Sights · 37 of the best in Tirana
The Pyramid of Tirana
Climb to the top
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © BBB2021 · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsAbout The Pyramid of Tirana
The Pyramid was built in 1988 as a museum to Enver Hoxha, designed by a team including his daughter Pranvera; it became a conference centre in 1991, a NATO base during the 1999 Kosovo war, and then stood empty. Transformed by the Dutch architects MVRDV, it reopened in 2023: you can now climb steps up its sloping sides for a view of the boulevard, and colourful boxes around it house TUMO Tirana, a technology centre for young people.
A monument to Hoxha
The Pyramid opened in 1988, three years after Enver Hoxha’s death, as a museum to his life and work. It was designed by a team that included his daughter, the architect Pranvera Hoxha, and her husband Klement Kolaneci, and from the air its shape suggests a pyramid or an eagle with open wings.
Many lives
The museum lasted barely three years. After 1991 the building became a conference and exhibition centre, then a television studio, a disco and, during the Kosovo war of 1999, a base for NATO. By the 2010s it was crumbling and covered in graffiti, and children climbed its sloping concrete sides for fun. Parliament debated more than once whether to demolish it.
Built as a shrine to a dictator, it has been a conference centre, a NATO base, a ruin and now a school for young coders.
Reborn
In 2018 the Albanian-American Development Foundation announced a new plan: to turn the Pyramid into TUMO Tirana, a centre for young people learning programming, robotics, design and digital skills. The Dutch architects MVRDV reshaped it, adding colourful boxes around the base and steps up the sides, and it reopened in 2023.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © BBB2021 · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsToday anyone can climb the steps to the top for a view along the boulevard, and the old monument is full of teenagers.
Our advice: climb the Pyramid at sunset for the light over the boulevard and Mount Dajti, then walk to Postbllok and into Blloku for dinner.
Why it's on our list
- Steps up the sides
- TUMO Tirana
- View of the boulevard
Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with The Pyramid of Tirana before you go.
Plan your visit
- Where Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit
- When Sunset for the view from the top
- Inside TUMO Tirana, a youth technology centre
- Shoes Wear trainers for the steps
What’s nearby
Distances from The Pyramid of Tirana are approximate, measured in a straight line (as the crow flies). Times are approximate too: walking at about 80 metres a minute, cycling at about 15 km/h and driving at typical city-traffic speeds. Traffic and routes vary.
Nearest taxi ranks
- Taxi rank, Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit200 m2 min walk
- Taxi rank, Bulevardi Zhan d'Ark300 m4 min walk
Key sights
- Postbllok – Checkpoint250 mWalk 3 minCycle 1 minCar or taxi 4 min
- Tirana Castle400 mWalk 5 minCycle 2 minCar or taxi 4 min
- Bunk’Art 2450 mWalk 6 minCycle 2 minCar or taxi 4 min
- Skanderbeg Square550 mWalk 7 minCycle 2 minCar or taxi 5 min
- Et’hem Bey Mosque550 mWalk 7 minCycle 2 minCar or taxi 5 min
- House of Leaves600 mWalk 7 minCycle 2 minCar or taxi 5 min
- Clock Tower of Tirana600 mWalk 7 minCycle 2 minCar or taxi 5 min
- National Historical Museum800 mWalk 10 minCycle 3 minCar or taxi 5 min
- New Bazaar (Pazari i Ri)850 mWalk 11 minCycle 3 minCar or taxi 6 min
- Grand Park & Artificial Lake4.9 kmCycle 19 minCar or taxi 18 min
Getting around
- Tirana International Airport (TIA)13 kmCar or taxi 43 min