Church of the Sacred Heart of Christ

The Church of the Sacred Heart of Christ is one of the three Catholic churches in the city dating from the pre-communist era. The Jesuit Church of the Sacred Heart was built from 1938 to 1939 on a basilica plan. It was designed by the architect Giovanni Santi in a neo-Romanesque style. In 1967, during the communist period, the church was closed and transformed into a cinema; the façade was then hidden in order to conceal the religious function of the building, and the frescoes were removed. However, the Catholic faithful used to come here to pray in secret. The church regained its religious function after the fall of the communist regime but lost its status as the city's main Catholic church with the construction of St. Paul's Cathedral in 2002.

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  • Architecture
  • Monuments

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St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's Cathedral is the Catholic Cathedral of Tirana. Built between 1994 and 2002, the cathedral is dedicated to the apostle St. Paul, who is said to have founded the Christian community of Durrës. St. Paul's Cathedral replaces the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Tirana as the seat of the archdiocese. The land of the cathedral was donated by the Albanian state to the Catholic Church during the visit of Pope John Paul II to Albania in 1993. When the new archdiocese was established in 1992, the cathedral was transferred from Durrës to Tirana.