Tirana

Many people in Tirana walk to where they want to go.

The big square in the middle is only for people on foot. Buses carry people around the city. Planes fly in and out of an airport near the city.

After communism ended, private cars became very popular, and for years Skanderbeg Square was used mostly for traffic and parking. When the square was rebuilt, cars were moved out and parked underground, and the space was given to people on foot, buses and trees. Together with nearby streets, it now forms a very large pedestrian area.

An international airport serves the city. In 2021 Albania signed a contract to rebuild the railway between Tirana and the port of Durrës, more than 34 kilometers long, with a new 5-kilometer line planned to Tirana International Airport.

Publicspace.org, which documents the European Prize for Urban Public Space, notes that the end of communism set off a wave of enthusiasm for private cars. The 2016–17 redesign of Skanderbeg Square deliberately took space from traffic, concealing parked vehicles in an underground car park and keeping the square for pedestrians, public transport and planting; the esplanade is now part of what that page calls the biggest pedestrian zone in the Balkans.

For longer journeys, Britannica lists an international airport and rail connections to Durrës and Laç. In 2021 Albania's state railways signed the first contract for the country's first large-scale railway overhaul, supported by a €36.9 million EBRD loan and an EU grant of up to €35.5 million: more than 34 km of track between Tirana and Durrës, Albania's largest port, was to be rehabilitated and a new 5 km line built to Tirana International Airport.

Summer in Tirana is warm and dry.

Winter is mild, and that is when most rain falls. Tall mountains stand behind the city. From high up, you can see green parks and a lake.

Albania has the kind of climate found around the Mediterranean Sea: warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters. The west of the country, where Tirana lies on a plain not far from the coast, gets warm air from the sea, which keeps temperatures more moderate than in the mountains of the east.

Rain is plentiful in Albania but uneven, and about 40 percent of it falls in winter. Tirana sits only about 110 meters above sea level, and mountains rise beyond the city.

Britannica describes Albania's climate as Mediterranean, with warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters, but with marked local variation: the western lowlands, under the influence of warm maritime air from the Adriatic and Ionian seas, have more moderate temperatures than the continental, mountainous east. Precipitation is abundant but uneven, from more than 2,500 mm a year in the North Albanian Alps to less than 760 mm along much of the eastern border, and some 40 percent falls in winter.

Tirana itself lies at about 110 m on the plain of the Ishm River, 27 km from the coast, so it sits in the milder, lowland west rather than the colder mountain east.

People in Tirana like to be outside.

They stroll, chat and meet friends in the big square. Some buildings are painted in stripes and bright colors. Teenagers learn to make cartoons and robots inside the Pyramid.

Many people in Tirana spend time outdoors, walking and meeting others in the streets. Skanderbeg Square is used for all sorts of things, from morning prayers to evening concerts, and sometimes local farmers hold a market there.

After 2000, the mayor had gray apartment blocks painted in bright colors and thousands of trees planted. The old Pyramid has become a place for young people: inside, the TUMO center gives teenagers aged 12 to 18 free after-school classes in software, robotics, animation, music and film. The city also has museums, a national theater, a concert hall and a university founded in 1957.

Publicspace.org observes that Tirana's public space is used intensively, spontaneously and informally; after the redesign, Skanderbeg Square hosts everything from morning prayers to evening concerts and occasional farmers' markets. A Princeton University case study of Edi Rama's years as mayor (2000–2010) records that he repaired city hall, cleared public spaces, painted colorless communist-era apartment blocks in bright hues and planted thousands of trees.

The Pyramid, opened in 1988 as a museum for Enver Hoxha, later served as a radio station, nightclub, conference venue and, during the 1999 Kosovo War, a NATO base. MVRDV's transformation, inaugurated on October 16, 2023, added steps up its sloping sides, a lift and one slide, and colorful boxes for cafés and studios. About half the spaces house TUMO Tirana, a nonprofit offering free after-school education to 12- to 18-year-olds. The city also has museums, a national institute of folklore, a national theater, a concert hall and the University of Tirana (1957).