This three-metre-tall, roughly hewn statue commemorates Fan Noli (1882-1965), one of Albania’s most revered (and, in some circles, controversial) historical figures. Educated at Harvard, Renaissance man Noli was a writer, composer and Orthodox bishop among other things during his complicated and colourful life. He served as prime minister in 1924 before being forced to flee the country under sentence of death. Noli spent his last years in the United States where he conducted research into Albanian history, tentatively supported the Hoxha regime and even found time to compose a short symphony.
