“For the first 25 years of Albania’s post-communist history,
the last thing people wanted to be reminded of was the political repression and
economic hardship they had so recently succeeded in getting rid of. Recently,
however, national and local authorities have begun to invest in conserving some
of the more notable communist sites and curating them so that Albanians and
visitors can learn about this difficult and controversial period”- writes Bradt
Travel Guides.
The most recently opened of Tirana’s communist-era buildings
is the former surveillance centre of the Sigurimi, Albania’s secret police. It
was built in 1931 as a maternity clinic, founded by Zog I’s personal physician,
and taken over secretly by the Sigurimi for use mainly by the technicians who
tapped people’s telephones and installed bugs in their apartments. Also based
there was the department responsible for spying on foreign visitors and
residents, intercepting communications in hotels and embassies in Tirana and
maintaining detailed notes about every foreigner in the country. The House of
Leaves museum displays original items used by the Sigurimi to spy on ‘the enemy
within’ (ie: virtually everyone in Albania) and ‘the external enemy’ (everybody
else).
Sister-installations Bunk’Art 1 and Bunk'Art 2 are dedicated
to the interpretation of aspects of the communist period. Bunk’Art 1 was built
in the 1970s but never used. This vast network of underground tunnels was
intended to shelter the entire government apparatus in the event of invasion or
nuclear attack. As you go through the tunnels, you'll see a number of offices
and dormitories for government officials, apartments for the party leaders,
communications rooms, an assembly hall and a canteen: 106 rooms in total.
Bunk'Art 2 was a
bomb-proof tunnel under the Ministry of the Interior, home to the police force
in its various incarnations throughout Albania’s 100-year history. You'll be
able to visit the display of archive photographs and film that illustrate the
phases of World War II and the subsequent chilling of relations with one set of
former allies after another. Some rooms are used for modern art installations
inspired by this aspect of Albania’s history. You can also visit the
interrogation rooms and the holding cells in the tunnel, as well as the
decontamination room that would have been used in the event of a nuclear or
chemical attack.
Tirana’s historic buildings
In Skanderbeg Square, the Tirana International Hotel and the
huge building that houses the opera were both designed by Soviet architects in
the 1960s. Only the exterior of these buildings reminds one of those times. The
hotel has been completely overhauled; the opera house is being renovated at the
time of writing and is likely to lose its faded communist grandeur in the
process. Communist slogans can still occasionally be spotted on the walls of
the older-style, four-storey apartment buildings.
Back on the Boulevard, the Dajti Hotel played a pivotal role
in its first half-century – during the communist period, at least until what is
now the Tirana International opened, almost all foreign visitors stayed here.
Ordinary Albanians were not allowed through the doors until the advent of
democracy. Countless treaties were negotiated and plots hatched in the Dajti
Hotel. The doors of this historic hotel closed in December 2005 and the
building has become increasingly derelict.
Another historically important site is The Pyramid, which was commissioned as a memorial museum to Enver Hoxha (who became Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of Albania in October 1944) after the end of one-party rule and until the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it was used for conferences and trade fairs, with offices at the rear let to various companies, including a privately owned national TV station.
On the Boulevard next to the Pyramid is the prime minister’s
office building, known as the Council of Ministers, which used to house the
government in communist days as well – a Socialist Realist bas-relief has been
preserved on the wall facing the Boulevard. Across the road is the Checkpoint
memorial, an installation commemorating Albania’s isolation under communism. A
piece of the Berlin Wall, a real bunker and – most chilling of all – part of
the concrete mineshaft supports from the prison camp at Spaçi have been set in
a little garden.
If you want a tour to this communist heritage sites, Visit Tirana can tailor it only for you...
contact@visit-tirana.com
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