Central bank building under reconstruction

TIRANA, March 28 – Albania’s central bank announced on Monday the start of works for the reconstruction and extension of its building in the capital’s central square to meet its working condition needs. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, governor Ardian Fullani said the new project, which is in line with the building’s architecture will bring the Bank of Albania the necessary infrastructure to fulfill its duties in modern standards.
Albania is building a solid economy. “The new infrastructure will ensure the Bank of Albania better working conditions in administration, operation, technology, processing and distribution of the currency,” said Fullani.
The new project, under which the central bank will also become more open to the public, will finish in two years.
Built more than seventy years ago under a design by an Italian architect, the central bank building belongs to the rational architecture movement, which flourished in the first half of the 20th century.
The extension in the bank’s back yard will also be built under the initial project designed in the 40s by Vittorio Morpurgo Ballio.
The new project designed by another Italian architect, Marco Petreschi, who won an international competition, will pay attention to the bank’s architectural values.
The central bank will also have a museum of numismatics featuring the history of Albanian coins and medals as well as the history of the financial activity in the country which started in 1913, soon after the country’s independence. The central bank building is protected as a monument of culture part of the capital’s city centre.
The Bank of Albania will use the Dajti while its headquarters are being refurbished.
Last year, the Albanian government sold the landmark Dajti Hotel in Tirana, the country’s oldest, to Albania’s central bank for euro30 million ($38 million). Designed by an Italian architect during fascist Italy’s occupation of Albania in 1939-1943, the 98-room Dajti was Tirana’s only luxury hotel during the post-WWII decades of Communist rule.
It fell into disuse after the Communist regime collapsed in 1990. The government repeatedly failed to sell the hotel to private investors. Plans to turn it into Foreign Ministry offices have been shelved.
After the war, the Dajti briefly served as the Communist government’s headquarters.