Cultural Urbicide of Fascist Architecture in Albania

It happened again. Within ten-months, two important Italian buildings, the National Theater and the Queen Geraldine Maternity Hospital, both listed cultural monuments, were destroyed overnight to be “rebuilt more beautiful and more functional.” For a decade, this phenomenon is deliberately razing important buildings in Albania such as the National Stadium, Cinema 17 Nëntori, Hotel Dajti, and many villas of the 1920s-1930s that belong to an interesting period of the modernization of the Albanian capital. 

Designed by the Italian architect Tito Chioni in the years 1939-1940, as a maternity hospital, the building has preserved this destination since its inception.It happened again. Within ten-months, two important Italian buildings, the National Theater and the Queen Geraldine Maternity Hospital, both listed cultural monuments, were destroyed overnight to be “rebuilt more beautiful and more functional.” For a decade, this phenomenon is deliberately razing important buildings in Albania such as the National Stadium, Cinema 17 Nëntori, Hotel Dajti, and many villas of the 1920s-1930s that belong to an interesting period of the modernization of the Albanian capital. Designed by the Italian architect Tito Chioni in the years 1939-1940, as a maternity hospital, the building has preserved this destination since its inception. Chioni was one of the Italian architects who worked on building the administrative / social center of Tirana in the first half of the twentieth century. Referring to the list of monuments published by the National Heritage Institute, Queen Geraldine Maternity maintains the status of cultural monument of category II a construction with outstanding values mainly for its external facade. The loss of this building, which stores collective memories, emotions, nostalgia, and our common history, is a disaster just as a human loss. 

Most recently in the international architecture world, at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, two of the most prestigious awards were given to two architects: Pritzker Prize to Lacaton and Vassalfor the importance of the notions of re-evaluating buildings and existing urban contexts, as well as reusing and eliminating collapse as a practice in their creative process; and the Golden Lion Prize to Lina Bo Bardi for the notion of architecture as a shared vision of a more social architecture, closer to the community. Albanian architectural reality (which has become cultural in recent years) goes in an opposite direction. In principle, listing a cultural monument of category II means that any intervention can be made only in the interior without compromising the integrity of the volumetric and facades. However, in reality, this protection has completely lost its meaning by now. 

There is a frustrating lack of public information. The demolition of the hospital is a brutal intervention, without transparency, during a pandemic, in violation of the Constitution, of the law on public consultation, and of all the principles of the protection of historical and cultural heritage values. The destruction of the National Theater, the leveling of hundreds of buildings with special status, and cultural monuments and now the maternity hospital, are the reasons why I decided to pursue a second master in cultural heritage studies. But I feel powerless facing the “cultural genocide” that is being done to the Albanian capital’s identity. If the demolition of villas and public buildings built in the 1930s and 1940s continues at the same pace, we will delete the first traces of modernity, its unique rapprochement with European architecture, and the diversified development of the city.