by Preveza Abrashi.

In 1861 the Franciscans founded their seminary in Shkodër in which the Albanian language was also taught. Then in 1877 the Jesuits founded in Shkodra another influential center for higher education, the College of Saint Francis Xavier, which provided technical and commercial education to about 400 students.

A scientific innovation at the Severian College was the “Meteorological observatory” founded there in 1888, as the first astronomical observatory in the Balkans. It continued its valuable services until 1946, when it was confiscated by the communist regime.

A year later (1878) the Stigmatine sisters founded the Franciscan female school for 200 girls. At that time it was reported that there were 21 other Albanian primary schools operating in Durrës and other northern cities. Each of them had about thirty students, except for the one in Prizren which had eighty.

Reference

Edwin E. Jacques, The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present (1995)