Tirana travel guide

Top 10 sights in Tirana

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1© Pudelek · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Et'hem Bey Mosque

   A mosque begun in 1794 and finished in 1823, whose interior is painted with trees, waterfalls and bridges — figurative landscape being rare in Islamic decoration. It survived Albania's ban on religion as a protected monument, and in January 1991 ten thousand people gathered to pray in it without permission.

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2. 

   2© Pudelek · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Skanderbeg Square

   Four hectares at the centre of Tirana, cleared of traffic and repaved in 2017 with stone from every region of Albania and its neighbours, so that walking across it crosses the whole country geologically. Fountains cool it in summer and children cycle over it.

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3. 

   3© Julian Nyča · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Mother Albania

   A twelve-metre figure of a woman with a laurel wreath and a star, put up in 1972 over the national martyrs' cemetery, where some twenty-eight thousand partisans of the Second World War are buried. Enver Hoxha was buried here too until 1992, when he was moved to a public cemetery.

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4. 

   4© Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 3.0

   National Historical Museum

   The national history museum, opened in 1981, whose facade carries a mosaic called The Albanians — a procession from Illyrians to partisans. The red star above the central figure was removed in 1992, leaving a patch that everyone can still see.

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5. 

   5© P4Jags · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Great Mosque of Tirana

   A large mosque beside the parliament, built with Turkish state funding and completed in the 2020s after decades of argument over the site. It holds several thousand worshippers and is the largest in the Balkans, in a country that was declared officially atheist in 1967.

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6. 

   6© BBB2021 · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Pyramid of Tirana

   Built in 1988 as a museum to Enver Hoxha, designed by his daughter and son-in-law, then used as a NATO base during the Kosovo war and left to rot. It reopened in 2023 as a youth technology centre with stairs added up the outside, so the whole thing can be climbed.

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7. 

   7© Edvini · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Dajti National Park

   A national park declared in 1966 on the mountain east of Tirana, reached by a cable car of four and a half kilometres — the longest in the Balkans — that climbs from the edge of the city to the beech forest in fifteen minutes.

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8. 

   8© AgronBeqiriPh · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Krujë Fortress

   The fortress from which Skanderbeg held off three Ottoman sieges between 1450 and 1467, and which fell only after his death. The museum inside it, designed by Hoxha's daughter and opened in 1982, is a piece of national mythology in concrete.

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9. 

   9© Bes-ART · CC BY-SA 3.0

   House of Leaves

   A museum opened in 2017 in the building the Sigurimi used for surveillance, with the bugging equipment, cameras hidden in objects and the files of people watched, arrested and shot. Albania had perhaps the most invasive secret police in the bloc, and the exhibits are its own.

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10. 

    10© Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Tanners' Bridge

    An Ottoman footbridge of the eighteenth century that carried livestock and produce into the city on the road from the east. The river it crossed was later diverted, so it now arches over dry ground in the middle of a park.

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1. 

   1© Wolfgang Pehlemann · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

   Resurrection of Christ Orthodox Cathedral

   An Orthodox cathedral opened in 2012, among the largest in the Balkans, built for a church that was abolished outright when Albania banned all religion in 1967 and reconstituted itself after 1990. It stands a few hundred metres from the main square.

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2. 

   2© Albinfo · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Mausoleum of the Albanian Royal Family

   A building in Tirana holding the remains of King Zog and members of his family. The architect Kemal Butka designed it, and it was raised on 30 December 1935 for the king's mother Sadije; communist forces destroyed it on 17 November 1944.

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3. 

   3© Albinfo · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Presidential Palace

   The official residence of the president of Albania, better known as the Palace of the Brigades. Zog I had it built as his principal residence, and its use as a royal house ended when the communists took power in 1945.

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4. 

   4© Leeturtle · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Ish-Blloku

   The Blloku quarter in the centre of Tirana, closed under communism to all but party officials. Since it was opened it has filled with cafés and bars and become the busiest quarter in Albania.

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5. 

   5© ReinderH · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Skanderbeg Monument

   An eleven-metre bronze of the fifteenth-century warlord who held the Ottomans off for twenty-five years, put up in January 1968 for the five hundredth anniversary of his death. He is the one figure every Albanian political system, including the communist one, has claimed.

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6. 

   6© Albinfo · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Grand Park of Tirana

   Two hundred and eighty-nine hectares on the southern edge of the city around an artificial lake, holding the presidential residence, a small Orthodox church and the botanical garden. It is where Tirana runs, courts and drinks coffee.

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7. 

   7© Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Petrelë Fortress

   A castle above the Erzen valley whose walls go back to the sixth century and Justinian's frontier works. It belonged to Skanderbeg's family, sits at three hundred and twenty-nine metres, and now has a restaurant in it — which is why Tirana drives out on Sundays.

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8. 

   8© Ardit Ajdini · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Justinian Fortress

   A castle in Tirana, also called the fortress of Justinian. It is a Byzantine survival going back before 1300, and stood at the heart of the settlement where the east-west and north-south roads crossed.

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9. 

   9© Albinfo · CC BY 4.0

   Kapllan Pasha Tomb

   An octagonal Ottoman tomb of 1817 in the centre of Tirana, eight carved stone columns carrying a canopy over the grave of a local pasha. It was made a protected monument in 1948 and now stands among modern towers.

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10. 

    10

    Sylejman Pasha Mosque

    The first mosque in Tirana, completed in 1614 and also known as the old mosque. Pasha Sulejman Bargjini built it together with a hammam and a bakery; it was damaged in November 1944 and demolished the following year.

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