The school was a product of the Albanian National Awakening, at a time when teaching in Albanian under Ottoman rule was largely done in secret. With permission from the sultan and funding from Albanian patriots in Bucharest, it opened under its first director, Pandeli Sotiri, in a house donated by the local patriot Diamant Tërpo; Naim and Sami Frashëri helped write its first textbooks. Despite opposition from the Ottoman authorities and the clergy of the Patriarchate, it survived until 1902, when it was forcibly closed. The building became a museum in 1967.
Inside, the rooms tell the story of written Albanian, from early alphabets and Naum Veqilharxhi’s pioneering primer of the 1840s to the alphabet agreed at the Congress of Manastir in 1908. Old textbooks, photographs of founders, teachers and pupils, and a recreated director’s office bring the school’s early years to life.
It is a short but moving visit for anyone interested in how Albanians fought to learn in their own language.
