Of greatest interest in Tirana is probably the Historical Museum, you will find it on the main square of the city. It was founded in 1981 and today is the largest in Albania, since its collection contains about five thousand exhibits.
The greatest interest in the museum itself is the Pavilion of Antiquity, which tells about the entire Albanian history from the Paleolithic to the last centuries of antiquity. Then comes the Pavilion of the Middle Ages from antiquity to about the fifteenth century. And of course, it is interesting to look into the Iconography Pavilion with the works of the country’s best painters of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Of no less interest are the Pavilions of the Albanian Renaissance, independence, anti-fascism, ethnographic and antiquities department. In the ethnographic pavilion, visitors can get acquainted with the objects of prehistoric Albanian culture, which were discovered in the tombs of Selk and date back to the third century BC.
In the very center of Tirana – on its main square, you can also see the majestic monument dedicated to the national hero of Albania Skanderbeg (real name Georgi Kastrioti). By the way, the square itself is also named after him. The erection of this monument was timed to coincide with the 500th anniversary of his death, that is, it happened in 1968. Skandenberg is often mentioned in the folk songs and legends of Albania, as he led the liberation movement in the country against the Ottoman yoke.
Of course, abandoned bunkers are of undoubted interest among tourists, and there are a lot of them scattered across the country. The very first one was built in 1950 during the reign of Enver Hoxha. In total, seven hundred thousand such bunkers were built during his lifetime. And now they cover not only the streets of cities, but also mountain slopes with fields. The authorities have recently been persistently looking for their application.
You can and should also visit the ruins of Butrint, located 160 kilometers from Tirana, which are considered a real pearl of perhaps the entire Adriatic coast. This evidence of the former great glory of the city was included in the list of protected sites of the world organization UNESCO. The Roman poet Virgil believed that the city of Butrint was built by the Trojans, and although there was no reasoned evidence for this statement, the Albanians still proudly consider themselves descendants of the glorious Troy.
The mosque of Hadji Ethem Bey is also located on Skandenberg Square. It was finally built in the twenties of the nineteenth century and played a rather significant role in the revival of such a thing as religious freedom in Albania. During the period of communist rule, the mosque was naturally closed, and it was reopened only after numerous protests from the population in 1991.
On the facade of the mosque, you can see graceful frescoes depicting trees, waterfalls and bridges, as well as divine dishes, which is quite rare in Islamic art. To date, the mosque of Hadji Ethem Bey is the most frequently visited by pilgrims throughout Albania.