Albania has transformed the former dictator's museum into a technology center

Tirana – A museum built in the 1980s in downtown Tirana in honor of Albanian communist dictator Enver Hoxha has received a new purpose: it is now a computer training center for young people. This was reported by the Reuters agency, which stated that the last vestige of the isolated and repressive past had been removed from the Albanian capital.

In the building, personal items and giant photographs of Hoxha were once displayed, who cut Albania off from the surrounding world for 40 years during his harsh Stalinist regime. Although he expanded literacy and healthcare, he left most Albanians in poverty.

Now, the former museum, which has been redesigned by Dutch architect Winy Maas, is preparing to host hundreds of young Albanians interested in education in computer technology and programming. According to the Albanian government, this is part of efforts to tighten connections between the Balkan country and the European Union.

The original architects, including Hoxha's daughter Pranvera, designed the building in the shape of a pyramid celebrating the deceased leader as an Egyptian pharaoh. The museum was completed in 1988, three years after Hoxha's death and two years before the fall of the communist government and the onset of democracy.

Leon Çika, one of the original curators of the museum, stated that by the time the building was completed and regimes controlled by the Soviet Union were beginning to crumble throughout Eastern Europe, he already sensed that the end of the monument to communism in Albania was near.

After the chaotic fall of the communist regime, children used the walls of the museum, which resemble rays and were preserved during the renovation, as a slide, as there were no playgrounds in the Albanian capital at that time.

The reconstructed circular exterior features a staircase that local and international visitors can climb to enjoy panoramic views of Tirana, which has since become a modern bustling city. Inside, blocks piled almost to the ceiling will serve as classrooms.

For many years, Albanians disagreed on what to do with the building. Some demanded its demolition in light of Hoxha's repressive legacy, while others wanted to preserve it in its original form as an architectural icon of the Albanian capital.

After the regime's fall, the pyramid hosted a nightclub, a television station, and even NATO representatives during the alliance's intervention aimed at ending the war in neighboring Kosovo in 1999.

"It was an architectural monument like no other," said Ilda Qazimllari, director of investments at Tirana City Hall. "On the other hand, the original idea was a mausoleum to celebrate (Hoxha), and that's why people wanted to erase the only symbol that remained from the communist times," she added.