For decades, this small three-floor villa was home to Albanian leader Enver Hoxha. During this period, the whole area around Hoxha’s house in Albania’s capital city, Tirana, was sealed off by police and secret agents. Known as the Blloku, the district functioned as a kind of wall-less Kremlin in the heart of Tirana, reserved for the party elite and their families.

His widow continued to live here for years after his assassination in 1985. While the Albanian communist leaders clearly lived a much simpler life than their comrades in other Eastern Block countries, it was still luxurious compared to the people on the street who thronged here in amazement when the Blloku was eventually opened to the public in 1991.

The house is closed to the general public.