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We were later told that the Albanian patriarchate was subordinated to the “Armenian Grigorian (sic)” church, and with the permission of the Russian Synod, the archives of the Albanian church were annihilated by the Armenian church, completely eliminating all traces of Albanian literature. This was on a sign posted in the church in Kish where we went to learn more about the history of the Albanian church.
“When the Russians came in 1806 they modified the existing structure with its round basilica for their own use, putting the entrance on the opposite side per Russian Orthodox tradition. In 1836 the Russians abolished our independent Albanian church altogether.”
The “V-VI centuries “ building which houses the History Museum in Shaki “used to be an Albanian church,” our guide said.
The forests nearby have been a favorite of such famous hunters as the Soviet Union’s Leonid Brezhnev. In addition to the Caravanserai, a four-star hotel has recently opened in Shaki.
Shaki has become something of a tourist attraction in Azerbaijan. Its natural setting is a major reason.
This is a green area of rolling hills at the foot of the majestic, snow-covered peaks of the Greater Caucasus Mountains.
It surrounds an open atrium which was the stable for the merchants’ camels and horses and has been turned into a dinning garden for guests.
The imposing statue in the main square of Shaki is that of Mirza Fatali Axundov. It is here because Axundov was a native son. He is honored “because he introduced Latin script for Azeri,” our guide said.
In Axundov’s time Shaki was still an important crossroads of trade in the region. It boasted five big caravanserais built in the 18th and 19th Centuries, each named after the hometown of the merchants who stayed there, or for their ethnic group: Isfahan, Tabriz, Ermeni (for Armenians), Lezgi, and Taze (New). Only one - the biggest which later came to be called the Upper Caravanserai- has survived. It is now a three-star hotel after renovation that began in 1943.
Shaki now even had a college devoted to teaching music where “students learn European style singing,” our guide said.
An enterprising marketing person had posted on a store the picture of the President of the country using the cell phone of the type sold there.
The chaotic use of various styles of architecture and building materials -bricks, stones and columns of plaster - had not been stopped by any planning authority.
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