Tourist Attractions & Monuments Albania

This river, known as the "stream" in Albanian (Përroi i Lanës), flows through the center of Tirana, with Skanderbeg Square on the right bank and Blloku and the Grand Park on the left. Rising from Mount Dajti (1,613 m above sea level), it stretches for 19 km before joining the Tirana River 6 km northwest of the city center. The Lana is very narrow here: it was canalised in the 1960s. After the fall of communism, the banks were covered with illegal buildings, which were demolished in the 2000s.

"Visit Albania" is the current name of Albania's national tourism agency (Agjencia Kombëtare e Turizmit). It has an office right in the center of Tirana, but the staff are not very helpful. The website is rather rich in beautiful photos and travel suggestions, but without any real practical information and few updates. Since 2023, however, the agency has been offering the "TEA Tourism Events of Albania" smartphone application, with a calendar of the main cultural events throughout the country.

This 20-meter-high waterfall (Ujëvara e Sopotit) enjoys a superb setting. It is located on the left bank of the Vjosa, at the foot of the 2,485-metre-high Nëmërçka massif. To reach it, it's a 2-hour walk (or an hour's drive by car, on a carriage road) from the hamlet of Strëmbec (population approx. 20), reached by an old cable-stayed bridge. The river Sopoti falls here at an altitude of 600 metres. The water for this cascade comes from the Nëmërçka glacier.

This former Sufi place of worship (Teqeja e Helvetive) is distinguished by its porch, whose antique columns come from the site of Apollonia in Illyria. It was built in 1780 and occupied in the ^19th century by Halveti dervishes, a brotherhood now very rare in Albania. Today, it houses the regional offices of the Monuments Culturelles. The building was originally erected to house the supposed mausoleum of Sabbatai Tsevi (1626-1676), a mystical rabbi who converted to Islam and was considered the Messiah by many Jews in the Ottoman Empire. Born in Smyrna, according to the beliefs of the time, he died in Berat. Thus, for over two centuries, Dönme, Islamicized Jews who followed Tsevi, came here on pilgrimage from Thessalonica, then Europe's largest Jewish city. The shrine was built at the request of Berat's Jewish community (around 150 families at the end of the ^18th century) and financed by the Ottoman governor of the Berat pashalik Ahmet Kurt Pasha (c. 1710-1787). However, it was partly destroyed by his former rival, the redoubtable Ali Pacha de Tepelena, when the city was taken in 1808, and rebuilt shortly afterwards. The so-called tomb may well have survived, as Dönme continued to gather here until the early ^20th century. One thing is certain: it disappeared during the atheist campaign of 1967. As for the real mausoleum, it was identified in 1985 in Ulcinj, Montenegro, where Sabbatai Tsevi had been exiled by the Ottomans in 1673.

This resurgence (Syri i Kaltër) of the Lumi i Zi ("black river") owes its name to the hues of the water that gushes to the surface in a 100^m2 natural pool: bright blue-green on the edges, reminiscent of the iris, and dark black in the center, like the pupil. You can swim here, but the water temperature is 7ºC. Surrounded by vegetation, with a café nearby in summer, the place is accessible on foot (3h from the Isolation Tower) or by 4 x 4 (the last stretch is on foot) via the hamlet of Ndërlysaj. Another possible route is from the Grunas waterfall.

Democracy Square (Sheshi Demokracia) isn't very pretty: it's a traffic circle right in the center of Shkodra. But it's not to be missed. Here you'll find buses to Tirana, a cab rank and the information center. Formerly known as "Place des Cinq-Héros-de-Vig" (Sheshi 5 Heronjtë e Vigut), it is bordered by the Migjeni theater, which dates from 1958, a clock tower (without a clock!) built by an Englishman around 1890, the recent Abou-Bakr mosque and a series of unattractive buildings dating from after the 1979 earthquake.

This trail links Theth with Vusanje/Вусање, Montenegro, a mainly Albanian-populated market town in the Prokletije National Park. The route is part of the Peaks of the Balkans network. The first section, below Mount Harapit (2,217 m), is the most difficult, requiring you to cross the Peja pass (Qafa e Pejës), at 1,703 m altitude. The descent then takes in plateaus and Lake Ropojana. You can stop shortly before Vusanje at Gusinje/Гусиње, a village with accommodation mostly inhabited by Bosnians.