Kemal Butka ( Alb. Qemal Butka ; 1907 - November 28, 1997 ) - Albanian architect , politician , artist , engraver , designer of postage stamps. He was mayor of Tirana from 1935-1936, but left Albania in 1939; lived in Turkey and the USA. Known for its projects of monuments and public buildings in Albania.
| Kemal Butka | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Basic information | |
| Birth name | Alb. Qemal butka |
| A country |  Albania →  Turkey →  USA |
| Date of Birth | 1907 |
| Place of Birth | Albania (then - Ottoman Empire ) |
| Date of death | November 28, 1997 |
| Place of death | Albania |
| Work and Achievements | |
| Study | Technical University of Vienna |
| Worked in the cities | Tirana , Durres |
| The most important buildings | The building of the National Library of Albania; City Hall in Korca [1] |
Life
Kemal Butka was born in 1907 in the village of Butka, the Ottoman Empire (the current Koleni district in southeastern Albania). His father was killed during the First World War , and he was raised in the family of his uncle, an Albanian nationalist poet and political figure of the XIX century , Sali Butka ( 1852 - 1938 ). Kemal was educated in Austria , starting with a higher school in Linz [2] [3] , and after completing his studies at the Vienna Technical University , receiving a degree in engineer- architect .
In 1931 , upon graduation, Butka returned to Albania; worked mainly on architectural projects. Among the famous works of Kemal in Albania are the building of the National Library, the Monument to Popular Liberty, the city hall of Korça , a memorial plaque in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of Albania. Kemal Butka excelled in the construction of private villas that have been preserved to this day in Tirana , Durres and other Albanian cities. Butka is also known for his series of engraved draft postage stamps (such as those issued on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the independence of Albania). [1] (Alb.)
Kemal Butka was appointed Mayor of Tirana in the year of his premiership ( Mehdi Bey Frasheri (Alb.) ; Prime Minister of Albania from October 22, 1935 to November 9, 1936 ). In 1939 , after the invasion of fascist Italy in Albania, Butka emigrated through Greece to Turkey together with the writer Branko Merkzhani (alb.) .
He remained in Turkey from 1940 to 1958 , with the exception of 1943-1945 , when he worked in Cairo . In Turkey, he met and married the daughter of the personal doctor of the national leader of Turkey, Kemal Atatürk , Mehmet Burke Camil, Jelil ( Xhelile , an architect by profession; she graduated from MIT in Boston ). In 1958, Butka and his wife Gelil emigrated to the United States , where they lived until the 1990s . In the USA, Butka worked as an architect in prestigious studios (he participated, inter alia, in the design of the skyscraper One Astor Plaza , New York ), and his wife, Gelil, took part in the construction of twin towers in New York [4] . Several times, Kemal Butka tried to visit Albania as a US citizen, but the communist authorities did not provide him with visas. He was able to come home only in 1987 , after the death of Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha . After 1990, he finally returned to Albania, where he died on November 28, 1997 .
Literature
- Riza, Emin. Arkitekt Qemal Butka . - Akademia e shkencave, 2010 .-- 152 p. - ISBN 9789995683276 . Archived March 6, 2016 to Wayback Machine (Alb.)
Notes
- ↑ Municipality of Korca . Architectuul.com. Date of treatment June 17, 2015.
- ↑ Architectuul. Qemal Butka (English) . Architectuul.com. Date of treatment June 17, 2015.
- ↑ In Linz, he practiced painting; painted portraits of national heroes of Albania: Ismail Kemali (Ismail Qemali, 1844-1919) and Bayram Zurri (Bajram Curri, 1862-1925).
- ↑ Qemal Butka & Xhelile Butka (Alb.) (Link not available) . Forumi archiEDU (February 8, 2009). Date of treatment June 17, 2015. Archived June 10, 2015.