Right bank
Theright bank of the Lana is the most residential part of the city centre, which you will approach from Skanderbeg Square. This is the main square of the city, around which are the most important places to visit such as the Et'hem Bey mosque, the National History Museum and Bunk'Art 2. It is named after the national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg whose statue stands on the central roundabout. Covering an area of 40,000 m², this semi-pedestrian square was designed by the Austrians during the First World War, but owes its current form to Florestano Di Fausto (1890-1965), a great Italian architect who worked in the colonies of Mussolini's fascist regime in the 1930s. From 1939 onwards, Di Fausto had a series of large neo-Renaissance buildings built, which today house some of the ministries and the town hall. Later, thecommunist government destroyed the former Ottoman bazaar and the Orthodox Cathedral to make way for new buildings such as the Palace of Culture. Constantly under construction since the 2000s, it remains an important symbol of power, with each new mayor adding his or her personal touch. Skanderbeg Square also hosts many festivities, including a large Christmas market.
Around the equestrian statue of Skanderbeg are, in a clockwise direction : theTirana International Hotel, the National Opera and Ballet Theatre (TKOB), the Palace of Culture, theEt'Hem Bey Mosque with behind the Clock Tower, the City Hall, the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Agriculture, ofFood and Consumer Affairs (with behind the Orthodox Cathedral), the Ministry of Trade and Energy (with behind the Puppet Theatre), a flower garden (with behind the monumental National Bank), a green area and the National History Museum.
From Skanderbeg Square, Tirana presents the image of a modern and well-structured city. But this aspect fades away very quickly as one moves away from its administrative and business districts. It is then a completely different city that reveals itself, overpopulated and with anarchic urbanization. The wide boulevards give way to narrow, muddy streets in rainy weather, the large, modern and colourful towers to buildings that have aged badly. Large hotels and residential areas coexist with gray areas of dilapidated housing.
Myslym-Shyri Street, named after a 26-year-old partisan killed during the liberation of Tirana in July 1944, runs west of Rinia Park, parallel to Lana. It is one of the liveliest streets in the capital. There are cafes and restaurants nestled in the courtyards of old classical buildings from the 1930s, communist apartment blocks and modern buildings. Bordered by trees and wide sidewalks, you can go shopping in the many ready-to-wear and telephone shops, take a taxi or go to the market.
Finally, Avni-Rustemi Square honours the memory of the man who assassinated the Albanian dictator Essad Pasha Toptani on 13 June 1920 in Paris. To the east of Skanderbeg Square, along the Et'Hem Bey Mosque and Luigj Gurakuqi Street, this square houses both the headquarters of the National Bank and the entrance to the Pazari i Ri ("New Market") district. This is the part of the city that has best preserved the Ottoman atmosphere of yesteryear, with its interlacing alleys, small shops and beautiful multicoloured stalls, where you can buy good raki, cheese or fruit. Not to be missed if you really want to feel the soul of the city!
Blloku
Forbidden to the vast majority of the population from 1961 to 1991, the district of Blloku welcomed the dignitaries of the Communist Party, who lived there frankly better than elsewhere. In his novel Le Paumé (published by Payot & Rivages Poche, 1999), the famous Albanian author Fatos Kongoli gives a faithful description. it's true: I could hardly breathe when I thought that, before long, I would be able to cross a border that I had never imagined before," he writes. In my eyes, it marked the limit of another world..."
On the left bank of the Lana, the former square of the communist leaders, banned from the people between 1961 and 1991 and guarded at the time by the Republic Guard, has become a very fashionable public space. Blloku is bounded by the Boulevard of the Martyrs of the Nation (Dëshmët e Kombit) to the east and Sami Frashëri Street to the west, the Lana River to the north and Abdyl Frashëri Street to the south. Its shady streets, lined with beautiful villas, blocks rather nicer than elsewhere and countless bars, form the heart of the nightlife of the capital. Also a business district, as evidenced by the office towers that sprout up there, the Bloc is home to many international organizations. Its influence now extends to the east side of the Boulevard des Martyrs de la Nation, where high-rise buildings (office and luxury residences), trendy restaurants and sought-after cafés are multiplying. With its fast food and international restaurants, noisy bars, crowded nightclubs and small clean green spaces, it is now one of the favorite places of Tirana's inhabitants
The Bloc, or rather the former Bloc (Ish-Blloku) as it is now called, was for thirty years reserved for the country's political elite, completely closed to the rest of the city's inhabitants and guarded by the Republican Guard. In 1991, when the Block was finally opened, the inhabitants rushed to discover this sanctuary of apparatchiks and in particular Enver Hoxha's house, called Villa 31, at the corner of Ismail Qemali and Ibrahim Rugova streets (formerly Dëshmorët e 4 Shkurtit street), which is now used as a residence for the guests of foreign delegations. Expecting to find infinite luxury, they were a little disappointed when they discovered this modern dwelling with very simple lines, built in concrete, with a small garden and some stone columns, comprising only two wings of two and three floors. It is indeed far from the grandeur displayed by some palaces of other European communist dictators.
