Historische periode
Prehistoric Albania
Cave settlement at Konispol, and one of Europe's oldest lakeside pile villages under Lake Ohrid.
In gewone taal
This section tells Albania's story from the very beginning to now, split into time periods, with pages about the most important people.
Historische perioden
16
Historische periode
The Illyrians
The Indo-European tribes of the western Balkans, and the ancestors most Albanians claim.
Historische periode
The Greek Colonies
Corinthian and Corcyraean foundations at Epidamnos, Apollonia and Orikum along the coast.
Historische periode
Roman Illyricum
The Via Egnatia crossed here, making the coast Rome's gateway to Greece and the East.
Historische periode
Byzantine Albania
Nine centuries of eastern Roman rule, interrupted by Bulgarians, Normans, Serbs and Angevins.
Historische periode
Medieval Principalities
Arbanon, then the Angevin Kingdom of Albania, then the great noble houses — Thopia, Balsha, Kastrioti, Arianiti.
Historische periode
Skanderbeg and the League of Lezhë
Twenty-five years in which a coalition of Albanian nobles held off the Ottoman Empire at its height.
Historische periode
Ottoman Albania
Four and a half centuries in the empire — mass conversion to Islam, powerful local pashas, and eventually a national…
Historische periode
The Albanian National Awakening
The Rilindja: the League of Prizren, the fight for an alphabet, and the first Albanian-language school.
Historische periode
Independence, 1912
Declared at Vlorë on 28 November 1912 as the Ottoman Empire collapsed in the Balkan Wars.
Historische periode
The Zog Years
From the Congress of Lushnjë to a republic, then a monarchy, under Ahmet Zogu.
Historische periode
Italian Occupation
Italy invaded on 7 April 1939; Albania was annexed under the Italian crown until Italy's surrender.
Historische periode
Albania in the Second World War
Occupation, a three-way resistance, and the sheltering of Jewish refugees under besa.
Historische periode
Communist Albania
Forty-six years under Enver Hoxha and his successor: total collectivisation, the banning of religion, successive…
Historische periode
The Transition
The fall of the regime, mass emigration, and the 1997 collapse of the pyramid schemes.
Historische periode
Modern Albania
NATO membership in 2009, EU candidate status in 2014, and tourism growing into a central industry.
Personen
11
Persoon
Enver Hoxha
The leader who took Albania out of the Soviet bloc, then out of the Chinese one, and banned religion outright.
Persoon
Skanderbeg
Gjergj Kastrioti: an Ottoman commander who changed sides and held Albania against the empire for twenty-five years.
Persoon
Ali Pasha of Tepelena
The 'Lion of Ioannina': an Ottoman governor who built his own state, courted Britain and France, and was finally…
Persoon
Mother Teresa
Born in Skopje to an Albanian family from Prizren and Shkodër; canonised in 2016 and now a national symbol.
Persoon
Zog I
Ahmet Zogu: prime minister at 27, president at 30, king at 33, and in exile at 43.
Persoon
Fan Noli
The Orthodox bishop who translated Shakespeare into Albanian and led a government for six months.
Persoon
Ismail Kadare
The writer who found ways to describe a totalitarian state from inside it, in novels read worldwide.
Persoon
Ismail Qemali
The Ottoman statesman who raised the flag at Vlorë and led Albania's first provisional government.
Persoon
Naim Frashëri
The most influential writer of the Rilindja, and one of three brothers central to the national movement.
Persoon
Onufri
The 16th-century painter whose red pigment and expressive faces defined Albanian icon painting.
Persoon
The Marubi Dynasty
Pietro Marubi and his successors photographed the north for a century, leaving half a million negatives.
Historische en archeologische sites
28
Historische site
Albania's Bunkers
Roughly 170,000 concrete pillboxes built under Enver Hoxha — the most visible physical legacy of the communist state.
Historische site
Antigonea
A short-lived Epirote city founded by King Pyrrhus and burned by Rome in 167 BC.
Historische site
Apollonia
A Corinthian colony that became a Roman university town — Octavian was studying here when Caesar was killed.
Historische site
Ardenica Monastery
A hilltop monastery on the Myzeqe plain where, by tradition, Skanderbeg was married in 1451.
Historische site
Berat Castle
A fortress people still live inside, holding some twenty churches and the Onufri icon museum.
Historische site
Butrint
A Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman city layered on one wooded peninsula — Albania's first UNESCO site.
Historische site
Byllis
The largest Illyrian city yet excavated, on a plateau above the Vjosa with five early Christian basilicas.
Historische site
Durrës Amphitheatre
The largest Roman amphitheatre in the Balkans, found by accident in 1966 under the modern city.
Historische site
Et'hem Bey Mosque
The small mosque on Skanderbeg Square whose frescoes of trees and waterfalls are unusual in Islamic art.
Historische site
Fortress of Bashtovë
A rare rectangular lowland fortress built by Venice to guard a river port on the Shkumbin.
Historische site
Gjirokastër Castle
One of the largest castles in the Balkans, holding an artillery gallery and a captured US aircraft.
Historische site
Krujë Castle
Skanderbeg's base, which held out against three Ottoman sieges and now houses the national museum of the resistance.
Historische site
Lin Basilica Mosaics
Floor mosaics of birds and vines from a hilltop basilica above Lake Ohrid.
Historische site
Mesi Bridge
A 108 m, thirteen-arch packhorse bridge over the Kir north-east of Shkodër.
Historische site
Porto Palermo Castle
A triangular fortress on a causeway peninsula, built for Ali Pasha of Tepelena.
Historische site
Skanderbeg Museum
The museum of the 15th-century resistance, built inside Krujë Castle by Enver Hoxha's daughter and son-in-law.
Historische site
The Churches of Voskopojë
Six surviving basilicas of a town that once rivalled any city in the Balkans, covered inside with frescoes.
Historische site
The Pyramid of Tirana
Built as Enver Hoxha's mausoleum-museum, later a nightclub and NATO base, reopened in 2023 as a youth technology…
Historische site
Rozafa Castle
The rock fortress above the meeting of three rivers, and the setting of Albania's best-known legend.
Historische site
National History Museum
Albania's principal museum, under the Skanderbeg Square mosaic mural known as 'The Albanians'.
Historische site
Amantia
An Illyrian hill city whose stadium — cut into the slope — is among the best preserved in the region.
Historische site
Durrës Castle
Byzantine sea walls raised under Anastasius I, later strengthened by Venice and the Ottomans.
Historische site
Elbasan Castle
An Ottoman fortress built on a Roman site, with a living town inside its walls.
Historische site
Prezë Castle
A compact hill castle between Tirana and the airport, with a view over the whole plain.
Historische site
Marubi National Museum of Photography
The archive of the Balkans' oldest photographic studio — about 500,000 negatives from 1858 onward.
Historische site
Petrelë Castle
A small triangular castle on a wooded crag above the Erzen, half an hour from Tirana.
Historische site
House of Leaves
The former headquarters of the Sigurimi's technical surveillance branch, kept as it was found.
Historische site
Bunk'Art
A five-storey anti-nuclear bunker built for the communist leadership, opened to the public in 2014.