Skanderbeg Square

Skanderbeg Square is the centre of Tirana in every sense: the buildings around it were laid out in the 1931 Italian plan that gave the city its ministries and i…Skanderbeg Square is the centre of Tirana in every sense: the buildings around it were laid out in the 1931 Italian plan that gave the city its ministries and its boulevard, and the space between them has since been cleared of traffic and repaved as a single open field of stone with the equestrian statue in the middle. The old mosque and its clock tower stand at one corner, the National History Museum with its mosaic facade along the north side, and the opera house and the Palace of Culture opposite.

For a visitor it is orientation as much as sight: the airport bus, the walking tours, the Dajti bus and most taxi directions start here, and the fountains and the low trees around the edge make it the place the city comes to on a summer evening.