On Bulevardi Zhan D’Ark, in the center of Tirana, St. Paul’s Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Tirana-Durrës. The cornerstone was laid in 1993 by Pope John Paul II during his visit to Albania, the building was completed in 2001 and inaugurated on 26 January 2002, with the first Mass celebrated the following day by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State, together with the then-archbishop Rrok Mirdita. The name of an architect is not reliably documented, despite some secondary and contradictory sources circulating online, and is not given here. The modern building combines triangular and circular motifs, read locally as a symbol of the Trinità, or, in another interpretation, of the coexistence of the country’s Muslim, Orthodox and Catholic communities. A statue of St. Paul crowns the facade, and a statue of Mother Teresa greets visitors at the entrance. Albania was, from a speech in February 1967, the first and only State in the world to formally ban all religious practice, closing, converting or destroying by the end of that year around two thousand one hundred and sixty-nine buildings of worship — seven hundred and forty mosques, six hundred and eight Orthodox churches and monasteries, three hundred and twenty-seven Catholic churches — a policy later codified in article 37 of the 1976 constitution and remaining in force until December 1990. Thirty-eight Catholics, including two bishops, twenty-one diocesan priests, and Franciscan and Jesuit religious, killed between 1945 and 1974, were beatified as martyrs on 5 November 2016. Among the survivors, the priest Ernest Simoni was arrested on 24 December 1963 after celebrating a Mass for the assassinated American president John F. Kennedy, sentenced to death and then pardoned with twenty-eight years of forced labor in a mine and in a sewer; Pope Francis made him a cardinal on 19 November 2016, calling him a “living martyr.” On 21 September 2014, during his first trip to a European country other than Italy, Pope Francis celebrated vespers in this cathedral before one hundred and forty-seven priests, four hundred and seventy-eight religious sisters, sixty-eight seminarians and representatives of lay movements, an occasion on which Simoni’s testimony moved him to tears, according to several outlets. The current archbishop is Arjan Dodaj, in office since November 2021.
About the Cathedral
St. Paul’s Cathedral, on Bulevardi Zhan D’Ark in central Tirana, is the seat of the Archdiocese of Tirana-Durrës. Pope John Paul II laid its cornerstone in 1993, and it was inaugurated on 26 January 2002, its modern triangular-and-circular design symbolizing both the Trinity and Albania’s religious pluralism.
Key facts
- February 1967: Albania becomes the world’s first constitutionally atheist state, closing or destroying roughly 2,169 religious buildings by year’s end.
- 1993: Pope John Paul II lays this cathedral’s cornerstone.
- 26 January 2002: cathedral inaugurated, first Mass celebrated the next day by Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
- 5 November 2016: 38 Albanian Catholics killed 1945–1974 beatified as martyrs.
- 19 November 2016: Father Ernest Simoni, imprisoned and sentenced to 28 years of forced labor after saying Mass for the assassinated John F. Kennedy, made a cardinal by Pope Francis.
- 21 September 2014: Pope Francis celebrates vespers here on his first European trip outside Italy.
History
Built in the decade after the 1990 collapse of the world’s only officially atheist state, St. Paul’s Cathedral stands as a direct answer to a regime that had destroyed or repurposed thousands of religious buildings nationwide since 1967. In September 2014, on his first trip to a European country beyond Italy, Pope Francis celebrated vespers here before hundreds of Albanian clergy and religious, an occasion at which the testimony of Father Ernest Simoni — condemned to decades of forced labor for saying Mass for the assassinated American president John F. Kennedy — is reported to have moved the pope to tears; Simoni was made a cardinal two years later.
What you see
A curved, salmon-pink stone facade rises around a tall pointed-arch stained-glass window depicting Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa, crowned by a statue of St. Paul on the roofline and a slanted bell tower topped with a cross, with a statue of Mother Teresa greeting visitors at the entrance.
Practical information
- Opening hours: generally open daily outside services; check current hours before visiting.
- Address: Bulevardi Zhan D’Ark, Tirana, Albania.
Getting there
The cathedral stands on Bulevardi Zhan D’Ark in central Tirana. GPS: 41°19′29″N, 19°49′17″E.
Nearby
- Palace of Culture, Tirana — a major Tirana landmark elsewhere in the city center.
Sources
- Wikipedia — “St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tirana,” “Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tiranë–Durrës,” “Martyrs of Albania,” “Ernest Simoni”
- GCatholic.org — Archdiocese of Tiranë-Durrës records.
- Balkan Insight — coverage of Albania’s 1967 religious ban and the 2016 beatification of the Martyrs of Albania.
- Vatican.va — official itinerary of Pope Francis’s 21 September 2014 visit to Albania.
- America Magazine, Tirana Times — coverage of Cardinal Ernest Simoni and Pope Francis’s 2014 visit.
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