Communist sights

Just over 15 years ago, all Albania was a living Stalinist theme park. Since then, most of the ‘attractions’ have disappeared, but a few relics are still left over.
During the communist era, the bllok (block) area was completely cordoned off by armed guards. This was the residential area of Party leaders. The collection of villas here, impressive enough by Western standards, absolutely dazzled the average Albanian once this area was opened to the public. The three-storey modular home on the corner of Rr. Dëshmorët e 4 Shkurtit and Rr. Ismail Qemali was dictator Enver Hoxha’s villa, which is now a government residence. After Hoxha’s death, the Enver Hoxha Memorial (the pyramid) was built in his honour. A massive gilded statue of Hoxha was erected on Skanderbeg Square - you can still see the raised pedestal. It was dramatically toppled by demonstrators in 1991, ending Hoxha’s longstanding cult of personality. After the regime collapsed, not even Hoxha’s remains could evade the judgement of history. Originally buried with honours in the Martyrs’ Cemetery, Hoxha was dug up in 1992 and unceremoniously filed away in Kombinati Cemetery in west Tirana.
A statue of Lenin once stood on Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit, in front of the Art Gallery. Across the street stood a bust of Joseph Stalin - probably the last place in Europe besides Georgia where he was thus honoured. Uncle Joe's head was carted away before the fall of the regime at the end of 1990, but this symbolical de-Stalinisation came too late to save the leaders.
Behind the Ministry of the Interior on Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit stood the headquarters of the Sigurimi (state security police). The feared organisation ran labour camps for political prisoners and maintained a network of informers (known as ’80 lek men,’ for the monthly bonus they supposedly got for snitching on their countrymen).
The Arts Gallery has some Socialist Realist statues and paintings that are worth a look, but walk around the back to find some of Tirana's last Commie statues huddled behind the building. There's a few workers and soldiers there, but most impressive are the huge statues of Lenin and a very rare one of Stalin.
The best place to get more information about Albania’s totalitarian years is the National History Museum which has a large hall dedicated to the period.