Historic Background Of Tirana

Historians believe that Tirana was founded in 1614, when a local feudal lord called Sulejman Pasha Mulletti set up a bakery, a mosque and a hamaam (a bath house) to attract the people of the nearby areas. Over the next century or so, the little settlement grew in size, but it wasn’t till the 18th  century that it actually developed into a town. By the 18th century, Tirana had become a township renowned for its handicrafts- silverware, leather, cloth (silk and cotton), and pottery. In the 19th century the town came under the control of the powerful Toptanis family, and they retained a hold on it till the first Balkan War (1912-13), when the city was occupied by Serbian troops. Tirana remained fairly low-key during the years between the two world wars; but in 1941, the communist party of Albania was founded in the city, with the express aim of liberating the country from Nazi occupation. The Albanian nationalists finally succeeded in November 1944, when Albania was liberated.

For almost half a century, Tirana remained a mirror of Soviet domination, but in recent years, the government has made tentative steps towards democracy, and the Tirana of today- with its restaurants, bars and cinemas, is more a reflection of free-market economics than of isolated communism.