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The Alan Heritage Exhibition
On November 2, 2024, the opening of the unique Alan Heritage exhibition took place in the Portuguese city of Cascais at the Presidential Palace. The organizer of the event is businessman and philanthropist Vladislav Khabliev.
On November 2, 2024, the "Heritage of the Alans" exhibition was inaugurated at the presidential palace in Cascais, Portugal. The event was organized by businessman and philanthropist Vladislav Khabliev.
A year prior, he conceived the idea of presenting his collection to the Portuguese public, allowing them to engage with the rich history and culture of the Caucasus peoples. The exhibit showcases an array of Caucasian artifacts, including weapons, military attire, garments, and domestic items. It particularly highlights the culture of the Alans, ancestors of the modern Ossetians, who have significantly influenced European history and contributed to Portuguese culture. In the 5th century, Alan tribes migrated over the Pyrenees and settled in the Iberian Peninsula, playing a pivotal role in the establishment of Coimbra, now regarded as Portugal’s cultural heart.
"The Alan heritage is our shared legacy. The Alans established the adats, guiding principles by which our forebears lived—embodying mutual respect, veneration of elders, and lofty ideals of bravery and honor. These values elevated them to the stature of our majestic mountains and shaped our identity," stated Vladislav Khabliev.
The exhibition showcases the rich legacy of the Caucasus and Transcaucasian peoples, featuring contributions from the Ossetians, Dagestanis, Ingush, Chechens, Adyghe, Armenians, Georgians, Azerbaijanis, and other ethnic groups from this region.
"I would like to express profound gratitude to the Cascais city hall, the cultural center, coordinators Filomena Graça and Tetiana Mao, and my Ossetian compatriots who assisted me—Batraz Tsogoev, the North Ossetian National Museum’s team, Marat Tsagaraev, and Shapi, a Dagestani gunsmith. A special thanks to my friend, the Alanologist Agusti Alemão, who composed a detailed article for this exhibition and graced the opening with his presence," Vladislav Khabliev concluded.
The exhibition garnered numerous positive reviews and expressions of gratitude from local citizens, government dignitaries, and international visitors, among them esteemed historians and scientists.
The exhibition is scheduled to continue until February 23, 2023.
From a letter to Vladislav Khabliev from the Mayor of Cascais, Carlos Carreiras:
A year prior, he conceived the idea of presenting his collection to the Portuguese public, allowing them to engage with the rich history and culture of the Caucasus peoples. The exhibit showcases an array of Caucasian artifacts, including weapons, military attire, garments, and domestic items. It particularly highlights the culture of the Alans, ancestors of the modern Ossetians, who have significantly influenced European history and contributed to Portuguese culture. In the 5th century, Alan tribes migrated over the Pyrenees and settled in the Iberian Peninsula, playing a pivotal role in the establishment of Coimbra, now regarded as Portugal’s cultural heart.
"The Alan heritage is our shared legacy. The Alans established the adats, guiding principles by which our forebears lived—embodying mutual respect, veneration of elders, and lofty ideals of bravery and honor. These values elevated them to the stature of our majestic mountains and shaped our identity," stated Vladislav Khabliev.
The exhibition showcases the rich legacy of the Caucasus and Transcaucasian peoples, featuring contributions from the Ossetians, Dagestanis, Ingush, Chechens, Adyghe, Armenians, Georgians, Azerbaijanis, and other ethnic groups from this region.
"I would like to express profound gratitude to the Cascais city hall, the cultural center, coordinators Filomena Graça and Tetiana Mao, and my Ossetian compatriots who assisted me—Batraz Tsogoev, the North Ossetian National Museum’s team, Marat Tsagaraev, and Shapi, a Dagestani gunsmith. A special thanks to my friend, the Alanologist Agusti Alemão, who composed a detailed article for this exhibition and graced the opening with his presence," Vladislav Khabliev concluded.
The exhibition garnered numerous positive reviews and expressions of gratitude from local citizens, government dignitaries, and international visitors, among them esteemed historians and scientists.
The exhibition is scheduled to continue until February 23, 2023.
From a letter to Vladislav Khabliev from the Mayor of Cascais, Carlos Carreiras:
The history of peoples—not only our own history, but also the history of the people who came before us—leaves a distinctive mark on each of us and on each geographical space that has gradually been occupied over the years. It is the traditions and knowledge of these different peoples that gave birth to the culture that we know today and want to preserve, constantly increasing its value for future generations. Although Cascais is a municipality that always looks to the future, constantly investing in the aspects of innovation and talent that are such an important part of its identity, it is in the present and the past that it has acquired and applied its energy with the aim of transmitting knowledge and wisdom.
We now introduce our locals and other visiting citizens to the heritage of the Alans, a large ethnic group formed in the first century BC in the vast Caucasus region located between Europe and Asia. Over the years, this tribe, considered one of the most valiant peoples, extended its power and military force to various regions, including the Iberian Peninsula, where they defeated the Romans in the early 5th century AD and influenced the rebuilding of our cities.
Over the last millennium, the Alans gained power, maintained it, and then lost it. Along the way, they left us a legacy of their way of life, legends, and traditions—dance, gastronomy, clothing, and crafts—which are still carried on by the Ossetians, the modern Alans living in what is now Transcaucasia, north of Azerbaijan and Georgia.
It is the history of these links between the Alans and the modern Ossetian-Alans that we can now revisit in this exhibition in Cascais, which features replicas of their 5th-century weapons and the costumes of King Addac and his wife, a Suevic princess who participated in the restoration of the city of Coimbra, as well as household items from the Caucasus and Transcaucasia dating from the 17th to the 21st centuries.
The exhibits on display here belong to the Ossetian entrepreneur and philanthropist Vladislav Khabliev, who has long lived in Cascais, and whom I would like to thank for his kindness in providing us with a collection about the identity of these people from the distant past, who also left their mark on the history of our country here.
We now introduce our locals and other visiting citizens to the heritage of the Alans, a large ethnic group formed in the first century BC in the vast Caucasus region located between Europe and Asia. Over the years, this tribe, considered one of the most valiant peoples, extended its power and military force to various regions, including the Iberian Peninsula, where they defeated the Romans in the early 5th century AD and influenced the rebuilding of our cities.
Over the last millennium, the Alans gained power, maintained it, and then lost it. Along the way, they left us a legacy of their way of life, legends, and traditions—dance, gastronomy, clothing, and crafts—which are still carried on by the Ossetians, the modern Alans living in what is now Transcaucasia, north of Azerbaijan and Georgia.
It is the history of these links between the Alans and the modern Ossetian-Alans that we can now revisit in this exhibition in Cascais, which features replicas of their 5th-century weapons and the costumes of King Addac and his wife, a Suevic princess who participated in the restoration of the city of Coimbra, as well as household items from the Caucasus and Transcaucasia dating from the 17th to the 21st centuries.
The exhibits on display here belong to the Ossetian entrepreneur and philanthropist Vladislav Khabliev, who has long lived in Cascais, and whom I would like to thank for his kindness in providing us with a collection about the identity of these people from the distant past, who also left their mark on the history of our country here.
