Onufri Museum — Painting Faith in a Changing City
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Inside the former Cathedral of the Dormition, the Onufri Museum preserves icons by Albanian masters, including works associated with the sixteenth-century painter Onufri. His importance is not simply that he painted religious images beautifully. Orthodox visual culture continued to develop under Ottoman rule, supported by Christian communities that retained institutions, patrons and artistic traditions. The church interior also shows how sacred spaces were repeatedly refurbished rather than preserved unchanged. Look especially at the carved iconostasis and the concentration of images around the sanctuary. Berat’s Christian history is not a surviving fragment from before the Ottomans; it remained active during Ottoman centuries. That distinction matters, because coexistence here meant negotiated continuity inside an Islamic empire, not the absence of political hierarchy.