NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM

Located in the northern part of Skanderbeg Square, this museum (Muzeu Historik Kombëtar) is Albania's largest (18,000^m2 of exhibition space) and houses some of the country's most important historical artifacts. Inaugurated in 1981, it features a massive facade decorated with a superb mosaic celebrating Albanian communism. Today, the building is very old-fashioned, but is due for complete renovation. Led by Dutch firm Casanova & Hernandez Architects, this project means that the museum is likely to be closed during your visit to Tirana. It will also overhaul the current visitor plan. In the antiquities pavilion, currently on the first floor, admire the Greek sculptures: those of Apollonia of Illyria (^6th century BC), the head of Artemis (^3rd century BC), the anthropomorphic representation of the Vjosa (^3rd or ^2nd century BC). The centerpiece is the "Goddess of Butrint" (^1st century BC). It is in fact a representation of Apollo. It was offered to Mussolini in 1930 and returned to Albania in 1982.

Gllavenica epitaph and icon gallery. The medieval pavilion, currently on the^1st floor, houses the portal of the Jovan Vladimir monastery (^16th century) near Elbasan, a fresco from the Byzantine church of Vau i Dejës (^13th century) in the Shkodra region and the Gllavenica epitaph. The latter is a silk, linen and gold cloth embroidered in Ballsh around 1373. Symbolizing the Holy Shroud of Christ, it was used during Orthodox Good Friday processions. Skanderbeg's helmet and arms are copies: the originals are in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum. In the Icon Pavilion, currently on the^2nd floor, there is just one small piece by the great master Onufri (^16th century). However, there are a dozen works by his disciple, Onufri the Cypriot (^16th-17th centuries), including an Odigitria Virgin with her maforii (raspberry-red veil), a relic that the painter was the first to represent in Eastern pictorial art. Also of note are two beautiful icons by the great painters of the Korça school, Kostandin and Athanas Zografi (^18th century). The museum also features exhibitions on the National Renaissance (^19th century), independence (1912), the Zoghu dictatorship (1915-1940), the Second World War and two recently added exhibits on the crimes of the Communist dictatorship and Mother Teresa.