Skip to main content

This Old House

Tucked in behind the main streets in our neighbourhood are a few rows of old houses. I don't know when they were built, but I imagine that when they were new they must have looked well. Now they look terrible. When I first saw them I thought they were derelict, until I noticed the obvious signs of occupation like the washing hanging in the windows.

In an ideal world, houses like these would be sympathetically modernised and preserved. Or a good architect would design replacements that were in keeping with the style of the originals. But it's probably only a matter of time before they are demolished and replaced with another concrete apartment block.

Comments

Albanian Blogger said…
What a pity, I really like old houses and old neighborhoods. When I was young I would walk around in the old streets and just love them.

Now they are so hard to find. Thanks for sharing that picture.
Elvis
10:07 am
eni said…
yes ..what you say is true unfortunately.I love the old houses , but not everybody seems to think so:(
liked the shot by the way...
12:07 pm
Anonymous said…
Probably the reason why this old building is in that shape can be either because there is no clear ownership on it (the complicated real estate ownership history in Albania), or because the inhabitants are waiting for a 'good offer' from the construction companies (in order to built a concrete monster there).
As I see it, either way there is no hope it will remain or mainteined... it's a pitty because it really reminds me of 'the not-so-old Tirana'.

OMIT, thanks for the picture!
2:24 pm
olli said…
Welcome everyone. Anyone any suggestions when these houses might have been built?
5:16 pm
Adela_Radu said…
By the style of the roof and windows, they look very much like other utilitarian architecture that I saw in Serbia and Ex-Soviet Moldova. My guess about the time period when they were built would be between the 50's and 60's when we were in good terms with Yugoslavia and Soviet Union.
10:38 pm
The PC said…
Definitely communist era.

Most older ("traditional") Albanian homes, were destroyed during communism and replaced with these monsters. I hope a few will survive the high-rise era.

This has happened everywhere. In Lushnja, there is only one preserved traditional home; The House of Lushnje. Until I looked into the history of the place I did not even realize that there were other buildings in town before that communist crap littered the area. Even though my great-grandparents lived in one. very sad!

Let's not even get into all the churches and mosques that were destroyed.

So yeah, although concrete buildings might not be ideal, they sure beat old communist architecture.
1:05 am
Anonymous said…
OMIT,
I was just curious where about is this house? Roughly! I don't seem to remeber it and it annoys me when bits and parts of my old home towne escape my memory.
Thanks a lot for the pictures and your commentary.
P.S.
Definitely 50's to early 60's. By mid-60's the commies abandoned the tiled roofs (tjegulla) and switched to flat "tarraca-s" covered in "katrama"
4:34 pm
Anonymous said…
Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!
4:12 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dy Rame Per Tirane

I was watching Top Channel last night, first the news, then Fiks Fare. According to them Tirana's citizens now have a choice not only between Rama and Olldashi, but also between Rama and Rama. A minor right-wing faction, Parti 'Balli Kombetar' , submitted papers to the election authorities registering their candidate, Akile Rama. The people on Fiks Fare got hold of the papers and sent a reporter and camera team to the address listed for Mr A Rama. After much ringing of the bell the gate was reluctantly opened by a middle-aged woman who refused to speak to the reporter and tried to close the gate on her. Back in the studio Saimiri and Doctori - the two presenters of Fiks Fare - revealed that Mr Akile Rama was 73 years old, in hospital, and did not know he was now a candidate for mayor. They also compared two documents - the papers submitted on his behalf, and a genuine document he had signed. The signatures were not even remotely similar. There was an interview with the lea...
4 comments
Read more

Albania and the Perils of the 21st Century

Another article on religion in Albania appeared yesterday. Patrick Poole, writing in the American Thinker , argues that Saudi funding for the construction of mosques and the training of imams is a threat to Albania, since these mosques and imams reflect the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam dominant in Saudi Arabia.
34 comments
Read more

Only Way is Up

Chatting with a taxi driver while back in Belfast a few months ago, he was intrigued when I told him that I was living in Albania. Did I think it was worth investing in property there, he enquired. Not unless you're prepared to risk losing your money, I replied. By the end of the journey he was considering Bulgaria instead. Despite the risks, some people are starting to invest in Albanian property. The Daily Telegraph reports on Ian Warburton who recently spent 29,000 GBP (around 40,000 EUR) on a one-bedroom apartment in a new development in Tirana. "Given its location, I don't see how it can fail to work," he said. The development is called Terra Nova and the apartments are being actively marketed as an investment opportunity by Barrasford and Bird , a UK property company. Here is their sales pitch for Albania: Albania shares the same stunning coastline as Croatia and Montenegro. However, Albania has better weather and prices are about a quarter of those compa...
15 comments
Read more