Manastiri i Zvërnecit

The Monastery of the Virgin Mary, also known as the Dormition Monastery, is a medieval Byzantine church on the island of Zvërnec inside the Narta lagoon northwest of the city of Vlorë in southern Albania. You can reach it via wooden footbridges that will take you across the lagoon.

The monastery is isolated from the surrounding area so that the monks who live there and have left everyday life can seek peace and quiet in solitude. Their task was to pray to God together and devote the rest of their time to crafts, writing books or other humane activities.

There are several opinions about the time of construction of this Christian sanctuary. Aleksandër Meksi claims that the church belongs to the 13th to 14th century. While Austrian researchers Helmut and Herta Bushhausen believe that the time of its construction falls into the 10th century. Another researcher, Krauthemeri, thinks that this type took its architectural style from Roman mausoleums and was built outside the city centers between the 10th and 11th centuries. This idea seems interesting, because inside the church in the ship there is surprisingly also a tombstone on the floor, which the researcher Theofan Popa comes across as one of the members of the noble family of Karanxha.

Be careful if you are traveling with a pet dog, because it is not allowed in the monastery. But they cannot prohibit entry to the footbridge over the lagoon.