Tirana: The Complete Guide

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Pudelek

Tirana is Albania’s busy and prosperous capital located in the center of Albania. It is enclosed by mountains and hills with Mount Dajt rising above it to the east.

Although founded in the 17th century it was not until it was designated as the capital it changed from an unimportant small town into a European capital. Italian influence during this period helped create the huge new square, named after the countries national hero Skanderbeg, and typical wide boulevards. The capital blends this 1920’s Italian architecture with Soviet Bloc cement buildings with the occasional remnant from its Ottoman days. Following the 1992 elections Tirana has also been well known for its brightly painted buildings and apartments.

The religious buildings in Tirana are a wonderful mix of Christian and Muslim places of worship, and there are a number of museums and historic buildings to visit. There is also a growing nightlife scene and Tirana is famous for its all night cafe culture.

If it gets too hot in the summer, the Adriatic sea is an easy drive away…

History of Tirana

Discoveries in the Pellumbas Cave, near to Tirana has proved that the area has been inhabited since the Iron Age.

The area was inhabited by several Illyrian before being annexed by Rome and became an integral part of the Roman Empire. The remnants of a 3rd century Roman villa were found in Tirana.

After the Roman Empire split into East and West in the 4th century, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I built the Fortress of Justinian.

While the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg, was fighting the Ottomans, Tirane was still a small village. Under Ottoman rule the village developed into a small town with a bazaar and several watermills. In 1614 Sulejman Bargjini, who was a local ruler, built the Old Mosque, a hammam or Turkish bath and a bakery in order to attract settlers and founded the existing settlement of Tirana.

It was chosen to be the capital of Albania in 1920 by a congress at Lushnjë.

Visiting Tirana for the first time and wondering what are the top places to see in the city? In this complete guide, I share the best things to do in Tirana on the first visit. To help you plan your trip, I have also included an interactive map and practical tips for visiting!

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This complete guide to Tirana not only tells you about the very best sights and tourist attractions for first-time visitors to the city but also provide insights into a few of our personal favorite things to do.

This is a practical guide to visiting the best places to see in Tirana and is filled with tips and info that should answer all your questions!

Et’hem Bey Mosque

CC-BY-SA-2.0 / Predrag Bubalo

On one side of Skanderbeg Sq, the Et’hem Bey Mosque stands. It was one of the few buildings spared destruction during the atheism campaign of the late 1960s. Closed under communist rule, the mosque reopened as a house of worship in 1991. Small and elegant, this is one of the city’s oldest remaining buildings. Take […]

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| Hours: 08:00-11:00 | Distance: 0.0km

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Visiting Et’hem Bey Mosque

Click here to read our blog about Travelling back to Tirana's Communist Past

Skanderbeg Square

CC BY-SA 3.0 / Leeturtle

Skanderbeg Square also known as Sheshi Skënderbej in Albanian, is the best place to begin to witness the daily events of Tirana. Until it was pulled down by an angry mob in 1991, Enver Hoxha’s 10m-high bronze statue stood here, watching over a square that was largely car-free. Now only Skanderbeg’s equestrian statue remains, deaf noise of screaming […]

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| Hours: 24 Hour | Distance: 0.0km

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Visiting Skanderbeg Square

Explore Tirana yourself with our self-guided walking tour!

Bunk'Art 2

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Albinfo

Due to the success of Bunk’Art, on the outskirts of Tirana, the government decided to open another former top-secret nuclear bunker as a museum. The bunker, which was code-named ‘Objekti Shtylla’ the ‘Pillar’, in order to keep its construction undetected, is a 1,000-square-meter bunker with reinforced concrete walls up to 2,4 meters thick. It was […]

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Location: Rruga Sermedin Said Toptani, Tirana | Hours: Sun - Sat 09:00 - 18:00 | Price: 500 Lek | Website | Distance: 0.1km

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Visiting Bunk'Art 2

Rruga Murat Toptani

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Ardit Ajdini

Rruga Murat Toptani is a beautiful walkway between the National Art Gallery and the Parliament Building, a pedestrianized street in the center of Tirana. The street houses Reja (the Cloud), a modern art installation, National Gallery of Arts and the Justinian Fortress Wall. The name of this popular artery comes from the Toptani family, which […]

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| Website | Distance: 0.1km

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Visiting Rruga Murat Toptani

Clock Tower In Tirana

Flickr / aXeLuS

The Clock Tower was built in 1822 by the Ottoman court poet Haxhi Et’hem Bey and for a long time it was the tallest building in the city. The tower was extended to 35m in 1928 when a German-made clock was also installed. The current clock is Chinese and it the fourth clock in the […]

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Location: Rr Luigj Gurakuqi, Tirana, Albania | Hours: 9am-4pm Mon-Fri, to 2pm Sat | Price: 200 Lek | Distance: 0.1km

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Visiting Clock Tower In Tirana

REJA - The Cloud

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Anila amataj

Sou Fujimoto’s art installation called ‘REJA’ or ‘The Cloud’ has recently moved to Tirana. The structure is made from white steel rods and resembles a soft cloud. Children and adults can you can climb on top or take a seat underneath and during the city’s warm summer evenings, the Cloud becomes an atmospheric stage for […]

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Visiting REJA - The Cloud

Palace of Culture

CC BY-SA 4.0 / ShkelzenRexha

The White Stone Palace of Culture, which has a theatre, shops and art galleries, is located east of Skanderbeg Square. The Palace of Culture includes the National Library of Albania and the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Albania. The Culture Palace was built over Tirana’s old bazaar and the historic mosque of Mahmud […]

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Location: Sheshi Skenderbej 1000 Tirana, Albania | Website | Distance: 0.2km

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Visiting Palace of Culture

Albanian National Art Gallery

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Pasztilla

This gallery traces Albanian painting’s relatively brief history from the early 19th century to the present day. There are also temporary exhibits displayed in the building – see the museum website for more details. Upstairs the art show a more a political dimension with some truly fabulous examples of Albanian socialist realism while downstairs there’s a small but interesting collection of 19th-century paintings depicting scenes from daily Albanian life. Don’t miss […]

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Location: Blvd Dëshmorët e Kombit | Hours: 10am- 6pm Mon-Sat | Price: 200 lek | Website | Distance: 0.2km

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Visiting Albanian National Art Gallery

Hotel Dajti

CC BY-SA 3.0 / Belgian man

Just off the Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit opposite the Park Rinia stands the old Dajti Hotel. Named after the nearby Dajti Mountain, the hotel played a vital part in international relations during the communist period. Before the Tirana International Hotel opened all foreign visitors stayed here, while very few Albanians were allowed in. It was […]

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Visiting Hotel Dajti

Statue of the Unknown Partisan

CC BY-SA 3.0 / MirkoS18

The Unknown Partisan or Unknown Soldier Statue is a Tirana war memorial for the troops who died during the Second World War battle against the occupying forces. The statue appears as a man who has a fist and gun extended, aiming his weapons down the road to the Parliament building. It is built next to […]

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Visiting Statue of the Unknown Partisan

Fortress of Justinian

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Ardit Ajdini

Justinian’s Fortress, is also known simply as the Castle of Tirana. The fortress is where the main east-west and north-south roads crossed at one time, forming the city’s heart as it was then. The history of the castle dates back to before 1300. The walls are six metres high and a remnant of the Byzantine […]

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Location: Shëtitorja Murat Toptani, Tiranë, Albania | Hours: 07:00 - 02:00 | Website | Distance: 0.3km

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Visiting Fortress of Justinian

New Bazaar, Tirana

CC BY-SA 3.0 / Gertjan R.

The New Bazaar or ‘Pazari i Ri’ is one of the oldest and most historical residential neighborhoods in Tirana, Albania. The name of the neighborhood stems from the local farmer’s marketplace which is situated in the area. The covered stalls sell variety of dried and fresh fruits, nuts and locally grown vegetables, fish and meat, […]

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Location: Rruga Shenasi Dishnica Tirana Albania | Distance: 0.5km

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Visiting New Bazaar, Tirana

Pyramid of Tirana

CC-BY-SA / Diego Delso

An Albanian monument to the Communism that nearly crushed the country is now a crumbling wreck. The Pyramid despite being a monstrously unattractive building, is one of the most complex and special buildings representing the city of Tirana’s historical, cultural and political discourse. The Pyramid project was carried out in a total of three years […]

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Visiting Pyramid of Tirana

Tanners' Bridge

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Pasztilla aka Attila Terbócs

This incongruous stone bridge dates back to the 1700s and is a fascinating well preserved part of the Ottoman history of Tirana. The bridge gives an impression of how the city went about its business 300 years ago. The bridge, built near the Tanners’ Mosque, was once part of the Saint George Road that linked Tirana with the […]

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Location: Bulevardi "Jean D'Arc" Tirana Albania | Hours: Open 24 hours | Price: Free | Website | Distance: 0.6km

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Visiting Tanners' Bridge

Postbllok - Checkpoint

CC BY-SA 3.0 / Kj1595

Postblloku – Checkpoint, is a memorial to Communist Isolation and commemorates the country’s political prisoners who suffered under the communist regime. It is situated on the main boulevard opposite the government building.It was conceived as an artistic installation and co-created by former dissident Fatos Lubonja and artist Ardian Isufi. Lubonja had suffered thirteen years in […]

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Location: Bulevardi Deshmoret e Kombit, Tirana | Hours: 24 hours daily | Price: Free | Distance: 0.7km

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Visiting Postbllok - Checkpoint

Mother Teresa Square, Tirana

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Anila amataj

The square has the name “Mother Teresa” in honor of the Albanian Catholic nun and missionary. Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, now the capital of Northern Macedonia, to a Kosovar Albanian family. She left her home when was 18 years old, moved to Calcutta where she spent the rest of her life devoted to […]

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Location: Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit Tirana, Albania | Distance: 1.1km

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Visiting Mother Teresa Square, Tirana

Colorful Buildings of Tirana

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Sailko

Functional grey concrete buildings dominated the landscape across Tirane during the days of the Communist regime. When Edi Rama became the mayor of Tirana in 2000 things began to change. Prior to being mayor he was an artist, so with little money to repair the city’s rundown infrastructure, he decided the communist-era apartment buildings needed […]

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Visiting Colorful Buildings of Tirana

Mosaic of Tirana

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Pasztilla aka Attila Terbócs

The Tirana Mosaic is thought to have been the remnants of a 3rd century Roman. Some of the ancient Roman mosaics discovered at the site have diverse geometrical patterns and depict poultry and fish. It is referred to by local archeologists as the ‘Villa rustica’ – which would usually refer to a villa set in […]

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Location: Rr. Naim Frashëri | Hours: Open 08:00-17:00. Closed Sun. | Price: Free | Website | Distance: 1.3km

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Visiting Mosaic of Tirana

Tirana Grand Park

Flickr / Chris Walts

Just south of the prestigious district of Blloku is Tirana’s Grand Park, the top spot for fresh air and some exercise in the city centre. It covers 230 hectares and is surrounded by a large artificial lake which dates back to 1957–1958. The park contains and outdoor theater, which was rebuilt in 2018. Famously, the […]

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Location: Rruga Herman Gmeiner, Tirana 1000, Albania | Hours: Open 24 hours | Website | Distance: 1.8km

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Visiting Tirana Grand Park

Albanian Royal Palace

CC BY-SA 30 / Theoden sA

The Royal Palace is also known as the Palace of Brigades and the Presidential Palace. This is not to be confused with the other Presidential Palace, which is off the Mother Terasa Square, which is the ‘Office of the President’. The Royal Palace is currently the official residence of the president of Albania. Originally commissioned […]

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Location: Rruga e Elbasanit , Tirana | Hours: Only on weekends - 09:00 to 16:00 | Distance: 2.1km

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Visiting Albanian Royal Palace

Bektashi World Centre

Public Domain / Albinfo

The Bektashi World Centre is a religious complex and is the recognized home of the Bektashi order, in the north-eastern part of Tirana about 1 km from it’s center. It is made up of Teqe, museum and gift shop. The Teqe is adorned from top to bottom with marbled mosaics in the most breath-taking array of […]

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Location: Rruga Agush Gjergjevica Tiranë Albania | Hours: 10:00-13:00, 17:00-19:00 | Website | Distance: 2.6km

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Visiting Bektashi World Centre

Martyrs' Cemetery

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Julian Nyča

The Martyrs ‘ Cemetery is the final resting place dates for some 900 Albanian partisans who gave their lives fighting to free Albania from occupation during the Second World War. It is located on a hill overlooking Tirana, it the high point is the statue of  a 12m-high white Mother Albania. It represents the country […]

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Location: Rr Elbasanit | Distance: 2.8km

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Visiting Martyrs' Cemetery

Bunk’Art

CC BY-SA 4.0 / DenisaRucaj

This remarkable attraction brings the recent past of Albania into context. This fantastic converted Cold War bunker lies on the outskirts of Tirana. It is now a museum of history and contemporary art. Originally the bunker was built for the Communist-era politicians and military top brass of Tirana in the event of a nuclear war. […]

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Location: Street Fadil Deliu, Tirana, Albania | Hours: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm | Website | Distance: 4.3km

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Visiting Bunk’Art

Dajti Ekspres Cable Car

CC BY-SA 4.0 / TorbjørnS

This cable car is a fun day out for the family and a great introduction to the city, taking you to the dramatic mountain on the eastern edge of Tirana by gondola. The cable car spans a kilometre, making it the longest in the Balkans, and climbs up to the Dajti Mountain National Park to […]

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Location: Dajti Mountain, Tirana, Albania | Hours: Winter: 9am to 7pm - Open everyday except Tuesdays. Summer: 09:00 to 21:00 | Price: 800 Lek | Website | Distance: 4.4km

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Visiting Dajti Ekspres Cable Car

Petrela Castle

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Klejdi Shtrepi

Castle Petrelë is a castle in Petrelë, central Albania. rich in history, The castle is rich in history with a tower built in the 6th century A.D and the rest of the castle being built by Eastern Roman emperor, Justinian I, the 15th Century. The castle is situated on a rocky hill above the town […]

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Location: Rruga Petreles, Petrelë, Albania | Hours: 10am-8pm | Website | Distance: 8.6km

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Visiting Petrela Castle

Dajti Mountain National Park

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Edvini

The National Park of Mount Dajti is located 26 km east of the capital. A narrow asphalted mountain road leads to Dajti Mountain onto an area known as Fusha and Dajtit. This was a summer camp location, but it is now home to many restaurants and radio and TV broadcasters. There’s an excellent view of Tirana and its plain from here which is why this place was named […]

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Visiting Dajti Mountain National Park

Cave of Pellumbas

CC BY-SA 3.0 / Albinfo

This day trip is designed for adventurous people who like to visit caves and the Mount Dajtit National Park around Tirana. The village of Pellumbas is located approximately 27 km southeast of Albania’s capital city, Tirana, along the Elbasani road. There’s a path from the village that meanders through the mountains for two kilometers before you […]

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Visiting Cave of Pellumbas

Preza Castle

CC BY-SA 3.0 / Albinfo

Preza Castle is a 15th century Castle ruin. It lies on the hill  northwest of the Preza town, between the plains of Tirana and Durrës in central Albania. It played a strategically important role for the city, especially in the Middle Ages, since it dominated the road from Durrës to Kruja in the Tirana plain. […]

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Location: Prezë, Albania | Distance: 16.8km

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Visiting Preza Castle

Qafshtame National Park

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Pasztilla aka Attila Terbócs

Qafë-Shtamë or Qafshtame National Park was established in 1996 and is situated north of Tirana and east of Kruja. The park is named after the Qafë-Shtamë Road and has an area of 2000 hectares, with beautiful mountain scenery consisting mainly of pine forests and oak, several tiny lakes and major water springs. The park is […]

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Visiting Qafshtame National Park