Top 10 Things to do Good for a Rainy Day in Albania, Albania

Nurellari Winery Cellar, located in a fantastic landscape, is a family run business that offers a variety of services to our guests. We offer wine tasting events, refreshments, a variety of foods service, vineyard tours, and even luxury accommodation on site. Please call or email us to make a reservation! We strive to accommodate all our guests but sometimes is simply not possible. Book in advanced to avoid any disappointment!

Venice Art Showroom Exclusive production of baroque hand crafted luxury Venetian masks in paper mache and ceramic. Decorated with first choice materials like authentic plume feathers, gold and silver leaf, Swarovski crystals and pearls for Carnival, masquerade balls, masked events, theatre, weddings and home decoration.

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.

If you really want to know the best model of local architecture in 19th century, a visit to Skenduli house is a must. Everything is totally original and is the most authentic building in Gjirokastra. This is the best preserved house in old city of Gjirokastra, more than 300 years old (built in 1823). The owner of the house, Nasip Skenduli, a descendant of the family that originally build the house, is an amazing story teller. He will explain you everything about the house and the preserving process in years. It used to be the original Ethnographic museum during communist time, but now the owners have their house back and keep it open for visitors. What makes this house so special? Its structure shows that this has been the richest houses in Gjirokastra, because it had 9 fireplaces, (more fireplaces more richer the family was); 6 bathrooms, 12 rooms, 44 doors, 64 windows, and 4 hamam (turkish bath). Many rooms are preserved in their original shape and this is amazing.

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.