City Hotel in Modernist Style K-A

A tourist centre comprising a hotel with restaurant. The building was designed in the early 1980s by Valentina Pistoli — Albania’s first female architect, educated in Sofia, Bulgaria — alongside numerous other hotels and public buildings she created across the country. The site chosen for construction was a tall, scenic rocky hill commanding views over the entire city and the panorama of the reservoir surrounded by mountains.

The hotel was completed by 1988 but opened only in 1991, after the fall of the communist dictatorship. It operated for just five years before being closed and abandoned. Over those years and the ones that followed, the hotel was completely stripped bare. Today it is a popular hangout for local youth. The building is disfigured by graffiti and nearly all decorative elements have been destroyed.

An avenue of birch trees planted around the hotel survives. Birches do not grow wild in Albania, but are occasionally found planted along the streets of some towns. There is no security; entry is free.