Just a few days in Albania, you will get a sense of our 50 – year – old communist legacy. Let’s explore together the soil in which Albanian roots are planted.
We start our journey of the past at the Bunk’ Art. Bunkart 2 is the latest museum opened in Tirana on 17 November, in the framework of the National Day of Tirana Liberation. This top-secret nuclear bunker now is a new museum in the very center of Tirana, behind the Public Order Ministry, with aim to show visitors how Communist-era police persecuted the regime’s opponents. The 1,000-square-meter (1,077-square-foot) bunker with reinforced concrete walls up to 2.4 meters (8-feet) thick was built between 1981 and 1986 to shelter elite police and interior ministry staff in the event of a nuclear attack. The museum holds photographs and equipment that illustrate the political persecution of some 100,000 Albanians from 1945 until 1991.
We proceed to National Gallery of Arts. Enter in the National Gallery of Arts for many socialist realist art. Powerful images give a sense of how “realistic” art was used to create propaganda. Behold the pyramid, the former “Enver Hoxha Museum”. Its once – white marble walls are now crumbling and full of graffiti.
Main Boulevard Historic Buildings. Have a relaxed walk on the main boulevard of Tirana and get to know the history behind each building. Try to guess in which era where they built. Afterwards, through the Blloku area, we discover the home of Enver Hoxha and other senior members of his regime. We will stop at the Post Blloku memorial, which honors former political prisoners, in an area once forbidden to enter.
Than we visit the Museum of Surveillance, the HQ of the “Sigurimi” secret police and the heart of the regime’s phone – tapping network. The “House of Leaves” (as Known by locals) hid many stories, being used as the gestapo HQ (1943 – 1944) and “investigation and torture house” by Albanian secret police afterwards.
The Skanderbeg Square (Albanian: Sheshi Skënderbej) is the main plaza in the center of Tirana, Albania. The square is named after the Albanian national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu. The total area is about 40.000 square metres. The Skanderbeg Monument dominates the square.
We drive to Petrela Castle on the slopes of a rock southeast of Tirana. Built in the 5th century, the castle was the former residence of Scanderbeg’s sister, Mamica. The Petrela Castle was part of the signaling and defense system of the Kruja Castle. The castles signaled to each other by means of fires. During Skanderbeg’s fight against the Ottomans.
