Forsaken Albania

By Artan lame
Tirana in the years 1926-27. Not so long ago, the Mosque of Et’hem Bey was not a landmark of the centre of the city but of its south western boundaries. Behind the Mosque was livestock maket, even further behind the Mosque was the large field of the Shallvar-s and even further beyond, the shrubland began which followed the twists and turns of the River Lana. It was only with the town planning schemes of the thirties’ that this concept of the city underwent a radical transformation, creating the modern lay-out Tirana preservs to this day.
I have never really understood where the term, “Shallvar” arose from, but the most credible of the many explanations, links this zone up to a former military training grounds for the Turkish forces and the garrison of the city. These photographs show that although it is fifteen years since Independence was proclaimed, these fields are still used for military training. A unit of soldiers located by the walls of an unfinished building, are doing military training. By stretching the imagination a little, you may be able to link this field with today’s location of the building of the restaurant complex called Taiwan. Blendi Fevziu says that according to recollections of his own family, at teh begining of the XX Century, a citizen of the Orthodox Faith, perhaps from Kavaja, had purchased a section of this field from the Toptani Family. His name was Petro Shallvari and his surname was given to the entire expanse of the field. I talked at length with Fevzi about this issue and we both agreed that it was far more likely that this Petro had taken the name of the field as his surname instead, rather than the other way round. In those times, it was not a rarity for people to first of all be given a nickname which somehow stuck, and over the years, became their surname, based on their profession, or the village or location they came from, or something else that distinguished them from other families. In the time of the Turks, a part of this field belonged to the Toptani family, which was also paid rent by the State for its use. We should actually thank Turkey that at least today, we have a big park in the centre of the city otherwise the whole area would be concrete and buildings. The view is obviously from behind Parliament Building, today the Puppet Theatre, the construction of which began in 1916 by the Austrian Army, continued by the Government of Fan Noli in 1924 and was completed in 1928 by King Zog. In front of the Mosque of Et’hem Bey you can see a gathering of people, and bearing in mind the purpose this field was used for, it is feasible that this could have been a Market Day. Further on you can see the Clock Tower and standing beside it, a long two storied building, which is the State Hospital. In the background towers the massif of Mt. Dajti, which lends grace to all the photographs of old Tirana.
The photographer himself has climbed up onto some building or other, (perhaps a corner of the outside wall, which you can see in the photo, which is in the section of the city inhabited by Gypsies, along the Banks of the Lana. I believe the photograph was taken somewhere around the years 1926-1927, because the Parliament Building is nearing completion, (it was inaugurated in 1928), while the Clock Tower has still not been built (something that was done in 1928).