Tirana’s fast transformation has surprised the head of the travel section at one of the largest German-language Swiss dailies, Tages-Anzeiger. Paulina Szczesniak, graduated in arts history, wrote a feature story on Tirana’s transformation after visiting the Albanian capital recently.

“After decades of rigid, angular regime architecture, there is a certain amount of catching up to do in Tirana. Luckily: we have a huge crush on it. Why? Because Tirana is sexy in a casual way. Full of ideas and where food is also great,” Szczesniak said.

The Swiss media says that once the country’s former communist dictator was so proud of the Hotel Tirana International as the city’s highest tower, “Tirana’s Skanderbeg Square is currently undergoing open-heart surgery, so to speak: construction is taking place around the square as if there were no tomorrow.”

The new high-rise buildings on the central Skanderbeg Square are all unconventional and playful, being built in the shape of a huge bust of the national hero Skanderbeg or Albania’s map.

The iconic Pyramid building has attracted the journalist’s attention, saying that from a mausoleum to commemorate the communist dictator the site has been transformed into a centre of technology.

Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj has posted the stories on Albanian tourism by the French and Swiss media, “Je Papote”, “Voyage Privé” and “Tages-Anzeiger” that describe Albania as a hidden treasure of the Mediterranean.

/u.sh/