Municipal Council approves installation of Zai Fundo’s bust in Korçë

The Municipal Council of Korçë approved, with 24 votes in favor, the installation of a bust of the intellectual Llazar (Zai) Fundo in Korçë.

The bust, created by sculptor Adi Dule, will be placed on the city’s pedestrian street, near the municipal building.

In a recent report by journalist Blendi Fevziu on the program “Opinion,” Dule shared details about the bust. The sculptor said he had been working on it for four months, using photographs of Fundo as reference.

“I have been working on the monument of Zai Fundo for four months. The goal is not to replicate his character exactly but to capture attention. I relied on his photos. When I see it, I connect with the figure. There is a spirit in what he did. The bust will be placed in a location in Korçë that fits the image I have in mind,” the sculptor explained.

Llazar Fundo is a complex figure in Albanian history. A polyglot fluent in nine foreign languages, he was born into a merchant family in Voskopoja, Korçë. In his youth, he became a communist but was later executed by the communists.

Fundo was arrested by the Italians on May 5, 1939, and had no involvement in the founding of the Communist Party of Albania by Dušan Mugosha, Miladin Popović, and Enver Hoxha in November 1941.

While interned in Ventotene, Fundo signed “Il Manifesto di Ventotene,” the document that laid the foundations for the European Union, making him one of its drafters and signatories.

“KORÇA BOOM”