Onufri Iconographic Museum

The Onufri Museum, housed in the Cathedral of the Dormition of St Mary within Berat Castle, is the most important collection of Albanian Byzantine iconography in the country. The museum's centrepiece is a large group of 16th-century icons by Onufri himself and his school — vivid, luminous works that represent the high point of post-Byzantine painting in the Albanian tradition. Onufri's distinctive use of a deep crimson red, derived from a pigment formula he never disclosed, gives his icons an unmistakable quality.

The cathedral interior is itself remarkable: a single-nave basilica with carved wooden iconostasis, Byzantine frescoes on the upper walls, and side chapels lined with votive icons from across several centuries. The collection spans the 14th to the 19th century and includes silverwork, liturgical objects, and illuminated manuscripts alongside the paintings. Admission is cheap and combined tickets with the castle entrance are available.

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A story
Onufri was a 16th-century Albanian painter whose icons are distinguished by an unusually vivid red pigment — still unfaded after five centuries — that he prepared from a secret formula. Contemporary accounts praised his work highly; the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent reportedly requested his services at the Ottoman court, though whether Onufri accepted is disputed. His son Nikolla Onufri continued the tradition and is also represented in the museum.