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Tirana

Et'hem Bey Mosque

This peculiar example of Islamic art was built between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th c. by the descendants of Sulejman Pasha Bargjini, an Albanian general and governor of the Ottoman Empire (the founder of the old mosque that was destroyed during the WW2). The construction was started in 1790s by Molla Bey and finished in 1819-1821 by his son Haxhi Ethem Bey. Its unique frescoes, freely inspired by Turkish models, depict plants, trees and imaginary cities. 
The prayer space is small, I would say it was the smallest historically important mosque I have ever seen. But it was a place full of life, a place with a community of faithful (also, it happened to be a Ramadan when I was there). Which is indeed not so very obvious observation to make, since the former dictator, Enver Hoxha, was proud of having transformed Albania into "the first atheist country in the world". But as soon as the winds of History changed direction, the religion is back.

Gjirokastër

the Castle of ​Gjirokastër

in a Bektashi turbe

Albania became part of the Ottoman empire in 1417, and progressively took on its share of Islamic history. Bektashism, often defined as a liberal branch of Shia Islam, was born in Iran in the second half of the 13th century. It became popular in southern Albania much later, during the 18th and 19th centuries. Two main babas, or saints, whose remains are still revered in the citadell of Girocastra, are Baba Sulltan and Baba Kapllan; they lived here in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Elbasan

Kisha e Shën Mërisë
Eastern Orthodox church and monastery in Elbasan (15-16th c.)

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