CHURCHES OF VITHKUQ

Placed below Mount Rrungaja (1,750 m above sea level), the village of Vithkuq (pronounced "vith-kutch") is easily accessible from Moscopole thanks to a new road completed in 2018. Also called Vythkouki in Greek and Bitcuchi in Aromanian, this village of 800 inhabitants has an important religious heritage with seven Orthodox churches. The oldest, the church of St. Athanasius (Kisha Shën Thanasit), dates back to the 12th century. But it is the monastery of the Apostles-Peter and Paul (Manastiri Shën Pjetri), located east of the village, which is the most famous with its two churches painted by the Zografi brothers and by Venetian artists between 1764 and 1773. The walls of the catholicon (main church) are covered with two thousand figures, while the chapel of the Holy Anargyres (Kisha Shën Kozma e Damjan) preserves an ossuary located in the crypt. In the village, one should also note the beautiful frescoes of the Church of Archangel Michael (Kisha Shën Mehilli) completed in 1728. In the 18th century, Vithkuq was a wealthy town. Its Greek and Aromanian inhabitants financed the first Greek school in Korça in 1724. It is also there that the first Albanian alphabet was developed, from 1825, mixing Greek, Arabic and Latin characters. But, like Moscopole, the city was ravaged by Albanian raids, before receiving the first hydraulic dam of the country in 1936. Today populated by Albanians and Aromanians, Vithkuq is experiencing a new development thanks to subsidies from the Trans Adriatic Pipeline.