City Centre

The centre of Tirana is a single square and the boulevard that runs south from it. Skanderbeg Square was pedestrianised and repaved in 2017, turning what had be…The centre of Tirana is a single square and the boulevard that runs south from it. Skanderbeg Square was pedestrianised and repaved in 2017, turning what had been a traffic roundabout into a genuine open space, gently domed and paved in stone from every region of the country.

Almost everything a first-time visitor wants is on or beside it. The National History Museum occupies the northern side under its large mosaic facade. The Et'hem Bey Mosque and the Ottoman Clock Tower stand on the eastern edge, the mosque's eighteenth-century frescoes having survived the state atheism that closed it for decades. The opera house, the National Bank and the ministries complete the ring. Bunk'Art 2, built into a bunker beside the interior ministry, sits a few steps away.

South of the square the Boulevard of the Martyrs of the Nation runs a straight kilometre and a half towards the Grand Park, planted heavily enough to walk in shade for most of it. The Pyramid stands about halfway down, and the House of Leaves is a short detour east. This is also where the hotels cluster and where the airport bus arrives, which makes it the practical base for a short stay even though the eating is better one quarter south in Blloku.