Tirana (Tiranë — the capital and largest city of the Republic of Albania; population 910,000 city, 1.1 million greater area) is the political, economic and cultural capital of Albania, in the valley of the Lana River below the Dajti Mountain (1,612 m). Tirana is the most dramatically transformed capital city in Europe since 1991: under the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha (1944-1985) and his successors (the last communist government fell in 1992), Albania maintained the most extreme isolation of any country in the world during the Cold War — the most isolated regime in the world, having broken with Yugoslavia (1948), the Soviet Union (1961) and China (1978), leaving Albania with no major-power patron and no external trade; the country was declared "the world's first atheist state" in 1967 (all 2,169 religious buildings in Albania were closed, converted to other uses or demolished — the Et'hem Bey Mosque in Tirana's central square was closed and used as a warehouse); the 173,371 military bunkers (the Hoxha government built one bunker for every 4 Albanian citizens in the 1970s-1980s — the world's highest bunker-to-civilian ratio; the mushroom-shaped concrete igloos (the QZ bunkers, 1-3 person capacity) are visible across every Albanian landscape, beach and field; many have been repurposed as cafés, art installations, mushroom farms and storage units). The most famous post-communist artistic and political intervention in Tirana is the colourful painting of the city's communist-era apartment blocks (the "Painting the Face of Tirana" project initiated by Mayor Edi Rama (the artist-turned-politician who became Mayor of Tirana in 2000 and is now Prime Minister of Albania) — the project painted the grey communist apartment facades in bold patterns of yellow, orange, green, purple and blue, creating the most distinctive communist-era apartment aesthetic in Europe). The two Bunk'Art museums (Bunk'Art 1 in the former Hoxha nuclear bunker on the outskirts of Tirana; Bunk'Art 2 in a bunker under the former Interior Ministry in the city centre) are the most visited museums in Albania.
Skanderbeg Square (Sheshi Skënderbej — the central square of Tirana, named after the Albanian national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu (1405-1468 — the Albanian nobleman who converted from Islam to Christianity, allied with the Holy League, and defended the Albanian principalities against the Ottoman Empire for 25 years (1443-1468); Skanderbeg is the Albanian national hero (Heroi Kombëtar) — the double-headed eagle on the Albanian flag is the symbol of the Kastrioti family; the equestrian statue of Skanderbeg at the centre of the square (the 1968 statue by the sculptor Odhise Paskali — 12 metres high, the largest equestrian statue in Albania)); the buildings surrounding Skanderbeg Square: the Et'hem Bey Mosque (the 1789-1823 mosque built by the Toptani and Et'hem Bey families — the finest Ottoman religious building in Albania and one of the finest in the Balkans; the painted interior (the interior of the mosque has frescoes depicting trees, waterfalls and bridges — the only Ottoman mosque in the Balkans with a completely painted interior; the religious art in a mosque is exceptional as Islam generally prohibits figurative art; the Et'hem Bey Mosque is the exception); the National History Museum (the largest museum in Albania — the iconic mosaic facade (the 1981 mosaic covers the entire front facade of the museum in a heroic socialist-realist style depicting Albanian history from the Illyrians to the communist partisans)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideNational History Museum of Albania (Muzeu Historik Kombëtar — the largest museum in Albania at Skanderbeg Square; the collection spans 5,000 years of Albanian territory history: the Illyrian section (the Illyrians — the ancient Indo-European people who inhabited the western Balkans from approximately 1,000 BCE; the Illyrian language (the ancestor of modern Albanian (the only surviving descendant of the Illyrian branch of Indo-European — Albanian is an independent branch with no close relatives); the Illyrian gold jewellery from the Apollonia and Durres excavations); the medieval Albanian section (the medieval Albanian principalities; the Arianiti and Thopia dynasties; the Balshas and the Kastriotis (the family of Skanderbeg); the Ottoman section (the 500-year Ottoman period (1478-1912) — the Bektashi tekkes, the Ali Pasha of Ioannina collection, the Albanian National Awakening (Rilindja Kombëtare — the late 19th-century Albanian cultural and national revival movement that preceded independence in 1912)); the communist period gallery (the most comprehensive documentation of the Hoxha era in any Albanian public institution — the bunker models, the Sigurimi (secret police) artefacts and the documentary photographs of the isolation period).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBunk'Art 2 (the most haunting museum in Albania — the former communist-era secret bunker under the old Ministry of Internal Affairs building in central Tirana; the bunker was built in the 1980s as the emergency headquarters for the Sigurimi (the Albanian secret police — the Hoxha regime's political police force, modelled on the Soviet KGB and the Romanian Securitate; the Sigurimi monitored, arrested, interrogated and executed political opponents throughout the communist period (1944-1991)); the museum exhibitions (Bunk'Art 2 documents the history of the Sigurimi: the network of informants (during the Hoxha period, it is estimated that 1 in 3 Albanian citizens was a Sigurimi informant (the highest ratio of informants to population of any communist secret police network in the world)); the torture rooms and interrogation cells (the museum shows reconstructed interrogation cells from the Sigurimi detention centres — the concrete cell, the single bare light bulb, the iron bed and the interrogation chair); the "Files" room (the exhibition on the Sigurimi file system — the millions of dossiers maintained on Albanian citizens; the files were partially opened to the public in 2007 and many Albanians discovered their own relatives had been informants)); the bunker architecture (the underground corridors, the blast doors and the emergency communication room of the 1980s bunker).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBlloku ("the Block" — the exclusive gated neighbourhood in southern central Tirana that was reserved exclusively for the top leadership of the Albanian Communist Party during the Hoxha era (the neighbourhood was completely sealed off from the general population 1944-1991 — the ordinary Tiranans were forbidden to enter the Blloku area; only the Politburo members, their families and approved personnel could live and move freely in the neighbourhood)); the Hoxha Villa (the personal residence of Enver Hoxha on Rruga Dëshmorët e 4 Shkurtit — now open to the public as a museum showing the surprisingly modest lifestyle of Albania's supreme leader); the Blloku today (the most fashionable restaurant, bar and café neighbourhood in Tirana — the streets that were forbidden to ordinary Albanians for 47 years are now the most hip and cosmopolitan in the country; the transformation of the most exclusive communist district into the most democratic and lively public space in Tirana is the most powerful urban metaphor for the post-communist transition in the Balkans); the Albanian cuisine (the tavë kosi (the national dish of Albania — the slow-baked lamb and rice casserole with the strained yogurt and egg topping (the baked yogurt crust); the byrek (the layered filo pastry with the spinach-and-feta filling)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBunk'Art 1 (the most extraordinary museum in the Balkans — the 5-level underground nuclear bunker built in 1978 in the Sauk hill northeast of Tirana as the emergency government headquarters for the Albanian communist leadership; the bunker was built to survive a nuclear attack (the design specifications required it to withstand a direct nuclear strike); the access (the bunker entrance is disguised as a private villa; the entrance tunnel descends 15 metres underground); the scale (the bunker has 106 rooms including the Politburo conference room, the military command centre, the communication room (with the original 1970s telecommunications equipment still in place), the dormitory rooms for 300 people, the oxygen supply room, the kitchen and the medical facility); the Bunk'Art 1 exhibitions (the bunker now combines documentary exhibitions on the Hoxha era (the communist period art and propaganda) with contemporary Albanian art installations (the contrast between the original communist propaganda art and the contemporary artistic response to the communist legacy is the most significant curatorial statement in Albanian culture)); the Albanian bunker obsession (the 173,371 bunkers built throughout Albania in the 1970s-1980s: the QZ bunker (the 1-3 person domed concrete mushroom bunker visible across every Albanian landscape) was designed by the engineer Josif Zagali (who tested the bunker's design by having Zagali himself sit inside while a tank drove over it)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideDajti Ekspres (the cable car from the eastern edge of Tirana to the Dajti Mountain plateau at 1,100 m altitude; the cable car journey (the 4.5 km gondola ride takes 15 minutes; the gondola rises 645 metres vertically from the base station to the mountain plateau; the Dajti Mountain National Park (the 4,000-hectare park covering the mountain above Tirana; the mountain plateau has the characteristic mixed forest of oak and pine; the Dajti viewpoint (the panoramic platform at the cable car terminus — the view of Tirana below (the city spread across the valley floor with the Lana River, the colourful Edi Rama-painted apartment blocks, Skanderbeg Square and the distant Adriatic coast on clear days)); the Dajti Mountain restaurant (the panoramic restaurant at the cable car terminus serving the Albanian mountain cuisine — the mountain lamb (the spit-roasted lamb from the Dajti plateau flocks) and the cornbread (the traditional Albanian byrek with the mountain herbs)); the Dajti plateau walks (the walking trails through the national park forest; the highest point of Dajti (1,612 m) is 4 km from the cable car terminus).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe painted apartment blocks of Tirana (the most visually distinctive urban transformation project in post-communist Europe: the "Painting the Face of Tirana" project initiated by Mayor Edi Rama (the artist-turned-politician who studied fine arts in Paris, became Mayor of Tirana in 2000 and has been Prime Minister of Albania since 2013); the project (beginning in 2000-2001, Rama commissioned the painting of the 5-11 storey communist-era apartment facades in bold geometric patterns of yellow, orange, green, purple, blue and red — the deliberate intention was to transform the visual identity of a city that had become synonymous with the grey concrete despair of Hoxha's socialist realism; the project had no design drawings — Rama and his collaborators designed the patterns spontaneously; the European art world praised the project as the most significant public art intervention in post-communist Europe; the Albanian opposition accused Rama of using public funds for personal artistic experimentation; Time Magazine listed Rama's Tirana painting as one of the top 5 civic design successes in the world in 2004); the most painted districts (the blocks along Rruga e Kavajës, the apartment towers of Rruga Myslym Shyri and the central blocks along Bulevardi Zogu I).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideTraditional Albanian dinner (the Albanian cuisine is the most underrated in the Balkans — the combination of the Ottoman culinary tradition, the Adriatic seafood influence and the Albanian mountain pastoral heritage creates a distinctive cuisine): the tavë kosi (the Albanian national dish — the slow-baked lamb and rice casserole with the strained yogurt and egg topping (the yogurt is mixed with egg and baked until it forms a quiche-like crust over the lamb; the combination of the sour yogurt crust and the slow-braised lamb is unique in Balkan cooking)); the byrek (the flaky filo pastry in multiple fillings — the byrek me gjizë (ricotta-like cheese and egg), the byrek me spinaq (spinach and cheese), the lakror (the thicker Vlorë-style savoury pie)); the Albanian raki (the grape marc distillate — the Albanian version of the Balkan raki (similar to the Greek tsipouro and the Serbian rakija) but distinctively Albanian in the use of specific grape varieties and the double-distillation method; the Albanian raki is served with the meze (the antipasto of olives, feta-style cheese (djathë i bardhë), and the dried Gjirokastra sausage (sucuk-style))); the dhallë (the salted yogurt drink — the Albanian refreshing yogurt beverage similar to Turkish ayran, served with the main course).
Berat (120 km south of Tirana — 2h by car or bus; UNESCO World Heritage 2008: the "City of a Thousand Windows" — the nickname for the characteristic Ottoman architecture of Berat where the large multi-paned windows of the traditional Albanian house face the hillside in tiers, creating the visual effect of countless overlapping windows when viewed from across the Osum River valley; the two historic districts: Mangalem (the Muslim quarter on the west bank of the Osum — the Ottoman-era houses with the wide wooden-framed windows facing the hill below the citadel); Gorica (the Christian quarter on the east bank of the Osum — the mirror-image of Mangalem with the same Ottoman house style but the Orthodox community; the two quarters face each other across the river with the stone Ottoman bridge between them); the Berat Citadel (the Byzantine and Ottoman fortress on the 170-metre hill above the city — the citadel has been continuously inhabited for 2,400 years (from the 4th century BCE Illyrian fortress through the Byzantine, Norman, Bulgarian, Serbian, Angevin and Ottoman periods to the present); inside the citadel walls, the neighbourhood of Citadela (the small inhabited community within the medieval walls — approximately 120 people still live inside the citadel walls, making it one of the few medieval fortresses in the world with a living resident community)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideOnufri Museum (the museum of the 16th-century Albanian icon painter Onufri (active 1554-1578) housed in the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Theotokos within the Berat Citadel; Onufri is the most important Albanian visual artist in history — the Byzantine-tradition icon painter who developed a distinctive personal style characterised by the intense use of a specific red pigment (the "Onufri red" — the carmine-red colour that he mixed using a technique that he kept secret throughout his lifetime, and which was not replicated by any subsequent Albanian or Balkan painter; the pigment formula is still unknown); the Onufri Museum collection (the largest collection of Onufri's original icons in the world — 17 icons and 4 icon-doors painted by Onufri and his son Nikolla; the icons have the distinctive Onufri characteristics: the intensely red vestments and backgrounds, the Byzantine-tradition elongated faces and hands, the gold halos, and the Greek inscriptions); the Cathedral of the Dormition (the 13th-century Byzantine church that was converted to a mosque under the Ottomans and then reverted to Christian use after 1912; the frescoes in the apse (the partially surviving Byzantine frescoes predating Onufri by 200 years)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBerat old town (the UNESCO-protected lower town of Mangalem and Gorica): the characteristic Berat house (the Ottoman-era two or three-storey timber-frame house with the ground-floor storeroom and stable (accessed from the street), the first-floor reception room (the oda — the formal reception room with the raised floor level, the ceiling of carved cedar wood, the built-in niches (dollapë) for the displayed pottery and textiles, and the wide multi-paned windows overlooking the Osum valley)); the Berat mosques (the Bachelor's Mosque (Xhamia e Beqarëve — the lead-domed early 17th-century Ottoman mosque in the Mangalem quarter; the Helveti tekke (the Bektashi Sufi lodge in Mangalem — the Bektashi Order (the syncretic Islamic mystical order that is the dominant form of Islam in Albania (the Bektashi are particularly tolerant of alcohol, music and non-Islamic practices)); the King's Mosque (Xhamia e Mbretit — the 15th-century mosque, the oldest in Berat, built immediately after the Ottoman conquest in 1417)); the Osum River and the stone bridge (the 18th-century Ottoman stone bridge over the Osum — the meeting point between the Muslim Mangalem quarter and the Christian Gorica quarter).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideReturn from Berat to Tirana (2 hours by car/bus; the return journey passes through the Elbasan valley and the industrial landscape of central Albania — the Elbasan Steel Plant (the 1970s Chinese-built steel complex that was Albania's largest industrial project during the Hoxha era; the Chinese technical advisers who built the Elbasan Steel Plant were expelled along with all other Chinese cooperation personnel in 1978 when Hoxha broke with Mao Zedong's China; the plant has been in various stages of post-communist decline and partial revival since 1991)); arrival in Tirana and the Blloku sunset drinks (the Blloku neighbourhood café terrace culture (the open-air café terraces of the Blloku quarter are the most important social institution in Tirana — the café terrace culture (the Italian-influenced coffee bar culture: the macchiato, the espresso, the cornetto (the Italian-style croissant)) is the daily ritual of the Tirana urban class; the xhiro (the Albanian tradition of the evening promenade — the daily walk through the Blloku streets and along the main boulevard (Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit) that all Tirana families take in the early evening); the Albanian craft beer scene (the Tirana craft brewery scene has developed rapidly since 2015 — the Kaon Brewery and the Song Brewery are the best-known; the Albanian craft beers using local wild hops and the Albanian mountain spring water).