Carl Patsch, Austrian archaeologist, and historian, one of the founders of Illyrian archaeology, was born in Kovac in Bohemia. Until 1918, director of the Provincial Museum of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Institute for Balkan Research in Sarajevo (then under Austria-Hungary); since 1921, professor at the University of Vienna and director of the Balkan Institute there. The systematic research of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a region inhabited by the Illyrians, made Carl Patsch expand the scope of his scientific interests to Albania as well. In the series of publications of the Institute of Sarajevo, under the care of Carl Patsch, several works were published, including by Albanian authors, on the geography, ethnography, and folklore of Albania. The results of his archaeological and ethnographic research in the field, with a basic description of the sites and monuments of the provinces of Vlora, Berat, Apollonia, Bylis, Orik and Amantia, Carl Patsch gave in the book: “Das Sandschak Berat in Albanien”, Vienna, 1904 (“Sanjak of Berat in Albania”). In the years 1922-1924, Carl Patsch worked in Albania, where he helped in the efforts to establish a national museum. He published two books in Albanian, “Ilirët“ (“The Illyrians”) and “Gjendja ekonomike e kulturore e Shqipnisë në kohën e kaluemet“ (“The economic and cultural situation of Albania in the past”) (Tirana, 1923, 1925), which provide a synthesis of the knowledge of that time. He passed away in 1945. (In the photo: Karl Paç)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3, Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 1920.
Photo: © https://plavaeguciasot.com/carl-patsch-pionier-i-studimeve-ne-fushe-te-kultures-ilire-e-shqiptare/
Graphic processing: AHCF
