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Anna Lindh Foundation

Czech and Albanian Lands: Historical, Cultural, and Diplomatic Contacts Through Centuries
Koci_Czech_Albanian_Lands_Cover_Designed.jpg
Author: Dorian Koçi
Publisher: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
Year of Publication: 2021
Abstract

Czech and Albanian Lands: Historical, Cultural and Diplomatic Contacts Through Centuries (Tokat Çeke dhe Shqiptare: Pikëtakime historike, kulturore e diplomatike përmes shekujve) — Dorian Koçi. Tirana, 2021. Published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic; scientific editor Dr. Ilir Kalemaj, literary editor Prof. Dr. Hajri Shehu. Issued as a bilingual Albanian–English volume.

How far back do the ties between two small, distant European nations really reach — and what still binds them today? In this richly documented history, Albanian historian and museologist Dorian Koçi traces the encounters between the Czech and Albanian lands across more than five centuries, from their first contacts in the fifteenth century — the age of Arbër resistance and the medieval Kingdom of Bohemia — to the diplomacy of the present day.

Drawing on primary sources and archival materials, Koçi sets the two peoples' parallel paths side by side: Bohemia as a distinctive crossroads where Slavic, Catholic, Hussite and Germanic worlds fused into a plural Central European identity, and medieval Arbëria at the meeting point of Byzantine, Slavic and Venetian power. He follows the threads of cultural exchange — including the deep imprint of Skanderbeg's story on Czech literature and the Albanian reception of Hašek's The Good Soldier Švejk — through the turbulence of the twentieth century and the shared experience of communist dictatorship.

The narrative closes on the centenary of formal diplomatic relations, established on 5 July 1922, surveying contemporary cooperation in trade, tourism and education, and the Czech Republic's vocal support for Albania's European Union integration. Accessible yet scholarly, the book is a genuine bridge between Central Europe and the Balkans — a valuable resource on shared heritage, memory and belonging in the wider European space.

Countries

Albania
Region

EuroMed

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