During our recent foray into the Balkans, one of the drivers we engaged succinctly remarked, “Albania was the North Korea of Europe.”
Albania emerged from World War II under the control of communists headed by Enver Hoxha. To describe Hoxha as a paranoid totalitarian dictator is to devalue the meaning of all three words: You thought the East German Stasi was bad? Hold my Birra Tirana.
Hoxha died in 1985, having broken successively with Tito, Stalin and Mao (well, Mao’s successors), seeing as not one of these three benefactors were hardline enough for his taste. Albania spent the waning years of European communism fending for itself, and growing increasingly impoverished as a result.
The regime fell in 1991, to be followed by a hangover of epic dimensions that was only beginning to dissipate in 1994, when I visited Albania for the first time. A recovery was underway, to be shattered by another economic implosion triggered by the collapse of pyramid schemes in 1996-97.
The news has been much better in recent years, and while Albania as yet is considered a developing country, there has been relative stability. I’d guess that the mountainous countryside has a longer way to go, with greater progress in Tirana and other urban areas.
On our last day in Tirana we had time for a museum visit, and chose Bunk’Art 2, located mere steps away from Skanderbeg Square, the city’s focal point. I’d have liked to view the Museum of Secret Surveillance, known as the House of Leaves, but it will have to wait until next time.
Bunk’Art 2 is the “second phase of a project aiming at preserving the memory of the communist era.” Both are housed in underground bunkers meant to house the elite in case of nuclear war. Bunk’Art 1 was Hoxha’s sanctuary, described by some as a subterranean palace.
Bunk’Art 2 was to have been a post-conflagration refuge for the Ministry of the Interior, overlords of the Sigurimi, or state security, intelligence and secret police service. Consequently today’s museum serves a dual purpose, highlighting the bunker itself and presenting the repressive history of the Sigurimi.
As with visits to concentration camps, there can be little pleasure derived from viewing such a museum and memorial, and yet it is essential to do so. In this instance, surrounded by explications of secret police surveillance, terror and violence set amid narrow underground passages, a palpable sense of claustrophobia can occur rather quickly. I...Read more
