MEMORIAL OF COMMUNIST ISOLATION
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Small memorial consisting of a former bunker, a section of the Berlin Wall and a section of the Spaç camp shoring system.
Placed along Nation Martyrs Boulevard, this small memorial (Memorial i Izolimit Komunist) was inaugurated in 2013. Also known as the "Blloku checkpoint" (Postblloku), it pays tribute to the (Postblloku), it honors the victims of the Albanian communist dictatorship and those of the European regimes of the Eastern bloc during the period of the Cold War. It was designed by the writer Fatos Lubonja (born 1951) and the artist Ardian Isufi (born 1973) around an old individual bunker installed here in 1976. This bunker was used to control the entrances to Blloku, a district reserved for the Albanian nomenklatura from 1945 to 1991. In addition, there are two other elements: a section of the Berlin Wall from the Potsdamer Platz, donated by the German capital, and a shoring system from the galleries of the Spaç mine, a forced labor camp where thousands of political opponents were sent to the north of the country, 60 km southeast of Puka. The memorial is located in the Ismail-Qemali (Lulishte Ismail Qemali) public garden, next to the large orange-walled building of the Parliament (1932), opposite the Rogner Hotel (1995) and the Council of Ministers (1941), which houses the offices of the Prime Minister. About 20 m south of the memorial, along the boulevard, is the statue of Ismail Qemali. This bronze by sculptor Zeqir Alizoti (b. 1950) was installed here in 2012 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Albania's declaration of independence, proclaimed on November 28, 1912 in Vlora by Ismail Qemali (1844-1919).
