Dominating the square is the Albanian National History Museum. Above its entrance is a large mosaic mural called ‘The Albanians’ which shows victorious and proud Albanians from Illyrian times through to the Second World War.

Albania’s largest museum holds most of the country’s archaeological treasures, including a replica of the massive sword of Skanderbeg. The collection is almost mostly available in English and French and takes you from ancient Illyria to the post communist era in a chronological manner.

The most recent addition to the collection is the ‘Pavilion of the Communist Terror’ which is a  disturbing and very important gallery dedicated to those who suffered persecution under the Communist regime, although frustratingly there is almost none of this display in English.