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| Looking out onto Rruga Colonel Thomson |
The first thing to note is that the house is on Rruga
(street) Colonel Thomson. Although this might sound like a British military figure,
the street is named after Lodewijk Thomson who was Dutch. Born in 1869, Thomson
was a Dutch member of Parliament who saw military action in several theatres of
war before being appointed as second in command to the new internationally
organised gendarmerie of Albania. The creation of a gendarmerie was one of the
outcomes of the July 1913 Conference of Ambassadors in London, and it was
decided that the Dutch government would furnish the officers. After just over
six months in Albania, Thomson was appointed as commander of Durrës, where Prince
Wied (Albania’s new ruler as chosen by the Great Powers) was under siege by the
‘rebels’. He set about improving the town’s defences and marshalling his troops,
both regular and irregular, but unfortunately was killed in an attack on 15th
June 1914. It is said that huge numbers attended his funeral, and today he is
remembered by having a street named after him.
So, back to the house of Aleksandër Moisiu. The two-storey
stone house is built in the traditional 19th century manner with
two projecting wings providing shade and protection for an open gallery or veranda
on the first floor. It stands in grounds in which several ancient pieces of worked
stone have been placed, including two small stone cists for burials, column
fragments and architectural fragments. When the house was constructed the ground
floor would have been used for storage and work areas, but now the rooms have
been made into offices.
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| Ancient stone cist for burials |
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| Ancient architectural fragment |
For a time, the house was the site of the British Consulate in Durrës (thanks to Neil Rees for this information). The upper storey houses the collections, with the first two rooms
devoted to Aleksandër Moisiu who spent some years in the house as a child.
Moisiu was born in Trieste in 1879: his father was from Kavaje in Albania and his
mother was Arberesh. Moisiu’s father was a merchant, and the house in Durrës is
typical of a wealthy merchant family of the 19th century. Photographs
and information panels, along with sculpture and art works, illustrate the life
and works of this famous actor who became one of the greatest European stage
actors of the early 20th century.
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| Portrait of Aleksandër Moisiu |
The other two rooms house various household objects in
carved wood and worked stone and copper, showing the traditional crafts
practiced in Durrës over the last century.
Of particular interest in the first
room is an album of photographs of Durrës in the early part of the 20th
century, showing the huge changes that have taken place as it grew from a town
to a city. For example, one photograph shows the main square of the city, which seems to be home to a large herd of goats and a donkey. But it is possible to make out a tower of the wall circuit in the background which still overlooks the city to this day. The area in the middle of the photograph, just on the higher ground is where the Great Mosque of Durrës was built by King Zog in 1931.
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| Main square of the city in 1913 |
The final room has a collection of textiles, particularly women’s
costumes which are sumptuously embroidered in a variety of techniques. The first photograph shows a small sleeveless jacket beautifully decorated using a couching technique. These jackets are worn by women over a sheer silk blouse, often embroidered with delicate designs in gold thread. Sheer scarves are also embroidered in gold thread, and tied loosely around the hips. A detail from one of the scarves is shown below.
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| Back of traditional sleeveless jacket |
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| Detail of gold embroidered scarf |
Elsie, R., A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History, I.B.Tauris, 2013
See also Neil Rees' talk on The British Legation in Durrës
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvUtx4NkBeI&t=199s
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