The Iconographic Museum “Onufri” is in the center of the inhabited neighborhood of the Berat fortress. It is adapted to the areas of the Cathedral “Sleeping Saint Mary”. The church where the “Onufri” iconographic museum is located is the largest church in the Kala neighborhood. It was the Cathedral of the City of Berat and together with the buildings of the Metropolis formed an architectural complex. From this complex, only the church has remained, which was built in 1797, but is thought to have been rebuilt on the foundations of an older church. It consists of a naos, narthex, lobby, and a series of corners attached to it on the north side.
From the historical documents, we know that the cathedral functioned as such until 1967, the year of atheistic reform when the premises of religious communities were abducted by the state administration.
The museum collection is constituted of a lot of objects chosen from the fund of Albanian Churches and Monasteries in the area of Berat. It consists mainly of Icons and Liturgical objects. The artifacts of this museum date back to the earliest years from the 14th to the early 20th century. The icons are created by Albanian Iconographical painters such as Onufri, Onufri’s son, Nikola, Cypriot Onufri, David Selenica, Kostandin Shpataraku, and Cetirs (Gjergj, Johan, Nikola, Naum, and Gjergji Junior) and from a lot of anonymous painters. The liturgical objects mainly kept the signature of Albanian jewelers’ throughout centuries.
