Albania is Sunni Muslim, Bektashi, Orthodox and Catholic at once, and the coexistence is genuinely unusual rather than merely tolerated. Mixed families and mixed villages are ordinary.
Tirana has been the world headquarters of the Bektashi order since 1925, after the order was banned in Turkey, a liberal, mystical Sufi tradition with a notably relaxed relationship to alcohol and veiling.
In 1967 the state outlawed religion entirely and repurposed or demolished more than 2,000 buildings of worship. Practice went underground for twenty-three years. See The Closed Country.
The art survived: Onufri, the 16th-century icon painter whose red pigment has never been reproduced, is held at the National Museum of Medieval Art in Korçë. The Codex Purpureus Beratinus survived two separate attempts to destroy or seize it.
Research by ARBËR, the Living Museum of Albania. Published facts are verified or presented as open debate.