AlbaniaShqipëria

The western Balkans were home to the Illyrians, a group of tribes whose kingdoms fought Macedon and Rome. Many Albanians consider them their ancestors, and the Albanian language — its own branch of the Indo-European family — is often linked by scholars to Illyrian or a related ancient Balkan language, though the evidence is thin.

Greek colonists founded trading cities on the coast: Epidamnos (Durrës) and Apollonia in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, and Buthrotum (Butrint) facing Corfu. Rome conquered the region in the 2nd century BC. The Via Egnatia, starting at Durrës, linked the Adriatic to Constantinople and made the coast a gateway between Italy and the East; Julius Caesar and Pompey fought near Durrës in 48 BC.

Butrint is the best place to feel these layers: a Greek theatre, a Roman forum and baths, a 6th-century baptistery with mosaic floors, Byzantine walls and a Venetian tower, all in a lagoon forest. Apollonia, where the young Octavian (later Augustus) studied, stands on a hill of olive trees near Fier.

After Rome came Byzantium, Bulgarian and Serbian rulers, Venice on the coast and local Albanian lords. In the 15th century the Ottomans advanced. Gjergj Kastrioti, known as Skanderbeg, had served the Sultan before returning in 1443 to lead an alliance of Albanian lords. From the castle of Krujë he held off Ottoman armies for twenty-five years with help from Venice, Naples and the Pope. He died in 1468 and Krujë fell ten years later.

Skanderbeg became the national hero: his black double-headed eagle is on the flag, his statue stands in every major square, and his helmet is on the Skanderbeg Museum's logo. Under the Ottomans, who ruled for more than four centuries, a majority of Albanians gradually converted to Islam, many through the Sufi Bektashi order, whose world headquarters is now in Tirana.

Albanians rose high in the empire: several grand viziers were Albanian, as was Muhammad Ali, founder of modern Egypt. Local pashas such as Ali Pasha of Tepelena ruled nearly independent fiefdoms from Ioannina. Berat and Gjirokastër grew as Ottoman towns of tall stone houses; both are now UNESCO sites.

The Albanian national movement grew from the League of Prizren (1878) and writers who standardised the alphabet at the Congress of Manastir in 1908, choosing Latin letters. On 28 November 1912, as the Balkan Wars tore apart Ottoman Europe, Ismail Qemali raised the flag in Vlorë and declared independence. The great powers recognised a smaller Albania than Albanians had claimed, leaving many in Kosovo and western Macedonia outside.

The new state was fragile. After years of chaos, Ahmet Zogu seized power in 1924 and crowned himself King Zog I in 1928. He modernised a little and borrowed heavily from Mussolini's Italy, which invaded in April 1939. During the Second World War Albania was occupied by Italy and then Germany; communist partisans led by Enver Hoxha took power in November 1944.

One wartime story matters to Albanians: almost the entire Jewish population, plus Jewish refugees, survived because Albanian families hid them under besa — the code of honour to protect a guest. Albania ended the war with more Jews than it had at the start, and Yad Vashem has honoured dozens of Albanian families.

For four decades Albania was ruled by Enver Hoxha, one of Europe's harshest communist dictators. He broke with Yugoslavia in 1948, with the Soviet Union in 1961 and with China in 1978, leaving Albania alone and almost sealed off. Private cars were banned, travel abroad was forbidden, religion was outlawed in 1967, and the secret police, the Sigurimi, watched everyone.

Tens of thousands were imprisoned or sent to labour camps such as Spaç, and thousands were executed. Fearing invasion from all sides, Hoxha ordered some 170,000 concrete bunkers built across the country — on beaches, in fields and on mountainsides. Many remain, and some have been painted, turned into cafés or museums.

Tirana's centre still carries the regime's architecture: the Pyramid, built as a museum to Hoxha and now a youth tech centre; the Blloku district, once reserved for the party elite; and the vast nuclear bunkers turned into the Bunk'Art museums. The House of Leaves, the former secret-police building, documents surveillance in chilling detail.

When the regime fell in 1990–91, tens of thousands fled on overcrowded ships to Italy; photographs of the freighter Vlora packed with 20,000 people in Bari became an image of the era. Democracy arrived in chaos, with a collapsing economy and emigration to Greece and Italy that has never stopped.

In 1997 a set of pyramid schemes collapsed, wiping out the savings of a large share of the population. The country slid into near civil war: armouries were looted, the state lost control of the south, and an Italian-led force restored order. The legacy includes widespread distrust of banks and a preference for cash that visitors still notice.

In 1999 Albania took in around half a million refugees from Kosovo. From the 2000s the country stabilised, built roads, joined NATO in 2009 and became an EU candidate in 2014. Religion returned quietly; today Albanians often describe their faith as tolerant, mixed and personal.

Edi Rama, a painter and former Tirana mayor who had the city's grey blocks painted in bright colours, has been prime minister since 2013 and won a fourth term in May 2025. The government aims to complete EU accession talks by about 2027 — check progress. Corruption, emigration and the power of construction interests are the main domestic debates.

Tourism has transformed the economy. Visitor numbers have soared since 2019, led by Italians, Poles, Kosovars and increasingly people from across Europe and beyond. The Riviera, once a string of fishing villages, now has resorts; a new international airport at Vlorë and a coastal development near Zvërnec have been controversial. Protected areas like the Vjosa Wild River National Park, created in 2023, show the other side of the debate.

For visitors, the result is a country in fast motion: excellent cheap food, open and curious people, informal transport, building sites next to ruins, and prices rising year by year — especially on the coast in August.