“The next step of this deal will be the mapping and the 3D design which will determine the right interventions in special monuments of culture in the historic centre of Gjirokastra,” says a TIKA coordinator
TIRANA, March 18 – Turkey will help Albania’s southern town of Gjirokastra preserve its cultural heritage through its international cooperation and development agency, TIKA. The deal signed this week will allow the UNESCO World heritage site better preserve its characteristic architecture. Since 2005, Gjirokastra has been under UNESCO protection as a rare example of an architectural character typical of the Ottoman period.
Turkish ambassador to Albania Hidayet Bayraktar described the deal as a good chance for the efficient preservation of monuments of culture.
“The rehabilitation of the historic centre of Gjirokastra is clear indicator of the relationship between the Albanian Culture Ministry and the TIKA. It is a good chance to show that we can preserve monuments of culture with high efficiency,” said Ambassador Bayraktar.
TIKA’s coordinator in Tirana Birol Cetin said the project would make possible intervention into specific endangered monuments through mapping and 3D technology.
“The next step of this deal will be the mapping and the 3D design which will determine the right interventions in special monuments of culture in the historic centre of Gjirokastra under the technical specifications and priorities that will be introduced by the working group,” said the TIKA coordinator.
A working group composed of Albanian culture heritage specialists and TIKA experts will be set up to work intensively on the identification of monuments of culture which will undergo research, documentation, design, conservation and restoration.
The deal comes as part of commitments the Prime Ministers of Albania and Turkey made in October 2013 in Prishtina to strengthen cooperation between the two countries.
Inscribed to 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.
The history, culture and traditions of Gjirokastra and its Drino valley are featured in the newest museum that has opened at the southern Albanian town which has been under UNESCO protection since 2005. Situated in the indoor premises of the local Argjiro fortress, the museum documents Gjirokastra’s 2000-year-old history, bringing evidence of the life of its inhabitants, its most prominent figures and archeological remains discovered in the Drino Valley, especially in the Hadrianapoilis Park.
Cerciz Topulli, Musine Kokalari, Ismail Kadare are some of the local heroes displayed in the museum stands. A special corner has also been dedicated to late Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha, who ruled the country for 40 years, from 1945 to 1985. Some of the dictator’s photos featuring him visiting his hometown of Gjirokastra and some of his political writings are displayed in a special stand for those who look back nostalgically to the communist regime.
The museum is 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.
TIKA to restore five mosques
Five mosques, the eldest being a 16th century one outside Tirana, will be restored under a Euro 4 million project funded by the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA). The five mosques included in the project are situated in Preza, outside Tirana, at the Kruja bazaar, in Elbasan, Berat and Korca, being a heritage of Albania’s five-century history under Ottoman rule.
Open since 1992, the TIKA office in Tirana has assisted Albania in a series of projects in tourism, culture and infrastructure.
