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E-TJERA

"Banjat e Benja between Harese and the destruction of Albanian nature"

Politiko 2026-06-29 09:32:24

Auron Tare

The images shared the day before, where people were singing, dancing and celebrating on the ruins of Albanian nature in the Langarica Canyon, reminded me of the film "The Fall of Rome".
In one of the most powerful scenes of that masterpiece of cinematography from the '60s, the citizens of Rome dance drunk with joy, while the barbarian hordes are already at the gates of the city. The end is known: Rome is plundered, civilization collapses and Europe enters what history knows as the Dark Ages.
The Langarica Canyon and the thermal waters of Benja are today a living example of how We the Albanian Nation are heading towards a Dark Age in the Protection of Natural Heritage. Benja is a reflection of how a visionless government, aggressive towards nature and blind to heritage, can destroy the essence of a country called Albania.
I first went to Benjë around 1987, with the Partizan basketball team. Since then, returning there has become a ritual, a pilgrimage to one of Mother Nature’s masterpieces. The landscape was untouched. Green meadows, majestic trees, the Mato Gruda water mill and a cobblestone road, built in the Ottoman period, led to the canyon’s mouth. There stood an elegant stone bridge, a masterpiece of local architecture. Below it, natural pools, surrounded by smooth river stones, collected healing waters. It was a landscape reminiscent of Japanese shrines, where nature and the human spirit coexist in silence. Anyone who saw Benjë in those years was left breathless. Years later, I was lucky enough to explore over ten more caves, still unstudied, where traces of human life go back to the Early Paleolithic. An archaeological, scientific and touristic treasure, almost unknown.
The damage to the area began when the medieval cobblestone road was covered with asphalt. It was the first blow to the historical memory of the country.
The second blow came two years ago. The Albanian Development Fund, with funding of over two million euros from the World Bank, launched an intervention that not only destroyed the natural character of the area, but turned Benja into a symbol of a philosophy that confuses concrete with development. Excavators entered the Langarica bed. The river ecosystem was changed. Centuries-old stones were removed to become retaining walls. The natural baths were replaced with concrete pools, foreign to tradition and unsuitable even for the thermal springs themselves. The Ottoman bridge was not spared either. Its smooth stones that had supported hundreds of caravans were replaced with tiles, creating a restoration that respects neither history nor the elementary principles of conservation. A giant parking lot, several alpine buildings and, of course, a restaurant were erected on this landscape. As if every public project in Albania had it written in its fate that it must necessarily end with a restaurant. But the biggest damage is not aesthetic. It is economic. For a person who knows rural tourism well, after spending over two million euros, the economic impact on the local community will be almost negligible.
This area is designed to be turned into a camper parking lot. Anyone who deals with tourism knows that camper tourists spend little. They usually travel with their own food, use very few local services, leave behind pollution but importantly do not create a sustainable economy for the residents. The numbers may increase, but the well-being of the community does not.
Meanwhile, just a few kilometers away is the medieval village of Benja. The monumental houses made of pumice stone are collapsing. The medieval church of the village is being demolished. The school has long been closed and has become a pile of stones. And here the question arises. What if those two million euros had been invested in the revival of this village? What if the houses were restored and turned into guesthouses? What if local families were supported with gardens, livestock and produce that would supply these guesthouses? What if the Church were restored and opened to visitors? What if this kind act of the Government brought back immigrant families and with them the voices of children in the village school? What if Benja became a center of mountain tourism, with well-maintained trails and local guides? What if the ten caves of Langarica were studied by international universities, bringing students, professors and scientific expeditions who would stay for weeks in the village guesthouses? What if cultural tourists followed them, those who seek authenticity and not asphalt? This would be development, not only touristic, but also an example for other areas.
These are two completely different visions of Albania. One sees nature as a space where concrete should be poured. The other sees it as a heritage that must be preserved, because authenticity is precisely the greatest asset we have. Let the reader judge for himself.
Therefore, Mr. Prime Minister, this is not a debate about thermal waters. But it is a debate about how we understand civilization. A people that begins to celebrate the destruction of their natural beauty is not yet ruined. But it has begun to get used to ruin. And this is the most dangerous phase of any barbarism. Those citizens who danced in your colorful photographs do not know that music on ruins is the last anthem of a civilization when the barbarians are at the gates.