GREAT PARK OF TIRANA

The Grand Parc (Parku i Madh) covers 290 hectares. It is the green lung and the most pleasant place in the Albanian capital. It is located to the south of Mother Teresa Square, between the freeway and the national road leading to Elbasan. The well-appointed area includes a 55-hectare artificial lake, wooded areas (31,000 trees), footpaths and bicycle paths, a botanical garden, formal gardens, a municipal zoo, sports fields, canoes, small boats and Rosalie bicycles for hire, monuments, an open-air theater and cinema, hotels, restaurants and an information center. The latter is located at the north entrance, near the Republican Guard barracks. The park was created in 1955 as Parc Saint-Procope (Parku i Shën Prokopit). It was renamed "Tirana's Grand Park" in 1967. Around 50 m south of the north entrance is the Holocaust Memorial, inaugurated in 2020: three plaques with inscriptions in Albanian, Hebrew and English pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust and to the Albanians who protected Jews during the Second World War.

Church, German and British cemeteries. After the Holocaust Memorial, continue south to the Shtëpia e Trëndafilave restaurant (daily 7am-11pm), then to the Orthodox Church of St. Prokopit (Kisha e Shën Prokopit). This is the "highest point" in the park, at around 25 m above sea level. It is traditionally attended by the town's Aromanian community, with liturgies in Albanian and Greek. Not very beautiful and built between 1940 and 1945, it is the heir to a former ^19th-century church that gave its name to the park in 1955. Partly demolished and converted into a café in 1967, it was reopened for worship in 1993. Nearby, a 1,300-seat open-air theater hosts numerous summer performances. Approximately 120 m northeast of the church, a memorial zone houses two World War II cemeteries: one with the remains of 56 German servicemen, inaugurated in 2006; the other, dating from 1994, with between 38 and 53 bodies of Commonwealth soldiers. Between the two, the Renaissance Memorial (1978) pays tribute to the four main intellectuals of the Rilindja Kombëtare (National Renaissance) movement, with busts of the three Frashëri brothers, as well as the tombs of Mid'hat Frashëri (1880-1949) and writer Faik Konica (1875-1942). Below, the path along the lake embankment leads to the municipal zoo.