New Artisan Centre to Open in Gjirokastra

The southern UNESCO World Heritage site of Gjirokastra will soon have a centre for the production and sale of artisan products, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Monuments has said. The new centre will be located in the house of the Omari family in the characteristic bazaar area of the town of Gjirokastra, southern Albania. The restoration work in the house is being carried out under a UNDP and UNESCO joint programme called “Culture and heritage for social and economic development.”
“The intervention foresees the decoration of interior premises with elements representing the Gjirokastra tradition in compliance with the use of the building as an artisan center” said Sadi Petrela, one of the project’s coordinators.
The new centre aims at promoting the production of handicraft objects such as wood and stone carving, weaving but also training youth and qualifying people who are already working in the handicraft business. The project will also help establish small artisan businesses in the Gjirokastra bazaar, further promoting tourism in the southern UNESCO town.
The case of the Omari family cooperating with state institutions to co-finance the restoration buildings in Gjirokastra is only one of the examples. Local experts say failure of cooperation between the buildings’ owners and state officials is endangering many characteristic buildings in desperate need of restoration.
“Cooperation between owners of objects protected as cultural monuments and Albanian state structures is a new practice and a rare example in Gjirokastra,” the regional director of Cultural Monuments Spartak Drasa told local media.
Officials say some 300 privately owned cultural monument buildings in Gjirokastra are in danger of collapsing because of lack of intervention for many years.