Fan Noli

Fan Noli (1882-1965), one of Albania’s most respected (and, in certain quarters, controversial) historical personalities, is commemorated with this three-metre-tall, coarsely hewn monument. Noli, who attended Harvard, was a writer, musician, and Orthodox priest, among other things, throughout his long and colorful life. He was Prime Minister in 1924 before being forced to depart the country under a death sentence. Noli spent his last years in the United States, where he undertook Albanian historical studies, hesitantly backed the Hoxha government, and even found time to produce a small symphony.