PART 2, SOUTHERN & CENTRAL ALBANIA
seafront, Sarandë
1988: Sarandë was once a small seaside town.
2019: Now it has become a major resort with hotels lining the waterfront.
Rruga Skënderbeu, Sarandë
1988: The fashions and the businesses have changed....
2019: …but structurally, Rruga Skënderbeu is much as it had been thirty years ago.
central square, now Sheshi Nënë Tereza, Sarandë (1)
1988: Sarandë’s Communist Party HQ was demolished….
2019: …and turned into a Friendship Park. But the steps and palm trees have survived.
central square, now Sheshi Nënë Tereza, Sarandë (2)
1988: The old bookshop has been demolished to make way for...
2019:...a glass-fronted bank and hotels.
Rruga Jonianet, Sarandë
1988: There was still a mural on the wall - not of a woman with a pickaxe…
2019: … but of goggle-eyed minions eating ice cream.
Rruga Lefter Talo, Sarandë
1988: Changes in some parts of Sarandë have been extreme...
2019: ... especially in the residential zones above the harbour where intensive redevelopment has transformed neighbourhoods.
amphitheatre, Butrint
1988: The stage of Butrint’s amphitheatre, once a haunt for frogs and terrapins, …
2019: …has been boarded over and access improved.
Gymnasium, Butrint
1988: The Gymnasium's central courtyard was flooded.
2019: This afternoon the water was where it should have been, in the bathing pool.
Great Basilica, Butrint
1988: The trees around it were metres taller than they had been, but the Basilica was the same, ...
2019: ...except for one telling detail. A pillar had been placed in the sanctuary to create an altar.
The Citadel, Butrint
1988: The courtyard was being refurbished with new paths and gardens.
2019: Thirty years on, the flower beds were green with unkempt shrubs. The palm tree had been felled. In its place was a rustic sun shelter.
Fusha e Vrinës & the Triangular Castle
1988: The fields around Butrint had been consolidated into a state farm at Vrinë...
2019: ...but because land redistribution has been put on hold, you can still see the old field patterns.
harbour, Butrint
1988: Butrint’s lakeside harbour was just big enough for a battered old tug.
2019: Now the harbour has disappeared and there are only trees along the shore.
Vivari Channel, Butrint
1988: We sat on the wall overlooking the Vivari Channel and Corfu.
2019: Butrint has lost none of its power to enthral.
Plain of Dropull
1987: The descent onto the Plain of Dropull….
2019: …remains one of the most dramatic views in southern Albania.
Lugar, a minority village in Dropull
1988: The ethnic Greek villages of Dropull have been hit by large-scale emigration…
2019: …and survive largely on remittances.
bazaar, Gjirokastër (1)
1988: Gjirokastër’s bazaar has been modernised but the patterned cobblestones are still there,…
2019: … a continuing link between communist and post-communist eras.
bazaar, Gjirokastër (2)
1988: Most of the shops in Gjirokastër’s Ottoman bazaar….
2019: …have been converted for the tourist trade.
Skenduli House, Gjirokastër
1988: The Skenduli House is one of the finest mansions in Gjirokastër. At the end of the communist era…
2019: … its double porch was demolished to make space for storage.
Ethnographic Museum, Gjirokastër
1988: This mansion was where Enver Hoxha was born. It became Gjirokastër's Museum of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War.
2019: Today, it's the city's Ethnographic Museum.
Rruga Doktor Vasil Laboviti, Gjirokastër
1988: A grey Russian Pobeda was parked outside the Post Office.
2019: The Post Office was still there, but the house next to it had been destroyed in a fire.
house near the castle, Gjirokastër
1988: This small, stone house near the castle was not much changed....
2019: ...except now it had water tanks on the roof, a satellite dish and a No Parking sign in front of the gate.
Gjirokastër panorama
1988: Enver Hoxha’s marble statue was pulled down in 1991…
2019: …but there is still a spectacular view from the castle.
Clock Tower, Gjirokastër Castle
1988: Built in 1811 by Ali Pasha Tepelena…
2019: …the Castle Clock Tower remains one of the city's most distinctive landmarks.
Tepelenë (1)
1988: Mali i Golikut, south-east of Tepelenë, rises to more than 1500 meters.
2019: It is peaceful now but in 1941, there was fierce fighting here between Italian and Greek armies during Italy's botched invasion of Greece.
Tepelenë (2)
1988: I had a photo of the castle and apartment blocks along the ridge.
2019: There was now a
petrol station-cum-hotel on the outskirts and once-cultivated
fields by the river were fallow. But in essence, the scene was
the same.
oil refinery, Ballsh
1988: The Deep Oil Refinery at Ballsh was one of Albania’s most successful and profitable enterprises.
2019: It has recently closed with the loss of hundreds of jobs.
Visokë
1988: This building covered with slogans had been headquarters for the Visokë oilfield.
2019: The slogans have gone and the building is now a gas storage facility.
outskirts, Fier
1988: From the crest, you can see how much….
2019: …Fier and Patos have expanded since the end of communism.
Pojan, near Apollonia
1988: Children stood on the lip of a drainage channel and waved as we trundled past.
2019: The channel is still an essential part of the irrigation system for the small farms around Pojan.
Apollonia (1)
1988: There had been some small changes around the park entrance. Signage had been updated with information in Albanian, French and English.
2019: But the main difference was the trees. New ones had taken root and old ones had put on thirty years of growth.
Apollonia (2)
1988: The Orthodox church had been restored, and although a tree was partially blocking the view....
2019: ... the Byzantine brickwork glowed in the sunshine.
Apollonia (3)
1988: Archaeologists were digging at the rear of the museum where they had already exposed pillars and graves.
2019: The work continues.
apartment block, Fier
1988: The slogans have gone…
2017: … but this Fier apartment block is still easily recognisable.
Fier street (1)
1988: At the top of the street, a neo-classical mansion had been turned into a library.
2017: The mansion was still there, but two extra storeys distorted what had been a well-proportioned building.
Fier street (2)
1988: I was standing in front of blank wall on Rruga Jakov Xoxa….
2017: …trying to decide if this was where there’d been a mural of a worker with a pickaxe and book.
Fier street (3)
1988: The old buildings and murals have been hidden behind...
2017: …a café on stilts.
courtyard, Fier
1988: This has to be one of the most extraordinary transformations in Albania,...
2017: …. an ingenious solution to cramped living conditions.
Lushnjë
1988: Lushnjë's Chinese-era plastics factory has been demolished.
2019: In its place is a petrol station.
Rrogozhinë (1)
1988: What had been the main north-south highway has become...
2019: ... a country lane used mainly by farmers.
Rrogozhinë (2)
1988: The main road to Rrogozhinë crossed the Shkumbin River on a bridge it shared with the railway.
2019: The bridge is still there, but the railway no longer runs and the road is so damaged it's almost impassable. Traffic for Rrogozhinë uses the new post-communist highways.
