This wide, 1.4-km-long boulevard (Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit) is the main north-south axis of the city center. Nicknamed "Tirana's Champs-Élysées", it links Place Skanderbeg in the north to Place Mère-Teresa in the south. Designed in 1925 by the Italian Armando Brasini (1879-1965), it was first named after King Zog, then renamed Viale del Impero after the Italian invasion of April 1939. Completed in 1941, it was renamed in 1944 in honor of the Albanian communist "martyrs" who died during the Second World War. On the right bank, north of the Lana, the boulevard serves the Ministries district (Italian neoclassical buildings from the 1930s), Rinia Park, the National Museum of Arts and the former Dajti Hotel. The latter, designed by Italian architect Gherardo Bosio in 1940, has housed the headquarters of Albania's central bank since 2023. Behind it stands the MET Building, an asymmetrical, vegetated 49-metre-high building completed in 2023. We then cross the Unaza (here, boulevard Jeanne-d'Arc), then the Lana via an 18 m-long road bridge dating from 1935.

Fascist and communist past. On the left bank, we come upon the famous Pyramid with, behind it, the Downtown One Tower, 150 m high and due for completion in 2023. Opposite the Pyramid, on the other side of the boulevard, is a small public garden named in honour of the Frashëri brothers. It adjoins the Twin Towers (52 m) and the Sky Tower (70 m). Built in the 2000s, these towers were until recently the country's main business district. Just beyond, the boulevard separates the executive and legislative branches: on the left, the Kryeministria (Prime Minister's offices) and, on the right, the Kuvendi (Parliament), a vast neoclassical building constructed in 1932 for the Generali insurance company. Next is the Memorial to Communist Isolation, with the former villa of Mehmet Shehu, Prime Minister and friend of dictator Enver Hoxha, assassinated by the latter in 1981, hidden behind tall pine trees. Opposite, you can stay at the chic Hotel Rogner (1995). Next door, you can attend concerts at the Palais des Congrès (1986). Opposite is the austere Presidential Palace, guarded by red-and-black-clad guards. This is the former Soviet embassy, completed in 1960 and confiscated the following year following the break with Moscow. The boulevard then ends at Mother Teresa Square.