Things to do in Albania, Albania: The Best History Museums

The Monastery of St Mary Athaliotisa is the most popular church in Himare. The people of Himara visit this Monastery and in the Dictature Regime. The people of Himara going there twice in a year. the first time is One week after Orthodox Easter, all the people of Himara going for a picnic in this Monastery. And the second time is in the day of Saint Mary on 15 August.

House Studio Kadare is a place where you can get an idea of Kadare's work. It is a place where you can encounter the writer’s work and recognize its infinite ramifications in the times, in literature, and in his readers.

Short historical background The “Site of Witness and Memory” is the first site of remembrance in Albania, which commemorates the victims of the communist regime in Shkodër. The building was first erected in the XIX century as a private property, then the Franciscan Fathers, in 1930, bought the property and opened here a College for training parish priests. In 1946 the building was confiscated by communists and transformed into Dega e Brendshme (Local branches of Ministry of Interior) and preserved this role till the 90’s. It was an institution where suspected were interrogated during pre-trial detention under severe torture and abuse.Starting from September 2014, the “prohibited” area has been opened to the public. The parcours, which starts with some general information about communism persecution in Shkodër, permanent exhibition of objects and documents of the time, ends in the original pre-trial holdings cells where prisoners were kept and tortured until their initial trial appearance. Our mission is to create a collective memory of recent past, to educate the new generation who should become aware of the past mistakes and never repeat them again. Shkodër “the prison city” The entrance hall is dedicated to facts about communism in Shkodër, staggering numbers about the city persecution and a general map of all prisons in the city. There we count 23 of them, mostly family houses and religious institutions converted into places for terror and tortures.An important sector is the audio-visual room where you can watch some video materials of the time and a small library with prison literature, provided by the Institute of Communism Crimes and Consequences in Albania.The passage to the cells area runs through a newly-built gallery conceived as the prisoners walk to suffering and pain with elements symbolizing tortures. To the cells of terror The exhibition room offers a collection of objects used and manufactured in prison, manuscripts, letter-writing between prisoners and their families. This small collection has been donated by former political prisoners and their families. Of great interest is the glass panel which shows some documents of the time stating the force and brutality of the regime towards Shkodra people.This leads to the pre-trial holding cells, with a small opening for natural light, commonly called holes/biruca (because of their small dimension and few light).Space is divided into two floors, but political prisoners were kept on the ground floor, where we can count 23 of them. This instrument of repression and denial culminates in the tortures room where both physical and moral tortures were inflicted. This area has been kept original from 1946 and remains the most striking evidence of communism terror.

After the inaguration, in June 1978 by the dictator Enver Hoxha, opened to the public the anti-nuclear bunker built by the communist government. A 5 floor palace underground, with 106 rooms and an assembly hall, now turned into an historical and art center called "BUNK'ART". The passageways, the areas provided for the meetings of the General Staff of the Army in case of war, the rooms where was thought would sleep the communist exdictator Enver Hoxha and the former Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu in case of a nuclear attack, the gigantic hall dedicated to the meetings of the political Bureau which contains also an albanian tipical Buffe are transformed into a video museum exhibition and into art. Starting from April 2016, BUNK'ART is now made permanent, turning into a unique attraction site for tourists in the region, showing the albanian life during the 45 years of communism.

Bunk'art 2 reconstructs the history of the Albanian Ministry of Internal Affairs from 1912 to 1991 and reveals the secrets of “Sigurimi”, the political police that was the harsh persecution weapon used by the regime of Enver Hoxha. Bunk'art 2 is the first major video museum exhibition dedicated to the victims of communist terror.