Onufri Museum

The Onufri Museum occupies the church of the Dormition of Saint Mary inside the walls of Berat castle, an eighteenth-century building on an older foundation with a carved and gilded iconostasis, and it holds a collection of icons and liturgical objects from churches across the region. Its subject is Onufri, a sixteenth-century painter who worked in Berat and across the southern Balkans and whose icons are distinguished by a particular red he made and by a naturalism unusual for the tradition, and a number of his works and those of his son Nikolla are shown. The rest of the collection runs from the fourteenth to the twentieth century. The castle around it is a lived-in walled quarter, part of the World Heritage inscription for Berat.

History

The museum opened on 27 February 1986 in the Church of the Dormition of St Mary in the castle quarter of Berat, named in honour of Onufri, the leading painter of the 16th century here. Its collection numbers 173 objects, 106 of them icons and 67 liturgical pieces, among them works by Onufri's son Nikolla, such as an icon of the Apostle Peter from the second half of the 16th century (Wikipedia, Onufri Iconographic Museum).

What's there

• Onufri's icons - the sixteenth-century painter and his distinctive red.
• The carved gilded iconostasis - the screen in the Dormition church.
• Icons from the fourteenth century onward - the wider regional collection.
• The lived-in castle quarter - houses and lanes inside the walls.

When to go

April to October. One hour. Closed on some Mondays. The climb up to the castle is steep; a road reaches the gate. Combine it with a walk through the castle quarter.

Good to know

Photography is restricted or charged. The church interior is dim. Labelling is limited in English. The climb to the castle is hard work in summer heat. The museum is small and an hour covers it.

Nearby

Berat castle quarter surrounds it; the Mangalem quarter lies below.

Key facts