Flash News

DASH: Balkans, part of American strategy for expelling migrants

Ilir Shqina, a diplomat, and her business partner Grida Dumas were suddenly born

EULEX mandate in Kosovo extended until 2027

Drug trafficking network dismantled, 11 arrests in Foggia, an Albanian at the center of the investigation

The race for the head of the BKH, the deadline for applications ends today

E-TJERA

Lubonja against the restoration of Spaç: Massacres took place there, those ruins hold history

Politiko 2025-06-05 19:18:59

Lubonja against the restoration of Spaç: Massacres took place there,

Writer Fatos Lubonja has spoken out against the restoration project of the former Spaç Prison.

As a former political prisoner who served his sentence in the Spaç prison camp, Lubonja says that the restoration of the cultural monument should be done according to an archaeological approach, preserving the current structure of the buildings.

"I have been dealing with the issue of Spaç for a long time, with how Spaç can be preserved. And the idea that I have come across from specialists, not only mine, is the idea that the Santagata Foundation has given in the Management Project, brought by MEKI, where they clearly define the vision of how it should be preserved. They exclude the idea of ​​returning to 1991, it is an archaeological approach. So, the ruins must be preserved, but it must be made accessible, strengthened so that it does not collapse further. Meanwhile, the whole of Spaç will not become a museum. It will be a new building, where the entire history of Spaç will be. Because Spaç was not what it is now, neither in '91, nor in '73. It was originally with barracks. And all this history must be evidenced with testimonies of prisoners, with photos, etc. This is the museum part. The Minister himself approved this vision of the Santagata Foundation, it has been approved as a management plan and now through the Institute of Cultural Heritage is making a project that opposes this vision and says we should return it to the way it was.

"Only a cell, a room, can be restored to its former glory, but not all of it. While those ruins hold history, this is the approach that the Italians also say: archaeological. This is the work of qualified specialists, it is not the work they do. Those buildings, even as they are, speak more than if they were painted with plaster. They have a history. In fact, these 30 years are also part of history, even that inability of Albanians to deal with the past. Because if we had greater sensitivity, we would preserve it as in '91. Massacres took place there. All this massacre is part of history, therefore its preservation has great value, as I said, a brick from that time that has fallen down speaks better than a brick covered with mortar from 2025," said Lubonja.

Latest news