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Albania Things To Do


Reviews and photos of Albania attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Albania sightseeing.
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Lezha
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  • JLBG
  • Updated By JLBG on November 9, 2007
  • Albania Page by JLBG
  • Lezha, the fortress - Albania
    Lezha, the fortress
    by JLBG, 2 more photos
    Lezha, Alessio in Italian, is now a small town of less than 20,000 inhabitants, 39 km south to Shkodėr and 77 km north to Tirana.

    Lezha is overhanged by a fortress (first photo) which is a part of a chain of fortresses used by Skėnderbeg to communicate fast at long distance. From the fortress of Lezha, a beacon lit on Rozafa castle in Shkodėr,45 km as the crow flies, can easily be seen. Then a beacon lit on Lezha fortress can be seen from Kruja castle ((54 km). Further south, other citadels such as Petrela could receive the signal and transmit it.

    The fisherman shown on the second picture uses a kalimerre. This kind of fishing is used from Ulcinj, in the south of Montenegro to Saranda, in the south of Albania.

    For more, visit my Rrethi i Lezhes page based upon my 1988 visit and my Lezhe page, based on my 2007 visit.

    The third picture shows a highly polluting and dangerous plant that was working in 1988. It does not seem to work anymore in 2007.

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    Durrėsi
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  • JLBG
  • Updated By JLBG on November 9, 2007
  • Albania Page by JLBG
  • Durrėsi, Roman amphitheater - Albania
    Durrėsi, Roman amphitheater
    by JLBG, 4 more photos
    Durrėsi is the main harbor for Albania, only 39 km from the capital Tirana. It has close to 100,000 inhabitants and is the second largest city in Albania, after Tirana.

    The amphitheater left by the Roman is only partly unearthed but is worth the visit (first photo)

    A small paleochristian church with an early Christian Crypt with a rare wall mosaic, shown here (photo) is situated in the Western part of the amphitheater.

    For more, visit my Rrheti i Durrėsi page for my 1988 visit and myDurrėsi page for my 2007 visit.

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    tirana.
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  • cachaseiro
  • By cachaseiro on October 6, 2004
  • Albania Page by cachaseiro
  • skanderbeg square. - Albania
    skanderbeg square.
    by cachaseiro
    tirana is the capital of albania and the perfect place to use as a base for exploring the country.
    it is a quite small city and most places are within walking distance.
    skanderbeg square is the center of tirana and it is a very nice place to hang out and watch the albanian way of life.

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    Shkodra
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  • JLBG
  • Updated By JLBG on November 9, 2007
  • Albania Page by JLBG
  • Shkodra, Isa Boletini - Albania
    Shkodra, Isa Boletini
    by JLBG, 3 more photos
    Shkodra, a city of 90,000 inhabitants stands at the northern end of Albania, on Liqeni I Shkodres (Lake Skadar or Shkodra Lake), 116 km from Tirana, 15 km from the Montenegrin border and 27 km from Ulcinj/Ulqin, as the crow flies.

    The first photo shows the monument for Isa Boletini a major figure of Albanian resistance against Ottoman Empire and Serbia & Montenegro. He was Kosovo representative in the first Assembly of Albania in 1912.

    The second photo shows Rozafa castle, mainly built under the Venetians, though its history starts since the Illyrian times. There is about the building of the castle a legend about walling a living person, Rozafa, in the wall to allow the completion of the castle.

    The third photo, shot in 2005, shows a building in bad condition that would require a lot of repairs.

    Would you believe that the fourth photo was also taken in Shkodra in 2005 and not very far from the other ones? There are in the center of the city several buildings of this type, for offices that have been very recently built. That shows clearly that the country is running fast to improve its economical situation.

    For more, visit my Shkodrar page. This page was built both 1988, 2005 and 2007 photos and I have tried to show how the city has at the same time changed and remained the same between these two dates.

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    the bunkers.
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  • cachaseiro
  • By cachaseiro on November 25, 2004
  • Albania Page by cachaseiro
  • my bicycle up against one of the bunkers. - Albania
    my bicycle up against one of
    the bunkers.
    by cachaseiro
    during the enver hoxha rule, there was build several thousands bunkers around albania.
    enver hoxha was sure that the west was planning an invasion of albania and spend large amounts of money building bunkers.
    they did serve one good purpose though.
    the young albanians often used them to have sex in.
    quite practical if you still live at home with your parents.
    today they stand as an odd remain of the communist era in albania.

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  • Directions: scatterd all over albania.
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    Kruja
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  • JLBG
  • Updated By JLBG on November 9, 2007
  • Albania Page by JLBG
  • Kruja, Skanderbėg fortress - Albania
    Kruja, Skanderbėg fortress
    by JLBG, 2 more photos
    Kruja is an old Illyrian settlement. It was later the seat of the first Albanian feudal state. It was later again the stronghold of Skėnderbeg, Albania’s national hero.

    The first photo shows the medieval bazaar and Skėnderbeg’s castle.

    The second photo shows a beautiful large house. It is too large to be a private house and I wonder if that could not be a monastery with tombstones at the foot of the front.

    The third photo was taken from the summit of the tower and shows a bird's eye view on what remains of the inner part of the citadel and of various houses with their inner yards.

    For more, visit my Rrethi i Krujes page based upon my 1988 visit and my Kruja page, based on my 2007 visit.

    My Fushe-Krujės page gives a glimpse on a neighboring small town with special features.

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    skhoder.
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  • cachaseiro
  • By cachaseiro on October 7, 2004
  • Albania Page by cachaseiro
  • skhoder. - Albania
    skhoder.
    by cachaseiro
    skhoder is the main town of northern albania and a pretty interesting place with lots of streetlife and people who are not used to foreigners and therefor very curious.
    i have to admit it was a bit of a ramshackle place, but i still enjoed my 2 days there.

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    Vlora
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  • JLBG
  • Updated By JLBG on November 9, 2007
  • Albania Page by JLBG
  • Vlora, Xhamia e Muradi - Albania
    Vlora, Xhamia e Muradi
    by JLBG, 1 more photos
    Vlora, 61,300 inhabitants, is the second largest port of Albania after Durrėsi. It is also a fishing port and holiday resort. It is also the starting point for the coastal road to Saranda, along the “Albanian Riviera”. It stands mid distance between Tirana and Saranda.

    It was Sultan Suleiman the Magnificient, when he was in Vlora in 1542 to prepare his naval expedition against Italy, who ordered the famous architect Sinan to design and build Xhamia e Muradi (Muradi Mosque) (first photo).

    The main square of Vlora is called Sheshi i Flamurit (Flag square). In the center of the square stands a monument depicts an anonymous flag holder, while below are depicted distinguished figures of the movement for the independence of Albania, including Ismail Qemali and Isa Boletini.

    For more, visit my Rrethi i Vlores page based upon my 1988 visit and my Vlora page, based on my 2007 visit.

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    Korēa
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  • JLBG
  • Updated By JLBG on November 9, 2007
  • Albania Page by JLBG
  • Korēa, the first school teaching in Albanian - Albania
    Korēa, the first school
    teaching in Albanian
    by JLBG, 2 more photos
    Korēa is a city and prefecture in southeastern Albania, 109 km southeast of Tirana, 19 km from the border with Greece. It is also named Korēė, Korce, Korcha, Korytsa (Greek) and Corizza (Italian). It is a most modern city of 65,000 inhabitants, the fifth in Albania.It stands in a wide agricultural and mining basin at a mean elevation of 860m, dominated by the Morava mountains to the east.

    The first school teaching in Albanian was opened in 1887 in this house (first photo) whilst the city was part of the Ottoman Empire. Before that, all the teaching was given in Turk.

    The inhabitants of Korēa are proud that their city is the "mother" of Albanian education.. Today, this building lodges the city museum.

    Our second Albanian guide, an engineer in forestry lead us to a place where we should see deers. We stayed quiet for less than ten minutes and we saw a first one, walking across the path. Then another one, and another one again. We saw, altogether a dozen of deers but they always stayed at some distance and you will have to enlarge the photo (second photo) to see one properly.

    Korēa has long been well known for its rugs and carpets. The third photo shows the style of those carpets.

    For more, visit my Korca page, built after my 1988 visit (no recent visit).

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    Tirana
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  • JLBG
  • Updated By JLBG on November 9, 2007
  • Albania Page by JLBG
  • Tirana, Skänderbeg square - Albania
    Tirana, Skänderbeg square
    by JLBG, 4 more photos
    With an estimated 700,000 inhabitants in 2000, Tirana is by far the largest city of Albania. It is the administrative, cultural, economic, and industrial center of the Republic of Albania. It stands mid distance between the areas where the Gueg is spoken, in the North and where the Tosk dialect is spoken in the south and does not belong to any of these areas. It is an intermediate between the Adriatic shore and the mountainous inland through the Qafa e K‘rab‘s valley and the Shkumbin river it is easily connected with the inner parts of the Balkan peninsula.

    Tiranė was founded in 1614 by Sulejman Pasha Bargjini of Muleti who built a mosque, a hammam, a bakery, and several shops. Until it became the capital of the country in 1920, it remained a small town like any other ones. However, as it stands in a vast plain, that allows easy building.

    The center of Tirana is the huge Skänderbeg square (first photo).

    Tirana Historical museum (second photo) is in a nicely looking modern building with a huge mosaic on top of the entrance which represents the people of Albania, workers and fighters walking towards better futures.

    Etham bey Mosque (third photo) stands at the south-eastern corner of Skėnderbeg square. It is one of the few really old buildings in Tirana and because of its historical value was not destroyed when Enver Hoxha decided that religion did not exist anymore. It was built in the18th.

    The fourth photo shows a show of the National troupe in the Culture Palace on Skanderbėg square.

    The fifth photo shows Hotel Tirana, also on Skanderbėg square.

    For more, visit my Tirana page based only on my 1988 visit as I have not yet been recently to Tirana.

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