Tirana Ulcinj is gifted by the Maritime Museum

Ulcinj should soon get a Maritime Museum, and the construction or reconstruction of one of the existing buildings for this purpose will be financed by the capital of neighboring Albania, Tirana.

This was confirmed to "Vijesti" by a high-ranking official of the Force and a member of the Assembly Ilir Chapuni, whose initiative about the urgent need for Ulcinj to have a Maritime Museum received the support of the newly appointed Ambassador of Albania to Montenegro Jacqueline Peto and the president of Tirana Erion Veliaj.

Capuni said that Peto announced this in a welcome speech at the celebration of the Albanian Flag Day on November 28, 2023, which was organized by the National Council of Albanians in Montenegro.

"She announced then that the president of Tirana accepted our idea, so the city of which she is the head, Ulcinj, will gift the Maritime Museum where we can present the rich treasury and the ancient maritime tradition of the people of Ulcinj through the ages," said Capuni, who deserves the greatest credit that Ulcinj finally be able to get a facility that has been lacking for decades and which will undoubtedly enrich the tourist offer of the southernmost municipality.

He stated that it is not yet known when the construction of the building could begin, but that Ambassador Peto announced that she would soon meet with the President of the Municipality Omer Bajraktari, in order to clarify the details for the realization of that project.

"I think that they could turn Pasha's house into a museum, or Jola Zeca's house on Pristan, which was bequeathed for another purpose - for the Center for the Rehabilitation of Infertile Women, but with the consent of the Ulcinj Health Center, that donor's bequest is realized in another location, somewhere near Women's beaches. Of course, we have to be open to other locations as well, but in any case we have to find a solution as soon as possible", said Capuni.

He noted that all maritime museums have enough space to display boats, anchors and other parts of ships.

"Only the section that would cover the Battle of Lepanto, in which the people of Ulcinj took part, would occupy more than 100 square meters. Ulcinj's maritime tradition is very rich. More than half of the book History of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of Montenegro, by the author Dinko Franetović, refers to Ulcinj", said Čapuni.

On September 21, 2019, he and a group of enthusiasts from Ulcinj, Herceg Novi and Albania organized an exhibition of the maritime tradition of Ulcinj, which had a huge impact in the region. Čapuni, who was then president of the Ulcinj Municipal Council, suggested after the exhibition that a Maritime Museum be built on the Pier, next to the Seamen's Mosque, on the site of the former supermarket, which until then was owned by the Municipality. He reminded that the Ulcinj shipyard - škver - used to be located at that location, and assessed that the museum would complete the offer of Ulcinj and especially Pristan, which, as he said then, apart from the Turbet, the Seamen's Mosque and the Earthquake Monument, does not have any landmarks that could attract tourists. throughout the year.

"Despite the conceptual solution made by the current chief city architect Muho Uruči, made in a style that completely fit into the micro-architecture of that locality, the majority of councilors voted for the sale of that location at the auction advocated by the then president of the Municipality of Ulcinj Ljoro Nrekic. By amendment of the then councilor and the current president of the Municipality Omer Bajraktari, funds from the sale of this land should have been directed to the construction of a cinema hall. I sincerely regret that at that time I did not have the support of either the position or the opposition", Čapuni recalled that the then local government sold an attractive location for about one million euros for the construction of a hotel and left Ulcinj without an important facility.

"At that time, some claimed that there was never a skver. They are denied by old photos of smaller vessels that I own. Vessels were built and repaired there by masters from Ulcinj from the Ustabećiri, Tivari families... There is now another hotel at that location, which the architects agree looks like a foreign body in that area," said Čapuni.