rose on one side. An ideal spot.” (Edith Durham, The Burden of the Balkans, 1905)