Perhaps it is surprising to find some of the Balkans’ great works of art in the tiny chapel of St. Premte in the remote central Albanian village of Valsh. But the stunning sixteenth-century frescoes were no surprise to the looters who tried to rip them off the walls in two separate attempts on December 30, 2012, and January 4, 2013, causing significant—and some irreversible—damage. Certainly even the partial destruction of any of a nation’s cultural heritage is disturbing. What makes the recent events even more distressing, however, according to Lorenc Bejko, a professor of archaeology and cultural heritage management at the University of Tirana, is that several of the frescoes were painted by Onufri, one of the most important artists of the post-Byzantine period in the southern Balkans.

Onufri was a founder of a school of religious art. He was also a leader of the revival of the style of sacred painting that had flourished two centuries before, during the reigns of the first emperors of the Byzantine Empire’s Palaiologos Dynasty. Although he was a prolific icon painter, and many examples of his icons survive, only a small number of his frescoes are still extant. In fact, in Albania, Onufri’s work can only be seen in Berat, a small city and World Heritage Site in the south-central part of the country, and at Valsh, where the artist resided for a time in the mid-sixteenth century. Other examples of Onufri’s paintings exist outside of modern Albania’s boundaries, at Kastoria in northern Greece and in the Republic of Macedonia. “This makes Onufri particularly important and his works of art, both frescoes and icons, are of special significance for the history of art in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,” says Bejko.

The thieves who came to Valsh this past winter attempted to remove the heads of the saints, but instead succeeded only in damaging the area around St. Ilia’s face and completely destroying the face of St. Premte. Currently the laboratory at the Institute for Cultural Monuments in Tirana is working to reassemble the fresco fragments collected after the attack and scholars there believe that about 30 percent of the figures can be restored. In the meantime, the thieves have not been caught, and Albania, like many countries with such diverse and substantial cultural heritage and without a great deal of funding, struggles to figure out how to protect its sites, museums, and artifacts. “The plundered church at Valsh represents a dramatic loss for the county’s heritage. It was unprecedented and brutal, shocking the conscience of public opinion,” says Bejko. “The local community lost an important resource of pride and income, and Albanian society lost a symbol of its artistic past.”

In 1816, Georg Anton Schäffer, a German doctor working for the Russian-American Company, arrived in Hawaii to retrieve company cargo being held by Kaumualii, chief of the island of Kauai. Kaumualii, angling for Russian support to break free from the influence of King Kamehameha (whose kingdom nominally encompassed all the islands), convinced Schäffer that the Russians could capture the entire island chain, and gained Schäffer’s assistance in building a fort on the western side of the island, near Waimea, and two others on the northern side. Schäffer promised Kaumualii the czar’s support—but that support was not his to grant, and a year later Kaumualii forced Schäffer to leave. The Waimea fort, now commonly known as Russian Fort Elizabeth, eventually came under the control of Kamehameha supporters, and years later was used to put down a rebellion by Kaumualii’s son, George “Prince” Humehume. Archaeologist Peter Mills of the University of Hawaii at Hilo says that though Schäffer gave the fort a Western name (for the Empress of Russia at the time), Hawaiians had their own names for it, and built it as an extension of Kaumualii’s residential compound. Its construction recalls Hawaiian-built structures, such as places of worship called heiau.

The site
Russian Fort Elizabeth, a state historical park and a U.S. National Historic Landmark, is situated on the edge of the Waimea River, very close to the Pacific Ocean. A small parking lot off the Kaumualii Highway features a sign with the history of the site and a map of walking trails. Its stacked-stone walls are more than 10 feet thick and enclose one and a half acres. Though it can be difficult to see from ground level, the fort has a star-shaped design typical of European forts of the time but unusual for a Russian colonial structure. While Russian forts were often built of wood, which was available on Kauai, historical accounts of the fort’s construction and stonework leads Mills to infer that it was built not by Russians, but by Hawaiians directed by Kaumualii following Schäffer’s plan. And though many still see the site as a “Russian fort,” it was staffed and guarded exclusively by locals. The site demonstrates the complexities of interpreting multicultural sites from colonial periods, Mills says.

While you’re there
Russian Fort Elizabeth is on the west side of Kauai, which has both cultural sites and scenic wonders. Captain James Cook first landed in Hawaii at Waimea Bay in 1778, and a statue of him stands in Waimea to commemorate the event. The nearby town of Hanapepe is the art capital of Kauai, with many galleries, shops, and restaurants. Amazing views of Kauai’s natural splendor can be seen from Kokee State Park, and from a lookout point above Waimea Canyon, known as the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific.” It stretches 14 miles long, a mile wide, and more than 3,600 feet deep!