Fortresses
Albania is first and foremost a land of fortresses. It still preserves the remains of 158 of them, scattered throughout the country. Most of them were transformed by the Ottomans between the 15th and 19th centuries, but all have more ancient origins: Neolithic defensive points, Greek acropolises, Illyrian fortified towns, Byzantine citadels and Venetian forts.
Not to be missed. The most pleasant fortress to visit is Berat, with its ramparts, churches and cobbled streets, its Onufri museum and its stone houses, some of which are still inhabited. Peaceful today, it saw the dreams of conquest of the son of the King of France shattered in 1281. The most impressive is Gjirokastra: a "silver castle"(Agyro Kastro in Greek) that gives its name to the town it dominates. This behemoth of stone, with its immense underground passages, was so alarming that no one ever attempted to lay siege to it. And for the best views? Rozafa, in Shkodra. The last Venetian stronghold in Albania to fall to the Ottomans in 1479, it offers a vast panorama of the Adriatic and the Albanian Alps.
Skanderbeg's fortresses ... If local tales are to be believed, almost every Albanian hill was once a stronghold of the national hero. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but there are many. Near Tirana, there's Kruja, stronghold of the Kastriot family, where Skanderbeg was born in 1405. Then there's Petrela, south of the capital: a small rocky outcrop where Mamica Kastrioti, sister of the insurgent leader, lived. Then there's Lezha, on the north coast, where Skanderbeg founded the league that gave the Ottomans so much trouble, and where he eventually died of malaria in 1468.
... and Ali Pacha. Between 1760 and 1820, the formidable semi-independent governor of Epirus conquered many a fortress. The trouble is, local custom often credits him with the creation of these very fortresses, such as Porto Palermo on the Ionian Sea. In fact, it was built by the Venetians in a superb bay reminiscent of Palermo in Sicily. The " Fort of Ali Pasha ", strategically located between Corfu and Butrint, is another Venetian construction. But let's give Ali Pasha his due: he was as much a destroyer of cities as a great builder of bridges and forts across southern Albania and northern Greece. He was the only man to capture the fortress of Berat, unarmed and using only cunning (and a little poison).
Illyrian remains. A few small ancient fortresses were abandoned by the Ottomans, such asAmantia, in the Vlora hinterland. Founded by the Greeks, then occupied by the Hellenized Illyrian tribe of the Amantes, it boasts some fine ruins, including a stadium, and offers splendid views over the Vjosa valley. Further into the mountains, near Ballsh, stands Byllis, former capital of the semi-Hellenized Bylliones tribe, with a theater, the photogenic arch of a fortified gate and the foundations of Byzantine basilicas.
Bunkers
Albania is also the land of bunkers. They're everywhere: in the center of towns, on beaches, nestling on secluded hillsides... They can also be found in miniature, as souvenirs in tourist stores, or in Kujtim Çashku's film Kolonel Bunker (1996).
Paranoia. Between the 1960s and 1980s, the Communist regime sunk fortunes into building at least 750,000 bunkers, i.e. 26 per square kilometer, or one for every four Albanians at the time. Tens of thousands have since been destroyed using explosives and pickaxes to extract the metal from the reinforced concrete, yielding an average of €300 per bunker for the inhabitants. But more than half have survived, sometimes used as cellars, barns or for lovers' rendezvous out of sight. They are the most striking testimony to the paranoia of dictator Enver Hoxha. After his successive break-ups with Yugoslavia (1948), the USSR (1960) and China (from 1972), the first secretary of the Party of Labor of Albania feared invasion by his former allies or by NATO forces.
"Bunkerization of minds Each of the 800,000 citizens who could be mobilized had to be able to reach their pillboxes in a matter of minutes, to hold their positions in a doctrine of total guerrilla warfare, in urban areas, in the countryside, in the mountains and on the beaches of a landing that never came. As a result, most of the bunkers we see today were designed for one person only. Other, more imposing models served as command posts or artillery positions. The omnipresence of defensive shelters and the indoctrination of the population has left its mark, and not only on the landscape. Born in 1951, writer and former dissident Fatos Lubonja calls this the "bunkerization of minds": a phantasmagorical vision of everything that comes from abroad, combined with a fear of everything that comes from the state. This Albanian evil still shapes mentalities.
Underground city. As part of the bunkerization of the country, the Albanian regime also had shelters dug in every major city to house the local nomenklatura. You can visit these immense reinforced concrete corridors at Bunk'Art 1 in Tirana or at the Cold War Museum in the bowels of Gjirokastra. But the most delirious example of this paranoid burial is to be found in Kukës. Beneath this town guarding the border with Kosovo (a former Yugoslav province) lies... another town. An 11 km-long labyrinth served rooms to house soldiers, but also the town's entire population, with dormitories, kitchens, schools, a bakery and so on. It is now possible to visit part of it with a local guide.
Cities
On the whole, they're pretty ugly, because during the Communist era, it was all about building a lot, fast and cheap. And also because the urban population has exploded since the fall of the regime. With no land registry or urban planning, the result is often chaotic. Fortunately, a few superb historic centers have escaped concreting.
Gjirokastra and Berat. The "Leaning City" and the "City of a Thousand Windows" have been listed jointly as UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2005. Both are magnificent, but each in its own way. Built into the hillside beneath the country's most impressive fortress, Gjirokastra 's historic center is all gray stone, from the cobblestones of the alleyways to the slate roofs and kulla, the tall fortified houses built between the 17th and 19th centuries for the Muslim elite. If it has been so well preserved, it's thanks to the will of dictator Enver Hoxha, who was born here in 1908. What's even more astonishing is that you can visit Gjirokastra without even going there. After all, it's also Ismaïl Kadaré's hometown, described in detail in Le Général de l'armée morte (1966), Chronique de la ville de pierre (1971), Climat de folie (2005), La Poupée (2015)... The writer also tells the story of Berat, where he lived for two years, in a short story with an unlikely title: Histoire de l'Union des écrivains albanais telle que reflétée dans le miroir d'une femme (2001). But nothing to do with "Grey Gjirokastra". It's true that Berat's historic center also boasts a Byzantine fortress and Ottoman houses clustered on the hillside. Only here, the buildings are white, sparkling in the sunlight. Clinging to one another, they form a magnificent ensemble with the large Mangalem district and, opposite, on the other bank of the Osum, the former small Orthodox district of Gorica, with similar architecture but less steep terrain. So, it's true that the nickname "city of a thousand windows" is apt. But it's the result of a recent confusion. Albanians used to call Berat një mbi një, literally "one on one", in reference to its houses built one on top of the other. By proximity of sounds, it became një mijë, "a thousand".
Other nuggets. Korça is one of the country's most pleasant towns. It retains Albania's only charchia (Ottoman commercial and religious center), but also a French touch inherited from the brief occupation by the Army of the East (1916-1920): wide sidewalks, neoclassical villas and cobblestone streets. In fact, it's nicknamed "Little Paris". After that, it's less obvious. However, right between the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, the large port city of Vlora boasts a tiny historic center of neoclassical and Ottoman style around the beautiful Rue Justin-Godart. Then there's Shkodra, the "capital" of northern Albania. Although ravaged by 3 earthquakes (1905, 1978 and 1979), it hides its game well, with splendid Ottoman villas (such as the one housing the History Museum) and pretty 19th-century low-rise houses in the pedestrian Kolë-Idromeno street. As for Durrës, the country's second most populous city, it's a disappointment despite its rich history: the largest Roman amphitheatre in the Balkans has been ravaged by illegal construction, theByzantine agora is lost amidst concrete and the venerable Venetian tower now looks tiny in the face of modern buildings.
The "Tirana case". How do you like the Albanian capital? Opinions are divided. Founded by the Ottomans in 1614, Tirana is a recent addition to the Albanian scene, and has undergone dazzling growth over the past century: from 10,000 inhabitants in 1923 to over 550,000 today. So much so, in fact, that its 290-hectare Grand Parc, planned for 150,000 inhabitants in 1955, seems a mere pittance today. As for traces of the past, they are extremely rare: the Et'hem Bey mosque is the only vestige of the great Ottoman charchia. The latter was razed to make way for the country's largest esplanade: Skanderbeg Square. Conceived by the Austro-Hungarians during the First World War, it was finally designed by the Italians in the 1920s. Indeed, it was Mussolini's architects and town planners who laid out the current layout of the city center. From Skanderbeg Square to the Grand Parc, along the Boulevard des Martyrs-de-la-Nation (the "Albanian Champs-Élysées"), a succession of neoclassical buildings with colorful facades or typically Fascist clean-lined facades house today's political institutions. The communist dictatorship then added its own touch: a small park and hotel to spy on foreign guests here, a brutalist convention center there. Not forgetting, on Skanderbeg Square, the National History Museum and the Palace of Culture, both of Stalinist architecture, and, on the left bank of the Lana, the Blloku district, once reserved for the nomenklatura, and the " Pyramid " intended as a mausoleum for Enver Hoxha. This "stalino-fascist" ensemble, previously rather coherent, is now disrupted by a multitude of tall modern towers. But these gleaming buildings are the hallmark of Albania's new power: the mafia. Several organizations, including Moneyval, the Council of Europe's anti-corruption expert committee, believe that these buildings are a means for Albania's powerful criminal organizations to launder their dirty money. These buildings, some of which will soon exceed 200 m in height (such as the Bofill Tower), are not only a blot on the landscape, but also have an impact on the lives of local residents. Since 2018, the "mafia towers" already built have pushed downtown rents above €500 a month... as much as the average wage in Tirana. As a result, residents are fleeing and small businesses are closing.
Historical heritage
While the current authorities are making some efforts to preserve the major sites, the historic architectural heritage is in danger from property developers and a lack of public interest.
Butrint: the exception. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992, the archaeological site of Butrint is exceptionally beautiful, with a national park all around it and Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Venetian ruins intermingling with nature. It's also exceptionally well preserved: this border zone was off-limits during the Communist dictatorship and has been scrupulously respected in terms of building regulations ever since. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the country's other archaeological sites. Most are not even open to the public. When you do gain access, you're often disappointed by how poorly the remains are displayed. As for the country's second largest and most prestigious site, that ofApollonia of Illyria, near Fier, it was ravaged by the installation of 400 bunkers in the 1970s.
Byzantine churches. In the southern half of the country, hundreds of Orthodox churches make up what should be one of Albania's main cultural attractions. Built between the 6th and 14th centuries by the emperors, princes, archbishops and wealthy local families of the Byzantine Empire, they were once magnificent, with their inscribed cross plans, elegant brick and stone walls, drum-mounted bell towers, intricately carved iconostases and colorful frescoes. Alas, most of them are poorly preserved, even abandoned, and have been heavily looted. Admittedly, unlike many other places of worship in Albania, they escaped the destructive frenzy of the atheist campaign launched by the communists in 1967, because Enver Hoxha's regime had perceived the historical significance of these churches. But by closing them down, banning religion and driving out the popes, the dictatorship turned the Orthodox population away from these very churches. Since the return to democracy in 1992, the Albanian state has not had the financial means to restore them. Nor has it had the will to do so. Orthodox Christians are viewed with suspicion by the authorities: they are too close to the Greeks, often belong to the Greek minority, and a whole section of today's Orthodox clergy comes from or was trained in Greece, with which Albania has a complicated relationship. Among the few preserved churches, we recommend a visit to Mborja, near Korça, and Labova, near Gjirokastra, to theisland of Maligrad, on Lake Prespa, and to Mesopotam, near Saranda, not forgetting the only active Albanian Orthodox monastery, that ofArdenica, near Fier, where Skanderbeg was married in 1451.
Post-Byzantine churches. Of lesser value, these Orthodox churches built after the Ottoman conquest bear witness to the Albanian artistic revival launched by the painter Onufri in the 16th century. He and his followers left superb works in the Berat fortress, theShelcan church near Elbasan, and as far away as Kastoria in Greece. The Korça school of painting took over from the 17th century onwards, accompanied by a whole generation of Greek, Aromanian, Bulgarian and Albanian builders. The masterpiece of these artists and craftsmen was Moscopole, a town of Aromanian and Greek merchants close to Korça that was the richest in Albania in the 18th century. Alas, it was ravaged by Ali Pacha, then by bandits, so that only four of the ancient churches of Moscopole (now a simple village) remain, with some of the frescoes by the masters Selenica and Zografi.
Mosques. Albania's Ottoman mosques are of little architectural interest. Moreover, most of Albania's 15th-19th century mosques were demolished during the atheist campaign launched in 1967. In most major cities, only one Sunni place of worship was considered worthy of interest and spared: the Et'hem Bey mosque in Tirana with its frescoes, the Arab-inspired Lead mosque in Shkodra, the Mirahori mosque in Korça, the Muradiye mosque in Vlora, the Bazaar mosque in Gjirokastra.. Berat is an exception, with the ruins of the country's oldest mosque in the fortress, and three other mosques in the Mangalem district, including the so-called " Bachelors' Mosque", one of the very few frescoed mosques in the Balkans. In the name of modernity, the vast majority of Ottoman civil buildings (baths, markets, caravanserais, etc.) also disappeared during the 20th century.
Catholic churches. Here too, the atheist movement of 1967 took its toll. The selective destruction carried out by the Communist regime was even more drastic than for mosques. Firstly, to put an end to the foreign influence of the Vatican and the Franciscans. Secondly, because very few Albanian Catholic buildings were of any real value. The oldest, mostly located in the northern half of the country, had already been converted into mosques by the Ottomans. The most recent, dating from the 19th century, were of poor workmanship. Among the few surviving monuments are Shkodra's St. Stephen's Cathedral, decorated by Kolë Idromeno in 1909, and the 14th-century skeleton of St. Nicholas Church in the Skanderbeg mausoleum in Lezha. The small church of St. John in Theth is also superb, with its tavaillon roof and the Albanian Alps in the background. Rebuilt in 2006, it symbolizes the spirit of resistance of the Catholic communities who took refuge in the high northern valleys from the Ottoman influence of the cities.
Tekkés. Although the bektashis long occupied a central place in the political, military and religious organization of the Ottoman Empire, they were later fiercely opposed by the sultans and imams from the 19th century onwards. As a result, most of the old Albanian tekkés (Sufi places of worship, mostly belonging to the bektashis) have disappeared. But under the protection of Ali Pacha, the Bektashi brotherhood made Albania its stronghold, to the point of setting up its headquarters there, at the small tekké of Turan, near Korça, in 1812. The astonishing world headquarters of Bektashism, completely rebuilt in 2011, is now located in Tirana. Kruja, near the capital, is home to two important sites, including the superbly placed cliff-top tekké Sari-Saltik. However, most of the 19th-century tekkés, spared by the communists or rebuilt after the fall of the dictatorship, are located in the southern part. But apart from the Melan tekké, which enjoys a beautiful natural setting in the Gjirokastra region, few of them are of any real architectural or artistic value.
