An Albanian School in Venice, Italy, in 1479?

Would you believe that Albanian refugees, fleeing from the Turks after the fall of Shkodra in northern Albania, established an Albanian School in Venice, Italy, way back in 1479?

My wife, Jane, and I didn't quite believe that so a few years ago while visitng Venice, we were determined to locate this little-known "Albanian School." After 5 or 6 fruitless inquiries, we finally came upon a very friendly policeman who knew exactly where the Albanian School was, and, as it turned out, informed us - to our great delight - that it was located only a few short blocks away from where we were then standing!

After expressing our profuse thanks to the kind policeman, Jane and I, following his directions, raced to the address where, to our disappointment, we saw that the "Albanian School" was now just an old apartment building.

Yet, just above the front entrance of the building was a completely intact, relief sculpture commemorating the seige of the fortress in Scutari (Shodra) in 1474 and 1479!

To learn more, please visit the link below where you will also see a photo of the interesting relief sculpture identifying the building as the location of the "Albanian School of Venice!"

Visit http://www.frosina.org/about/infobits.asp?id=20 - punch "infobits" then scroll down to "The Albanian School of Venice"