PART 3, TIRANA
Scanderbeg Square (1)
1988: The Palace of Culture and government offices in Scanderbeg Square….
2019: …are overtopped by apartment blocks and skyscrapers.
Scanderbeg Square (2)
1988: The suburbs north of the square were a jumble of housing blocks and Ottoman villas.
2019: If it wasn’t for the mountains, you could be forgiven for thinking that these were two unrelated locations.
Scanderbeg Square (3)
1988: Hotel Peza was at the rear of Hotel Tirana, on the corner of Bulevardi Stalin.
2019: The building has been refurbished and a fifth floor added. It has been converted into the headquarters of an insurance company. Bulevardi Stalin is now known as Bulevardi Zogu i Parë.
Scanderbeg Square (4)
1988: Changes to the street and buildings mean that …
2019: …trying to match old and new is trying to force jigsaw puzzle pieces together.
Scanderbeg Square (5)
1988: Enver Hoxha’s golden statue that had once stood in Scanderbeg Square….
2021: …has become a distant memory.
Scanderbeg Square (6)
1988: The sunken garden behind Scanderbeg's statue has been renovated.....
2019: ...and is now Parku Europa. Perspectives have altered. Originally, there had been ten steps down into the garden. Now there are four.
Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit
1988: PPSH on the roof of the Enver Hoxha University has gone and the road is busy with traffic....
2019: ... but the view along Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit is not much changed since communism.
Rruga e Kavajës (1)
1988: This communist-era plaque commemorates a student uprising in January 1944. It's on the wall of a youth centre next to Tirana’s Chamber of Commerce.
2019: Someone has scrawled Partizani in yellow spray paint beneath it.
Rruga e Kavajës (2)
1988: Xhamia Dine Hoxha had been built in the 1920s. It was closed in 1967 and its minaret pulled down.
2019: It reopened in 1996 with a new minaret and a new zinc dome.
Rruga e Kavajës (3)
1988: Zemra e Krishtit was built in 1939 at the beginning of the Italian occupation. During atheism, it was used as a cinema.
2019: It reopened for worship in 1991.
Rruga e Kavajës (4)
1988: A bread shop on Rruga e Kavajës….
2019: ….has become a clothes boutique - another astonishing transformation.
Tirana street art
1998: Transferable skills? Street art during…
2019: …and after communism.
Martyrs’ Cemetery, Tirana (1)
1988: Ceremonial guards stood watch over Enver Hoxha's tomb. Hoxha was removed from the Cemetery in 1992.
2019: His place was taken by student activist Azem Hajdari.
Martyrs’ Cemetery, Tirana (2)
1988: Since the end of communism, the green cordon between the Cemetery and the city…
2019:…has become home to a number of foreign Embassies.
Martyrs’ Cemetery, Tirana (3)
1988: During communism, red floral borders were a dominant motif.
2019: These days, planting is less formal with bushes, trees and lots of roses.
Martyrs’ Cemetery, Tirana (4)
1988: The statue of Mother Albania ...
2019: … is still a dominating, even intimidating presence.