The Photo Collection of Edith Durham

Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, 1903 - 1913

ED004_RAI 400.13125 Albania. Ferry over the Vjosa River near Tepelena (Photo: Edith Durham, 2 April 1904). “‘The Viosa is a wicked river,’ said the kirijee. ‘From source to mouth it turns no mill, it does no work, but much destruction every year. It has but one redeeming point: it drowns many Turks. Perhaps that is what it was made for. Who knows?’… The river, we were told, was a raging torrent; we could not reach Tepelen that night; no boat could take us over. The han was crowded because the folk who had tried to reach the bazar to-day had all returned from the ferry, unable to cross. We must pass the night here. It was a dree hole — dark, chill, foodless, fireless. I wondered why I had come, and only a belief that it was not my Kismet to die in Albania cheered me up. We asked for a fire, and drank rakija.” (Edith Durham, The Burden of the Balkans, 1905).