Overview of Tirana (Day 1, Day 2, Day 5 and Day 6) – Part I – New Bazaar, Skanderbeg Square, Pyramid of Tirana and Square Italia

Tirana is the capital of Albania. The city does seem to sprawl a bit, but the central part where all the tourist interest is quite small and walkable. It is, according to Wikipedia (with sources cited) both one of the wettest and one of the sunniest cities in Europe, though we primarily saw the sunny city during our visit.

For getting around, if you aren’t up for walking, there are some buses, and a surprising number of bike lanes, but mostly we used taxis to get around. The airport is about 30-40 minutes outside of the city centre.

I will say I was surprised by how modern I found the city. My prejudices, but I expected Tirana and Albania to be a bit of a backwater just now emerging from years of isolation and communist rule. Notoriously isolated during the 1980s – having left the Warsaw pack and severing ties with Russia, and China-Albania ties being broken. Eventually, though, ties with Western Europe improved and by the early 1990s Albania was a democracy and started to open up to other countries.

Tirana is a mish-mash of modern new buildings and works under construction with some older grand buildings and many modest and aging buildings and infrastructure surrounding it all.

The first couple of nights were we by the New Bazaar, a market with food, drink, traditional crafts and tourist tat. The local area around the New Bazaar had many places for food and drink with both indoor and outdoor seating, and some even had water misting hoses to keep it cooler during the hot daytimes.

Around that area is Tirana Castle (also known as the Fortress of Justinian), a Byzantine fortification which now houses a shopping complex, and Bunk’Art 2, a former military bunker turned into an art museum.

The largest attraction in the area is Skanderbeg Square, a massive open plaza named after the leader of the rebellion against the Ottoman Empire. It is surrounded on all sides by impressive looking and culturally important buildings, including the Palace of Culture, the National Opera, the Ethem Bey Mosque, the Ministries of Infrastructure, Agriculture, Economy and Energy, City Hall and the International Hotel. The International Hotel was built in 1979, and was one of the few places where foreigners could stay during the communist era. The Hotel is now one of the two towers that make up the InterContinental Hotel.

Skanderbeg Square – it’s massive - 40,000 square meters!


Opera House in the Palace of Culture, Skanderbeg Square


Ethem Bey Mosque. 51% of the population of Albania are Muslim.


Ferris Wheel and the statue of Albania hero Gjergj Kastrioti, known as Skanderbeg who the square is named after.


National Historical Museum (currently undergoing renovations, as the fencing will attest).


The square is very big.

One of the other sites in Tirana is the Pyramid of Tirana. It was originally opened in 1988 as a museum dedicated to long time Albania communist leader Enver Hoxha. With the collapse of Eastern European communism in 1991, the museum was converted into a conference centre, exhibition space and during the 1999 Kosovo war, a base for NATO. It eventually fell into disuse and disrepair, but was revitalised in the early 2020s, opening in 2023 as an IT education centre for young Albanians. The revamp also added steps up to the top (so no more dodgy climbing up sheer surfaces) and lots of modular shops around the site for restaurants and coffee shops.

I (perhaps foolishly) climbed it twice. Once on our fourth day there as part of a walk around “The Block” area, and then on the fifth day as the end of a 10K run (which, after running 10K, required me to pull myself up the last two stories using the staircase handrail).








At the end of my 10K run, and after sitting down for a good minute or two to recover, looking happy atop the pyramid. I could barely walk for the rest of the day.

Just south of the pyramid is the new football stadium with attached Marriott hotel. Very flash and modern looking.







Across from the stadium is the Square Italia, a large square with University of Tirana buildings surrounding it and a few pieces of modern art.







Part II with more of Tirana site-seeing to come.