The Colourful Facades

Tirana is not architecturally distinguished, but it is dressed in the brightest colours of any European capital. The painted facades of the old apartment blocks — Edi Rama's signature gesture as mayor in the early 2000s — are still the most photographed parts of the city after Skanderbeg Square.

The best examples cluster around the Lana river, particularly between the Pyramid and the Polytechnic University, and along Rruga Sami Frashëri east of Blloku. Worth an afternoon walk with a camera.

things to do sight
A story
When the painter and former mayor Edi Rama took office in 2000 he ordered the city's grey communist-era apartment blocks repainted in bright colours — yellow, magenta, orange, sky blue, lime green — sometimes with geometric patterns or large numbers. He argued, against considerable mockery, that colour was the cheapest possible form of urban renewal. Many residents still resent it; many tourists love it.