Early Photography in Albania
- Maximilian Lambertz -

Robert Elsie

Austrian scholar Maximilian Lambertz 1882-1963

Publications of Lambertz (Bibliography)

The Lambertz Photo Collection (2)
Albania 1916

Report of the 1916 Expedition to Northern Albania

Most of the photographs of Albania in the Max Lambertz collection were taken on his trip there in the summer of 1916, primarily in Mirdita. There include beautiful landscapes of Mirdita and northern Albania, and photos of the tribesmen in their traditional environment. The photographs of the Lambertz Collection, first published in the album “Writing in Light: Early Photography of Albania and the Southwestern Balkans,” Prishtina 2007, are now archived in the Bildarchiv of the Austrian National Library in Vienna (www.bildarchiv.at) to whom we are grateful for permission to make them available here.

Fortunately, for the identification of the photographs, there exists a written report which Lambertz published of his journey to Mirdita that year. This “Report on my Linguistic Studies in Albania from Mid May to the End of August 1916" was published in Vienna by the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Here is a translation of the text of the report, excluding the material of purely linguistic interest.

In the spring of 1916, the Balkan Commission of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna asked me to take part in a Balkan expedition organized by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in conjunction with the Imperial and Royal Ministry for Education and Teaching and the Office of the Imperial and Royal Treasurer with the purpose of carrying out linguistic and folklore research in Albania.

I set off from Vienna on 19 May in the company of the art historian and epigraphist of our expedition. After a short stay in Sarajevo which was used for research at the Provincial Museum, we travelled to Kotor and up the Lovčen to Cetinje and Podgorica. Here I left my travelling companions and set off for the Gruda tribe. This Albanian tribe, which is geographically the farthest away, inhabits the mountains to the east of Podgorica in the valley of the Cem (Cijevna), in the villages of Dinosha, Pikala, Prifti, Lofka, Bozhaj and Selishta. Baron Nopcsa travelled through this area in the summer of 1907 to reach the Shala and Kelmendi. On 28 May, I arrived in Prifti, a settlement between Pikala and Lofka where the parish priest of Gruda lives. It is not a real village, but does have a fine, new parsonage built with funds from our monarchy, and a church, which is a few minutes away. The name of the settlement means “the priest”. Like Prifti, many Albanian toponyms derive their origins from the name or title of the first settler. The toponym Domgjoni, for instance, which occurs several times in northern Albania denotes the place where a parish priest named Gjon settled, around which a village grew. The numerous toponyms in -aj are equivalent to our German toponyms in -ing, -ingen, -ungen. The present parish priest of Gruda is the very kind Franciscan, Bonaventura Gjeçaj, an Albanian by birth whom his parishioners call Pater Bona, evincing the typically Albanian dislike for long names. He and the First Lieutenant of the Fusiliers, Czuninka, who was administering Gruda at the time, gave me a hearty welcome. As such, I was able to carry out my research in the middle of Gruda without any difficulty because the inhabitants of the surrounding villages were wont to gathered in Prifti to attend church services, to receive their government allocations of maize and to settle legal disputes before the judge appointed by the commander. I conversed with them to listen in on their dialect and, once they had overcome their initial mistrust and were convinced that I had not come to build factories in their valley, they sang songs to me on the lahuta, which I wrote down...

After several days there, I was able to get a grasp of the dialect of the likeable Gruda tribe. I would like to have stayed longer in the beautiful Cem valley, but I had to get to Shkodra, the intellectual centre of northern Albania. I thus took the road back to Podgorica and, since my travelling companions were scattered throughout Montenegro, each absorbed in his own field of studies, I continued on to Shkodra by myself...

When the other participants in the expedition arrived in Shkodra, I joined them on their journey southwards. We travelled to Lezha, from where I made a side trip to Vela with Dr. Kidrić. From Lezha, I travelled with Dr. Buschbeck and a German gentleman across the Fusha e Molungut to the old abbey of Rubik, now inhabited by the Franciscans, the history of which has been recorded by Milan von Šufflay in the informative volume Illyrisch-albanische Forschungen (Illyro-Albanian Research) recently edited by Ludwig von Thallóczy. We spent Whitsuntide in Rubik. From the imposing and hospitable abbey situated on a mountain with a view into the distance, we carried on down the valley of the Fan river to where it flows into the Mat and, crossing the Mat, we reached Milot. I noticed on this part of the journey that the dialect of Mirdita is also spoken in the Malësia e Lezhës (mountains of Lezha) and stretches from Lezha to the Adriatic. From Milot we continued via Mamurras to the old residence of Scanderbeg, the splendidly situated settlement of Kruja with its natural springs. The dialect of Kruja is not entirely the same as the speech of Durrës and Elbasan described by Weigand and should be studied and recorded on its own. Unfortunately I had no time for this. From Kruja we rode through fertile lowlands covered in olive orchards to the beautifully situated town of the Toptanis, Tirana, which made a tremendous impression on us with its sumptuous and friendly Muslim homes and fair gardens hidden idyllically behind high, yet inconspicuous yellow walls...

In Tirana I left my travelling companions so as to have more time for my principal objective and travelled back to Shkodra, via Durrës and Lezha, from which I visited Shëngjin this time.

I spent the next three weeks in Shkodra continuing my research into the dialect of Mirdita with Marka Gjoka and other men of Mirdita, and studied Albanian children’s songs with the assistance of the aforementioned Pater Vinçenc Prennushi. On several occasions I visited school classes which are conducted according to Austrian curricula both at the Franciscan school and the public school. The schoolboys, most of whom were bright and talented, are well versed in arithmetic, geometry and Albanian grammar. The Franciscans and the public school also teach German with some success, such that many of the young boys are able to serve our troops as interpreters.

I recorded thirteen folktales in Shkodra directly from the mouths of skilled informants. That I was not able to record more than this was due to the fact I did not have enough time to conduct private conversations with the natives and get to know them personally, something which is particularly important in this field of research.

The other participants of the expedition had returned to Shkodra by this time and I decided to adjust my plans for travelling to Mirdita in line with their objective of travelling through northern Albania to Gjakova, thus hoping to reach Mirdita after a detour through northern Albania. We left Shkodra at the beginning of July and journeyed up the valley of the Kir river past Drisht and Prekal into Shoshi territory. Mark Lulashi of Shoshi served as our guide and proved to be a good informant for the dialect of Shoshi. This dialect is characterized by the pronunciation of k’ as ts and of g’ as dz. I also recorded songs in the dialect of Shoshi. From the Qafa e Gurakuqit (Gurakuqi Pass), our journey led us through Shoshi down into the valley of the Lumi i Shalës (Shala river), from which, leaving Abat to our left, we climbed up to the Qafa e Agrit (Agri Pass) which constitutes the frontier between Shala and Merturi. From here we climbed over Palç to Kotec and reached the Drin valley before Kotec. The trip had offered a wealth of splendid views from Drisht onwards, with imposing panoramas of high mountains, gentle valley scenes in Shoshi and sombre landscapes in Shala, but, entering the Drin valley which meanders from here through the mountains of Merturi, we enjoyed spectacularly beautiful scenery. From Kotec on the Drin we continued up to Raja, the last settlement in Merturi. This parish, where Pater Gjon lives a lonely existence, is situated where the Valbona flows into the Drin. Up the valley of the Valbona is the territory of the Muslim Krasniqi tribe, which does not at all merit the bad reputation it has as hostile and savage. I got to know a number of old Krasniqi men in Gegëhysen and found them to be intelligent folk who enjoy a good joke and yet who are dignified Muslims. Their dialect belongs to the Gjakova group. I left my three travelling companions in Valbona who continued northeastwards, whereas I journeyed southwards, returning to Raja at the entrance of the valley. There, I met Beqir Nou and Kol Marku who both proved to be willing informants for their dialect on the border of Merturi, where in absolute mountain solitude, the charming Valbona, teeming with fish, flows into the Drin, and the Krasniqi, Gashi and Thaqi tribes encounter the Merturi...

I forded the Valbona below Raja and then crossed the Drin in an extremely primitive double dugout. I was now on the land of Fierza in the tribal territory of the Thaqi and, for a while, I travelled the same route which Karl Steinmetz had taken in August 1903 and described in his book Eine Reise durch die Hochländergaue Oberalbaniens (A Journey through the Highland Reaches of Upper Albania), which was the first volume published by Patsch in his series Schriften zur Kunde der Balkanhalbinsel (Writings for a Knowledge of the Balkan Peninsula). But he did the journey in the reverse direction, from south to north. I travelled southwards from Fierza through fair virgin forest with tall oak trees to the charming valley of Iballja, which is surrounded by subalpine mountains. The ferryman who took me across the Drin was a good guide and source for the dialect of the Thaqis which, like that of Raja, has an intermediary position between Gjakova and Mirdita. In Iballja I left the route travelled by Steinmetz, who had come to Iballja from Kryezi, and set off on a westwardly trail over the Qafa e Çomorisë (Çomoria Pass). From here the trail plunges down to the Lumi i Sapaçit (Sapaç river) in Berisha and then climbs steeply up to the slopes of Krrab with its black forests to reach Qafa e Tmugut (Tmug Pass). From there it descends through oak forests to the fertile valley of Qelëza and rises to a level of 820 m. to reach the plateau of Puka. Along this route there are beautiful views to be had in a sweeping crescent to the north. There are eight ranges of mountains, one behind the other, and each of which in a different hue, from the green wooded hills to the grey, snow-covered giant of stone. From here, one has a view of all of northern Albania, right to the Northern Albanian Alps and Mount Shkëlzen. Up on the plateau, one can see that the Romans had a good eye, not only in Carnuntum in Austria, but also here in Epicaria (Puka), for choosing the finest and best sites for their fixed camps, from which they could control the whole region. Von Hahn and Baron Nopcsa both recognized that the hill on which present-day mosque is situated is unquestionably the site of a Roman fortification. Sufficient proof of this are the rectangular form of the hill, the evident remains of ancient walls fashioned of well-hewed stone, some of which have been set into the walls of the nearby armoury barracks, and lastly the minaret of the mosque, built almost entirely of Roman stone. From Puka, I initially travelled eastwards to Bicaj in the valley of the Greater Fan river and then for a whole day on precarious trails up above the Fan valley southwards to Kalivarja. From Bicaj onwards, I was in Mirdita and had once again joined the aforementioned route used by Steinmetz. The settlements which I passed through in Mirdita, in the bairak of Spaç, were Shmihija, Shkoza and Gojan. I left the valley of the Greater Fan in Kalivarja and climbed out of the verdant valley of the Lumi i Kalivares (Kalivarja river) past Mesul and the mountain pastures of Mushta to the Qafa e Lugjut (Lugj Pass) (1465 m.) on the southern flank of the Munella summit. I left the summit to my left, which Steinmetz was first to climb in 1903 and which the men of Mirdita used as a point of departure for their battles with Essad last year, and climbed, guided by Mark Deda of Domgjoni, through hours of wonderful beech forests in which one could see trenches and obstructions along the way from the recent fighting. We reached the mountain pastures of Domgjoni which conveyed to me, as did those of Mushta, a vivid impression of a typical Albanian bjeshka, and then descended into the valley of the Lesser Fan towards Domgjoni. There I said farewell to Mark Deda of whom I had made great use for my linguistic research. Travelling down the valley of the Lesser Fan, I took the trail past the parish of Fan and spent the night in a secret and hidden spot in the cliffs which is used as a gathering place for the chieftains of the bairak, and reached Orosh, the capital of Mirdita, by the next day.

This finely situated residence of the Abbot of Mirdita has been described by several travellers already, notably by A. Degrand in his Souvenirs de la Haute-Albanie, 1901 (Memories of High Albania) and by K. Steinmetz in the above-mentioned work. Situated on a terrace of the mountain which forms the left bank of the Fan, half way up from the bottom of the valley, Orosh, with its splendid church visible from a distance on the southern side and with its spacious abbey, reminds one of our Maria-Taferl. On the opposite side is the village of Orosh which runs up a steep, tongue-shaped slope of the Holy Mountain (Mali i Shejtit). The abbot now lives in Shkodra and the abbey is the centre of a station command, of which I was the guest for several days. I used my time there to climb up to the village of Orosh on numerous occasions and visit the men of Mirdita in their kullas (stone towers) and gather information on their dialect by making vocabulary lists and by recording conversations. I noted with satisfaction that my Mirdita informants in Shkodra had taught me a pure and unadulterated form of the dialect.

I was delighted at an opportunity to visit the neighbouring region of Lura when a police patrol in Orosh was to be sent there and the commanding officer invited me to go with them. It is the homeland of one of the most notorious Albanian tribes, known for its savagery and hostility to outsiders. I knew about it from the descriptions made by K. Steinmetz in his book Von der Adria zum schwarzen Drin (From the Adriatic to the Black Drin). Lura is a one day’s march from Orosh. The trail leads left from the Mali i Shejtit over the broad, wooded expanses of the plateau of Fusha e Shejtit (Holy Plateau), on the eastern side of which, where we took our noonday rest, one could see several sod huts and a lot of empty tins of food with Cyrillic inscriptions lying around, the remnants of a Serb encampment from the days of the flight of the vanquished Serb army through Albania. From here, the trail descends into the Malla valley and then rises to the left through a wooded gorge to Lura e Epër, which is splendidly situated in a valley at an altitude of 1100 m. Its location reminded me of our highest Tyrolian towns, Gurgl and Vent. The 19th Imperial Fusilier Battalion happened to be in Lura e Epër at the time, having undertaken an expedition there. Its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Gustav Broser, received me hospitably and, since he had to continue on from Lura to the neighbouring settlements of Kthella and Selita as a court judge, he asked me whether I might not come with him and put my knowledge of the native language to the service of the expedition. I willingly accepted his proposal, not only because I was happy to be of service, but also because the trip provided me with a welcome opportunity to get to know the tribe and the language of Kthella. When the trial in Lura was over, I continued on with the 19th Fusilier Battalion via Orosh and Kthella e Epër to Selita where we camped on the Qafa e Kishës (Church Pass) between the church and parsonage in the midst of this bellicose tribe. What I experienced in my ten days with the 19th Fusilier Battalion, working closely with the forthcoming officers of these troops, in one of the roughest areas of Albania, belongs more to a chapter in the political history of Albania in these stormy times than to a scholarly report submitted to a learned body. Suffice it to say that both the Muslim Luras and the Catholic Kthellas, who are by no means any better, had to be taught that the “good old days” in Albania were over and that European civilization, represented by the Austro-Hungarian army, was now knocking on the door of Albania, which up to now has remained resolutely closed to all cultural and ethical advancement.

Having fulfilled my duties as a “court interpreter” and having learnt something of the dialect of the tribes, which is quite similar to that of Mirdita, I said farewell to the gentlemen of the battalion and returned to Shkodra via Orosh, Blinisht, Ungrej, Vig and Vau i Dejës. After a short stay there, I set off on my journey homewards.

[Extract from: Maximilian Lambertz: Report on my Linguistic Studies in Albania from Mid May to the End of August 1916 [Bericht über meine linguistische Studien in Albanien vom Mitte Mai bis Ende August 1916]. in: Anzeiger der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Phil.-hist. Kl., Vienna, 53 (1916) no. XX, p. 122-146. Translated from the German by Robert Elsie.]