The bronze equestrian statue of Gjergj Kastrioti, better known as Skanderbeg, stands at the heart of the square that bears his name. Skanderbeg led an Albanian resistance against Ottoman expansion for twenty-five years in the fifteenth century and remains the most revered figure in Albanian national identity.
The statue was unveiled in 1968 on the 500th anniversary of his death and survived even the communist regime's purges of religious and royal monuments. The sculptor Odhise Paskali shows the warrior on a rearing horse, sword raised — the standard heroic pose, executed with real force. Worth a closer look.