The socialist realist Statue of the Unknown Partisan, just off Sheshi Skënderbej, seems to be aiming his weapons at the Parliament building (1924) down the road. Nowadays day labourers wait for work at the foot of the statue, some with their own jackhammers – a fitting image of the precarious position of the postcommunist Albanian worker.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
2.57 MILES
This fantastic conversion – from a massive Cold War bunker on the outskirts of Tirana into a history and contemporary art museum – is Albania's most…
19.89 MILES
This ultra-modern, well lit and labelled museum just back from the seafront has a breathtaking collection of historical artefacts. Highlights include the…
0.26 MILES
The largest museum in Albania holds many of the country's archaeological treasures and a replica of Skanderbeg's massive sword (how he held it, rode his…
0.22 MILES
Tracing the relatively brief history of Albanian painting from the early 19th century to the present day, this beautiful space also holds temporary…
0.14 MILES
The little cousin to the main Bunk'Art, this museum, which is within a communist-era bunker and underground tunnel system below the Ministry of Internal…
0.3 MILES
This grand old 1930s building started life as Albania's first maternity hospital, but within a few years the focus turned from creating new life to ending…
19.63 MILES
The weathered Roman-era Amphitheatre of Durrës was built on the hillside inside the city walls in the early 2nd century AD. In its prime it had the…
12.4 MILES
This traditional home in the castle complex below the Skanderbeg Museum houses one of the best ethnographic museums in the country. Set in an original…
Nearby Tirana attractions
0.07 MILES
Tirana's 35m-tall clock tower was completed by Ottoman architects in 1822, and it was for years the tallest building in the capital, sounding a bell every…
0.14 MILES
The little cousin to the main Bunk'Art, this museum, which is within a communist-era bunker and underground tunnel system below the Ministry of Internal…
0.14 MILES
To the east of Sheshi Skënderbej is the white stone Palace of Culture, which has a theatre, shops and art galleries. Construction of the palace began as a…
0.14 MILES
To one side of Sheshi Skënderbej, the 1789–1823 Et'hem Bey Mosque was spared destruction during the atheism campaign of the late 1960s because of its…
0.16 MILES
If you turn up Rr Murat Toptani, behind the National Gallery of Arts, you'll pass the 6m-high walls of the Fortress of Justinian, the last remnants of a…
6. Equestrian Statue of Skanderbeg
0.18 MILES
An impressive monument to the Albanian national hero stands in the middle of this eponymous square/traffic roundabout.
0.18 MILES
Sheshi Skënderbej is the best place to start witnessing Tirana's daily goings-on. Until it was pulled down by an angry mob in 1991, a 10m-high bronze…
0.22 MILES
Tracing the relatively brief history of Albanian painting from the early 19th century to the present day, this beautiful space also holds temporary…