The Grand Park and the southern boulevard, the back story

About The Grand Park and the southern boulevard, the back story

By the ULTIMATE Tirana Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

At the southern end of the main boulevard, Mother Teresa Square, the University and the national stadium give way to the Grand Park: 289 hectares of woods and paths around an artificial lake, with the zoo and the Botanical Garden beyond. Here is the story, and how to spend a day there.

The end of the boulevard

The Italian planners of the 1930s ended the grand boulevard at what is now Mother Teresa Square, where Gherardo Bosio designed the building that became the University of Tirana in 1957. Beside it, the old Qemal Stafa Stadium was replaced in 2019 by the Air Albania Stadium, with a hotel tower at one corner.

The park and the lake

Behind the University, the Grand Park was laid out from 1955 around a 55-hectare reservoir. Today it covers 289 hectares, with a loop path around the water, pine woods, monuments, the little Church of St Procopius, the Presidential Palace and the Commonwealth war cemetery. At the southern end, the University’s Botanical Garden was begun in 1964, and the zoo reopened in 2022.

Most Tirana mornings begin, for thousands of people, with a lap of the lake.

Around it

The streets on the western side, around Rruga Sami Frashëri and Liqeni i Thatë, are full of cafés, brunch spots, studios and new apartment blocks, and ArTurbina stages experimental theatre in an old turbine laboratory. Mullixhiu, one of the country’s most celebrated restaurants, sits on the edge of the park.

Our advice: walk the lake loop early, have breakfast at Tony’s or a lakeside café, spend the late morning at the zoo or Botanical Garden with children, and book Mullixhiu for dinner.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with The Grand Park and the southern boulevard, the back story before you go.