The Kruja Ethnographic Museum

Museum in Kruja

Toptani House Ethnographic Museum Kruja Albania

CC BY-SA 4.0 / Klejdi Shtrepi

The Ethnographic Museum is a museum of Albanian social life, customs and traditions. The museum is located in an authentic 19th-century house owned by the affluent Toptani dynasty within the Kruje castle complex. It includes a total of 15 rooms which tell of work and family life in the town of Kruja.

The show starts at the work yard of the building, which features centuries-old baking ovens, stone bee hives, dog and poultry cages, and many more typical curiosities of the home. On the ground floor you will see traditional farming equipment, others used in the old leather manufacturing trade and many used in olive and olive oil production.

The second floor is devoted to the family life. The women’s room that contains what Albanians call paja, a set of specially crafted objects that a young woman saves for her future marriage–often including blankets, tablecloths, ornaments, and other such things. The women’s room demonstrates the practice of hospitality, as well as their traditional role of serving the household heads humbly. The men’s room, which is filled with swords and weapons, offers a completely different environment. The women would observe the men through small windows to insure they were not deficient in food or drinks, and were permitted only in to serve them!

The museum demonstrates the self-sufficiency standard achieved by the family by making its own milk, drinks and household artifacts. The elegance of the home is well illustrated with walls filled with frescoes, intricately carved woodwork, colorfully painted furniture and a tiny Turkish bath (hammam).

The The Kruja Ethnographic Museum appears in our Complete Guide to Visiting Kruja!

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