In the end, all that cement mixing was for nothing. Their construction further isolated the country and drained its finances and energy, leaving it one of Europe’s poorest countries. (For an idea of how pervasive the program was, see the recent documentary Mushrooms of Concrete.) So from the 1960s through the early 1980s, he erected thousands of concrete fortresses around the country, ranging in size from two-person igloos to multi-room underground lairs. (These Brutalist monuments salute a country that no longer exists.)īrutal to his citizens and notoriously paranoid, Hoxha believed neighboring countries Greece and Yugoslavia as well as former Soviet allies wanted to invade Albania. The domed tchotchkes pay wry tribute to the more than 173,000 bunkers ( bunkerët) that once dotted Albania and its capital, bleak reminders of the 1941-1985 reign of dictator Enver Hoxha. Until a decade or two ago, the most common souvenir you’d tote home from Tirana would probably have been an alabaster bunker ashtray, not a selfie taken in front of a colorful building. A paranoid dictator and his bunker obsession Around Tirana, history museums fill former military bunkers and galleries dot neighborhoods once reserved for party officials. Public art and paint aren’t the only forces moving this small Balkan capital beyond the oppression of the Communist era. “It revived hope that had been lost in my city.” Residents and tourists now use the rainbow-tinted edifices as selfie backdrops, and the government claimed the paint helped crime go down and local pride go up. “When colors came out everywhere, a mood of change started transforming the spirit of people,” said Rama in a TED Talk.
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