Natural and Cultural Monuments during the Years of Socialism

During the years of socialism, the popular government in Albania, even all ofAlbanian society, gave special im-portance to the issue and values of cultural monuments and as such held them in high regard. Certainly this is not something accidental, but the result of a realistic politics followed by the Labor Party of Albania in power, which always showed itself concerned toward the sec-tor, life, and problems of cultural monuments, and ap-preciated this activity with value and great importance for society and Albanian history, in the broadest sense of the word. It did not limit the content, meaning, and role of monuments to the framework of cultural monuments alone. So for the party, state, institutions, and public opinion the concept “monument” included cultural monuments, but also an old artisanal house, a bridge, a building, or something else with artistic, cultural and historical, archeological, or architectural value, as well as works, documents, evidence, and early monuments of the writing of the Albanian language, etc. Also a writ-ten work of outstanding historical, cultural, or scientific value for the past or present of country, was understood to be part of this. The Albanian state and population valued all riches inherited throughout the centuries and created during the years of the National Antifascist Lib-eration War and in the decades of the country’s building of socialism – erected monumental works, completed monumental studies, created monumental composi-tions, buildings, bridges, and monumental ensembles, pictures, sculptures, monumental tableaus, monumen-tal centers in cities, inhabited zones, and villages. In its endeavors to create grand, monumental works, which left deep impressions with their large dimensions and thoroughly popular–national content, with the great-ness they expressed and incredible generalizing features, rising up high, spreading glory to the heroism of the people, its outstanding sons.