![]() ![]() I spend a couple of hours at the National Museum of History, with its striking mosaic facade depicting the everyday lives of Albanian people. Skanderbeg Square – named after Albania’s national hero, a nobleman who defended his country against the Ottoman Empire in the mid-1400s – is just as busy when I visit the next morning. Cafes lining one side of the plaza, flanked by a boutique bookshop and the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet on either end, are bustling. ![]() People have gathered under Skanderbeg’s horseback statue while tourists flock to take pictures at the nearby I heart Tirana installation. The plaza itself was renovated using paving stones gathered from different parts of the country, as part of a post-communism transformation process that began in the mid-1990s. Skanderbeg Square is named after Albania’s national hero, Gjergj Kastrioti better known as Skanderbeg. It is only post-trip that I learn this deliberate cheeriness was a conscious decision by Albania’s current Prime Minister Edi Rama – who earlier served as Tirana’s mayor – as a means of breathing new life into the city via primary colours and green lungs. ![]() Given Albania’s long spell under a communist regime, I half expect to find brutalist architecture surrounding the plaza, but I’m pleasantly surprised by the colourful scene, complete with a carousel wheel glowing with twinkling lights and busking musicians adding a jaunty soundtrack to the evening.Įven the government buildings surrounding the square are painted in bright hues, as if thumbing their noses at the very idea of greyness. Like many European cities, this central open plaza is the beating heart of the city, where music, dance and expressionist art converge. On my first evening in Tirana, I do what many of the locals do and head to Skanderbeg Square. ![]()
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