House of Leaves (Museum of Secret Surveillance)

About House of Leaves (Museum of Secret Surveillance)

By the ULTIMATE Tirana Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Named after the leaves that cover its walls, this house was built in 1931 as a doctor’s clinic, used by the Gestapo during the war and then by the Sigurimi as a surveillance centre. Often compared with the Stasi headquarters in Berlin, the museum shows the bugs, cameras and files of the secret police and the stories of the people they watched. It won the Council of Europe Museum Prize in 2020. Allow an hour and a half; it is close to the Orthodox cathedral.

A house with a past

The building on Rruga Dëshmorët e 4 Shkurtit was built in 1931 as a doctor’s clinic. During the Second World War, under German occupation, it was used by the Gestapo; after the war the communist regime took it over and made it the centre of the Sigurimi’s surveillance operations, where phones were tapped, letters opened and recordings analysed. Its creeper-covered walls gave it the name it still carries.

Inside

The museum shows the equipment of the secret police: bugs hidden in furniture and walls, cameras, recording machines, a darkroom laboratory, and the files that grew from them. Each room introduces the people who were watched, from writers and priests to foreign diplomats and ordinary neighbours, and the informers who reported on them.

The leaves have a double meaning: what is hidden in the woods, and the leaves of the files kept on ordinary people.

It has often been compared with the Stasi headquarters in Berlin, and in 2020 it won the Council of Europe Museum Prize for the way it tells this difficult story.

Why it matters

The museum does not sensationalise. Its power lies in the detail: the tiny microphones, the careful handwriting of the reports, the photographs of people who did not know they were being followed.

Our advice: allow ninety minutes, take the audio guide or read the panels carefully, and pair the visit with Bunk’Art 2, ten minutes’ walk away, for a full picture of the surveillance state.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with House of Leaves (Museum of Secret Surveillance) before you go.