Checkpoint — Attraction in Tirana Municipality

As beautiful as Tirana and the whole of Albania might be, it is also a country that has been left with the heritage of the harshest communist regime in Europe. The society still feels its influence and in order to get rid of a painful past, we believe that knowing and understanding it is crucial. Thus, Postblloku (Checkpoint) is a memorial to Albanian communist isolation, conceived as an artistic installation and created by Fatos Lubonja and Ardian Isufi, Lubonja having suffered the atrocities of the Hoxha regime first hand himself. Situated in the main boulevard “Dëshmorët e Kombit”, right opposite the Prime Ministry, this installation includes one small concrete bunker, the remaining supports of a mining gallery in the notorious labour camp Spaç and a piece from the Berlin Wall, taken from Potsdamer Platz. I particularly like this area because it is surrounded by green and during a sunny day there is no bigger contrast than the shine of the sun’s rays between the leaves warming up the hard concrete surface that has witnessed the worst kind of human misery. I like to descend the stairs down to the bunker; being able to see the feet of people passing by is an exceptional experience. Postbllok is surely an experience that a visitor...

Postblloku – Checkpoint, is a memorial to Communist Isolation and commemorates the country’s political prisoners who suffered under the communist regime.

It is situated on the main boulevard opposite the government building. It was conceived as an artistic installation and co-created by former dissident Fatos Lubonja and artist Ardian Isufi. Lubonja had suffered thirteen years in hard labour and another four in solitary confinement, for being critical of Hoxha’s regime.

The monument consists of three main elements: one of the small concrete defensive bunkers that litter the country; several concrete supports from the mine at the notorious Spaç labour camp where thousands of political prisoners suffered between 1968 and 1990; and a brightly painted section of the Berlin Wall from Postdamer Platz.

Spaç labour camp (pronounced spach), was a high-security labor camp located in an isolated canyon in the Mirdita region in north-central part of the Alania. The location of the camp was so remote and its climate so harsh that, although there was barbed-wire fencing, there were no actual perimeter walls were built. The other reason for its location was its proximity to a copper mine, where prisoners could be used as...

This memorial commemorates the victims of the Communist regime in Albania. The memorial features a piece of the Berlin wall, a mushroom shaped bunker, and pillars from the notorious Spaç labor camp. The memorial is the work of the writer and former political dissident Fatos Lubonja and the painter Ardian Isufi. The bunker is in its original position, guarding the main entrance of the segregated residential block where the late dictator Enver Hoxha and the most senior communist officials lived...