Who remembers how Skanderbeg Square was in 2015?

By Erion Veliaj

Who remembers how Skanderbeg Square was in 2015? A car dump, spinning from breakfast to dinner, polluting the environment without any other function for citizens. Although called a square, it did not have the function of a square, where people gather and enjoy conversations with each other; It was more of a place of trasite than a meeting place.

8 years ago we made one of the most extraordinary transformations in Tirana, when we decided to turn it into a space dedicated to people and not cars, giving what it had been missing for years: to be the square of all Albanians – of children playing in fountains, young people who did not line up selfie or followed by Dua Lipa and Grandfit Concerts of the trees, but also the thousands and thousands of tourists who visit Tirana and are surprised by it.

The transformation of Skanderbeg Square was not just an urban project – it was a statement about Tirana we want: hospitable, modern, green and with European identity. Today, it is more than a square is the heart beating for the whole city. Each space is intended for people at 360 degrees: from the stones taken from 32 Albanian cities to the trees and fountains that refresh during the summer.

Against this transformation, as for any other project we have implemented in Tirana in the last 10 years, there were skeptics that said it will not work, it will remain poor, no one will visit, etc., etc., like these. But Skanderbeg Square was announced in 2018 as the best public and urban space in Europe, triumphing between 279 projects from 32 countries in competition.

Now this square is the symbol of the transformation of Tirana, a place dear to us all. Thank you to every citizen who has protected, used and loved this square as their own. Tirana is not just the city where we live; It is the city we are building together!