The museum would be the third in Gjirokastra after the arms museum in the local fortress and the ethnographic museum located in the house of late dictator Enver Hoxha
TIRANA, April 23 – “Chronicle in Stone.” This is how the new museum in the southern UNESCO World Heritage site of Gjirokastra will be called. Named after a novel written by internationally renowned Albanian writer Ismail Kadare, the museum will be a present for the 100th anniversary of Albania’s independence and another attraction for tourists to Gjirokastra which has been under UNESCO protection since 2005.
Published in 1971, Ismail Kadare’s Chronicle in Stone follows the southern Albanian city, Gjirokast첬 through the occupations of the Second World War.
Six foreign restorers are already working on the items that will be displayed in the new museum. Archeological remains, weapons of the pre-independence period, and traditional costumes of local areas will be some of the items.
“What we’re doing is setting up a conservation camp which is being carried out by international restorers. Our goal is establish a museum that will influence on the rising number of tourists. The museum expected to open next summer will acquaint visitors to the wonderful history of Gjirokastra,” said one of the foreign restorers as quoted by local media.
The restoration work is also being carried out in the form of training course for local restorers, especially on the endangered traditional costumes.
The museum would be the third in Gjirokastra after the arms museum in the local fortress and the ethnographic museum located in the house of late dictator Enver Hoxha.
Inscribed on UNESCO as a rare example of an architectural character typical of the Ottoman period, Gjirokastra, in the Drinos river valley in southern Albania, features a series of outstanding two-story houses which were developed in the 17th century. The town also retains a bazaar, an 18th-century mosque and two churches of the same period. The 13th-century citadel provides the focal point of the town with its typical tower houses.
The historic town of Gjirokastra is a rare example of a well-preserved Ottoman town, built by farmers of large estates. The architecture is characterized by the construction of a type of tower house (Turkish ‘kule’), of which Gjirokastra represents a series of outstanding examples, according to UNESCO.
