Tirana Times
TIRANA, Jan. 10 – Albania’s capital city will soon have a new museum called the Museum of Tirana and Religious Co-existence, Mayor Edi Rama said last weekend at a public consultation with historians, researchers and architects at the second meeting to discuss the draft idea.
The museum perceived to built in the city centre will feature Tirana’s history, religious coexistence and religious persecution during the communist regime which banned religion for more than 20 years until 1990, making Albania the world’s first officially atheist country.
The Tirana museum, thought to be built next to the new mosque project in the city center, will be a 1,650 m2 building on a 13,200 m2 area. Mayor Rama said the construction of the mosque would complete the triangle of religious institutions co-existing in Tirana along with the Orthodox Cathedral and the Catholic Church.
An international tender will be held to select the winning project of the museum which will showcase Tirana’s collection of 460 objects of folklore and museum culture.
According to Rama, the new museum which the capital has been missing for years, will fill up the void left by the totalitarian regime when most museums were built and opened.
“It will be a new cultural space for the city, a museum of positive energy, a new way of treating spaces and a path to touch and get to know the history of our city.”
Albania’s capital since 1920, Tirana has undergone tremendous change since 1990 when the country’s communist regime collapsed, becoming the chief industrial and cultural center of the country and its population trebling to 717,000 inhabitants including suburban and rural areas, according to INSTAT’s 2009 estimates.
Tirana was established in 1614 by Sulejman Pasha from the village of Mullet. Firstly, he constructed a mosque, a bakery and a Turkish sauna.
However, the capital outskirts boast settlements and archeological heritage dating back from ancient times such as the Paleochristian basilica near Peza of the 3rd century (Durak village), and the 4th century basilica of Tirana or the Church of Kroi i Sh쯧jinit.
The Tirana district also has two fortresses, the 4th-century Petrela fortress and the 15th- century Preza fortress.
The center of Tirana was the project of Florestano de Fausto and Armando Brasini, well known architects of the Benito Mussolini period in Italy. The Royal Palace (Palace of the Brigades), the Town Hall, the government ministry buildings, and the National Bank are their work. D촨mor촠e Kombit (National Martyrs) Boulevard was built in 1930 and named “Zogu I Boulevard”.
Following the communist takeover, the capital city experienced a significant period of development. In terms of urbanization, the city witnessed the creation of socialist-styled apartment complexes and factories. In the 1960s, the historical identity of the city faced a critical moment as the central square was redesigned. As a result, a number of buildings of cultural and historical significance were demolished to make way for the formation of present-day Skanderbeg Square. The Old Bazaar used to be located near the modern Palace of Culture. The National Historical Museum was built on the grounds of the former building of the Municipality of Tirana, which was destroyed in the 1960s. The building that used to house the Parliament of Albania during King Zog’s reign was turned into a children’s theater and named the Dolls Theater.
Tirana experienced radical changes at the turn of the millennium. In 2000, a massive political campaign began to beautify and to liberate public space, which was previously occupied by illegal commercial establishments. The campaign, called Return to Identity, included the transformation of river banks, of parks, and of other public structures to their state before 1990.
