Hand rolled long scarf

100% Natural Silk Chiffon

     Natural Silk scarf Butrint Mosaics is mellow in color. It has all the shadows of gray warmed up with many soft touches of pure colors of the Byzantine mosaics preserved in Butrint, Albania. Triqita converted the unique Butrint mosaics into this elegant scarf, which is a perfect and meaningful gift from Albania. In terms of color, the scarf Butrint Mosaics can match any solid color of any of your dresses, shirts, blouses, suits, or t-shirts that you will want to decorate with it.  

     You don't have to think of how to tie the scarf Butrint Mosaics. Just put it on so that the whole design of the scarf is visible, and the beauty of the ancient and modern art of the Butrint Mosaics will become your exquisite decoration, attracting everybody's attention and curiosity. 

What is meaningful about the Butrint Mosaics scarf you will find out reading our story about hidden Butrint and the even more hidden Butrint mosaics. Here is Triqita's story of the scarf Butrint Mosaics for you to appreciate as part of your gift and to answer the questions of the people admiring your silk scarf Butrint Mosaics.

 

     - In the book “1000 places to see before you die”(2003) Butrint is not even mentioned.

     - Good! Butrint is so beautiful, intimate and special that if everybody came to see it before they died, the place would die itself in spite of the UNESCO’s protection.

We all want to find an island to live happily in isolation from the rest of the world. Butrint is not an island, but it is exactly such a desirable place. The Greeks colonized Butrint and its pre-historical inhabitants in the late 7th century BC. Then came the Romans, the Byzantine Empire, the Venetians, the Ottoman Empire, and finally marshes and oblivion. Invaders came, built Butrint, and vanished. But what they built is still in Butrint. And what is in Butrint excites archeologists, helps anthropologists, and inspires artists.

     It is said that forbidden fruit is sweeter. The Mosaics of the Butrint Baptistery are exactly such forbidden fruit. A layer of sand covers them as a protection from further destruction. Photos of some of the Butrint Mosics are scattered in different books and articles about Butrint. Those photos and our few visits to Butrint made us wish to expose the hidden Butrint mosaics on a silk scarf. 

     Good photos of the mosaics, which we got from the Albanian archeologist Neritan Ceka, showed very well all the traces that time, water and earthquakes left on the mosaics. It was a challenge to do a digital restoration of some of the Butrint mosaics, and we took it.

    We decorated both ends of the scarf Butrint Mosaics  with the mosaic at the entrance to the Butrint Baptistery. Two peacocks on the mosaic represent immortality and everlasting rejoicing in Paradise. The Kantharos vase between the peacocks and the vine refer to the Eucharist, the symbol of the sacrifice of Christ leading believers to salvation. The birds beneath the vase, pecking at the grapes, symbolize the immortal human soul. 

     In the middle of the scarf Butrint Mosaics we put medallions with a few animals all taken from the mosaic of the Butrint Baptistery. Some animals symbolize life: the hen with chicks represents Jesus, who said “...How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings...” (Matthew 23:37); the mosaics  of the birds surrounded with flowers represent human souls in the garden of paradise. The two fish are a very early Christian symbol, indicating baptism and the members of the Church who are christened. The two red roosters symbolize the remorse of the Apostle Peter, and the narrow thread between life and death. Dark powers are represented on the scarf Butrint Mosaics only by a dog and a leopard.  

     The message of the Butrint Mosaics of the Butrint Baptistery to Christians in the 5Th century AD was to show the relationship between Baptism and the Resurrection. The language used for it was a language of symbols and art.

    - What is the message of Triqita's scarf Butrint Mosaics designed of mosaics of the Butrint Baptistery? 

    - Our silk scarf Butrint Mosaics  has several messages, and among them is to show to you with our art the mysterious charm of Butrint and its gorgeous mosaics, which are so hidden that you may never see them otherwise.