Ardenica Monastery

About

The Monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Ardenica (Albanian: Manastiri Lindja e Hyjlindëses Mari) or simply Ardenica Monastery (Albanian: Manastiri i Ardenices) is an Albanian Orthodox monastery, located 18 kilometers south of Lushnjë, Albania, along the national road that links Lushnjë to Fier. Built by Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos in 1282, after the victory against the Angevins in the siege of Berat, the monastery is famous as the place where, in 1451, the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg married Andronika Arianiti. In 1780 the Monastery started a theological school to prepare clerics in Greek Orthodoxy. It had an important library with 32,000 volumes, which was destroyed by a fire in 1932. The Church of Saint Mary within the monastery contains frescos by the Albanian Zografi Brothers, notably one of saint John Kukuzelis, born in Durrës, Albania.

History: Scholars claim that the Byzantine Emperor, Andronikos II Palaiologos started building the monastery in 1282 after the victory against the Angevins in the siege of Berat. The chapel of Saint Trinity was already there, erected centuries before. A pagan temple, dedicated to Artemis had existed on the site...