Great park of Tirana

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Sunset over the lake

The Great Park ( Albanian  Parku i madh i Tiranës ) is a city ​​park in the Albanian capital Tirana . The park also includes the “artificial lake”, which is why it has also been called Lake Park (Parku i Liqenit) in recent years . The park is a popular place to relax both with locals and visitors to the city.

The park has an area of ​​234 or 232  hectares . Two prime ministers have signed decrees to protect the park.

Big Park (Tirana)
Big park
Big park
Map of Tiranas

Location and terrain

Tirana from the south with the lake and the park in the foreground

The park connects to the city center in the south and for a long time also formed the southern end of the city. It comprises a hilly area in the southeast of the plane of Tirana, the above the main building of the University of Tirana a height of 147  m above sea level. A. and in the southeast of the site a height of over 180  m above sea level. A. achieved.

To the west of the hill is the lake, behind which in the south-west is over 300  m above sea level. A. high hill range rises. On the northeast flank of this range of hills are the city's zoo and botanical garden , which are also part of the Great Park. In front of it runs the Unaza e Madhe ring road , which borders the park as an extension of the A3 motorway in the south-west. In the south the park borders on the suburb Sauk . In the southeast is the non-public area of Pallati i Brigadave . The Rruga e Elbasanit runs along the eastern border of the park. Across this street is the “Heroes' Cemetery” (Varrezat e Dëshmorëve të Kombit) with the monumental statue of Mother Albania .

To the north of the lake there is an outdoor swimming pool just below the dam , with several sports fields behind it.

The hills are forested. An avenue of cypress trees stretches along the flat ridge of the hill by the lake .

lake

Dam of the lake

The Artificial Lake of Tirana Albanian  Liqeni Artificial i Tiranës has an area of ​​55 hectares. It was built between 1958 and 1960. The dam was raised by "volunteers". The dam , which has been repeatedly increased over the years and is now 17 meters high, is around 500 meters long. The lake is around one kilometer long and around 600 meters wide. Its volume is 1.7 million cubic meters and the catchment area covers 548 hectares. In addition, water from Lake Farka used to be supplied through a 5.5 kilometer long canal.

In the past there have been repeated problems with the stability of the dam.

There are also problems with water quality. The circulation in the lake is particularly bad in summer . In addition, there is pollution of the water from physically large waste.

Facilities

Plants and structures

Path along the lake

In recent years, numerous restaurants have been built, especially by the lake and in the north-east of the park. For visitors to the park, there are not only paths but also a few sports facilities such as fitness equipment for weight training , a jogging path and a non-public tennis court . The open-air theater on the slope to the lake has hardly been used in recent years.

church

A little above this in the northern area on the back of the hill is the church of St. Prokopios ( Albanian  Kisha e Shën Prokopit ). The former church was replaced by an excursion restaurant in 1967 when religions were banned in Albania . After the collapse of the communist system , the property was returned to the Orthodox Church , which has since used the restaurant as a place of worship again. Destroyed in 1967, the church was consecrated in 1945 as a replacement for the old Prokopioskirche from the 1780s, the first Orthodox church in Tirana, which stood on the territory of the University of the Arts and was demolished when the Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit was built.

Pallati i Brigadave

To the east of the park is the Pallati i Brigadave , a residence planned as a royal palace, construction of which began in 1937. Today the building is used by the government for state visits, receptions and other festive occasions. The rebuilt mausoleum of the Albanian royal family is located in the spacious garden of the palace .

More buildings

Like the main building of the University of Tirana , which closes the southern end of Mother Teresa Square on the northern edge of the park , another large building in the park dates back to Italian times: the lavish construction of the Faculty of Geology and Mining, in 1940 / 41 built by the architect Cesare Valle as a boarding school for girls. This building is located at the northeast end of the park, also slightly elevated. Today it was densely covered by trees, but it used to be free with a view of Tirana. The elongated rotunda forms a quarter circle; other planned wings were never erected, but a large outbuilding on the mountain side.

In addition to the restaurants and cafés, various other buildings have been erected within the park in recent years. These include the Hotel Sheraton next to the university, some residential and high-rise buildings and a private school.

Tirana Zoo

Overgrown area in the zoo

The Tirana Zoo ( Albanian  Kopshti Zoologjik i Tiranës ) is repeatedly criticized for not keeping animals appropriately. The American nature conservation organization Mother Nature Network called it a "prison for animals" and included it in a 2011 list of the six saddest zoos in the world . The zoo, opened in 1971, has an original area of ​​5.97 hectares, of which around 20% is water. The last lioness died at the end of 2014; Back then there were still a few llamas, bears, wolves, cats, a mare, a buffalo, a goat, a sheep, rabbits, ducks, a few chickens, a swan, an eagle, a falcon and ostriches living in the zoo.

Tirana Botanical Garden

Plant of the botanical garden

The Tirana Botanical Garden ( Albanian  Kopshti Botany ) was laid out in 1964 on an area of ​​14.5 hectares and opened to the public in 1971. Around 1400 different plant species and varieties grow in the park, representing almost a third of the 3250 plant species in Albania; at times there were even 2000 species. It is the only botanical garden in the country. It is maintained by the University of Tirana . Parts of the site have already been built over with new residential buildings and the new bypass road Unaza e madhe has been built on the northern edge of the Botanical Garden in the former entrance area .

Monuments, graves & cemeteries

Tomb of the Frashëri brothers

A little above the church of St. Prokopios, less than two hundred meters away, there are several graves. A tomb commemorates Faik Konica , a publicist who campaigned for Albania's independence in the Rilindja movement. In his American exile he later worked as a diplomat. He died in Washington, DC in 1942. His remains were moved from a cemetery in Boston to Tirana after the end of communism in 1998 .

Right next door are the graves of the brothers Abdyl and Naim Frashëri , to which a bust of Sami Frashëri has also been added. The remains of the two national poets and freedom fighters were brought to Albania from Istanbul in 1937 .

To the west of the complex with the four patriots is the German military cemetery with graves and memorial stones for Wehrmacht soldiers . A few meters south of the Frashëri graves, the British War Cemetery has been commemorating 46 British soldiers who died fighting for the Albanian resistance in Albania since 1995 . Their graves are elsewhere, mostly in a mass grave near the university.

A simple lapidary is still standing next to today's tombs , reminding us that the Heroes' Cemetery was located here from 1945 to 1972, before it was moved to the south-eastern outskirts of the city, adjacent to the park. A little more than a hundred meters further southeast, beyond a small playground, there is a somewhat larger lapidary. He recalls the founding of the Debatik group, an association of young anti-fascists, in February 1942. A sculpture stands a little to the west of the church; it shows a young woman who gives a partisan a drink. Remains of a lapidary with no recognizable inscription can be found at the eastern end of the dam.

In 2020, a memorial was unveiled in the park commemorating the persecution of the Jews and their rescue by Albanians during World War II.

history

The urban planning for Tirana, which was worked out by Gherardo Bosio from 1939, saw - in addition to the splendid boulevard and the building ensemble around Mother Teresa Square (then Piazza del Littorio ) - for the hill beyond the main building of the university (then Casa di Fascio ) in front of a park. This was, however, rather small in relation to the current facility and was limited to the areas between Mother Teresa Square and today's lake. The whole area south of the Lana, including the area of ​​the park, was hardly built on and outside the city.

After the Second World War , the rather bare hill was gradually greened: in 1946, poplars and acacias were planted. The city planners have planned a spatial separation of residential, work and industrial areas with the south of the city as a recreational area. In the mid-1950s, planning began for a large park with a lake, which was the first to be tackled. Around 1960 the Bulgarian architects Nedeljko Radoslawow , Scheko Schekow and the Albanian Maks Velo worked on plans for the park and the lake. After Albania broke with the other Eastern Bloc countries in 1961, the work was carried out under Albanian leadership. 120 types of trees, bushes and flowers were planted.

For a long time a popular retreat for lovers, the park was also called Parku i Puthjeve , Park of Kisses .

New houses on the western edge of the lake

From 1992 uncontrolled activities began around the park. There are complaints about concreting the area. Since 2000 in particular, numerous apartment houses have been built south of the lake. A part of the botanical garden was built over with buildings and the new bypass road. In 2015, activists repeatedly protested against the construction work around the lake and the park.

In 2009, work was carried out to upgrade parts of the park and the zoo. The government's plans from 2015 to make the entrance to the park more representative have met with fierce criticism. In autumn 2015, the city administration and government announced revised projects to upgrade the park. [obsolete] These include, for example, the extension of the park area by 5.5 hectares instead of new magnificent buildings: The area of ​​the Republican Guard adjacent to the northwest is to be freed of buildings and made accessible to the public. The relocation of Roma families who had settled south of the lake in emergency shelters is also planned.

Construction work on a playground in February 2016 sparked violent protests, which resulted in violent clashes with police. Environmental activists and citizens criticized the felling of trees, spoke of "concreting" the park and expected the construction of new restaurants, which was immediately denied by the mayor's office. The large playground blends in well with the park today.

Web links

Commons : Great Park of Tirana  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ In contrast to all other sources, Ballo names an area of ​​35.5 hectares.
  2. ↑ The year 1978 is often given as the date of the transfer (for example Fjalori Enciklopedik Shqiptar , p. 289)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Plani i përgjithshëm vendor. (PDF) Bashkia Tirana, January 2013, accessed on January 3, 2016 (Albanian).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Akademia e Shkencave e RPSSH (ed.): Fjalor enciklopedik shqiptar . Tirana 1985, Parku i madh i Tiranës, p. 796 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Gazmend Bujari: Z. Rama, liqenin po e merr lumi! In: Gazeta Dita. January 5, 2015, accessed January 5, 2016 (Albanian).
  4. ↑ Albanian military map 1: 50,000 "K-34-100-B Tirana". 2nd edition, Tirana 1981
  5. ↑ a b Çfarë të vizitoni në Tiranë. (No longer available online.) In: Tirana Online. Archived from the original on February 11, 2008 ; Retrieved January 3, 2016 (Albanian).
  6. ^ A b c d Fitim Ballo: Technical Report - Project of the Hydrologic Rehabilitation of the National Park of Tirana Lake. (PDF) In: Lake Park Research Report. Atelier Albania, January 2015, pp. 45–74 , accessed on January 3, 2016 (English, Chapter “3. Park Rehabilitating Proposal - Water Surface”).
  7. ↑ The municipality of Tirana, Albania. In: Environmental Local Authorities Interbalkan Network. Retrieved January 9, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Nis pastrimi i liqenit Artificial në kryeqytet. In: Gazeta Shqip. September 8, 2015, accessed January 9, 2016 (Albanian).
  9. ↑ Gazmend Bakiu: Tirana e vjetër . Mediaprint, Tirana 2013, ISBN 978-9928-08101-8 , Kisha e Shën Prokopit, p. 97 f .
  10. ↑ Spiro Vasil Mëhilli: Tirana (1920-1944) . Mediaprint, Tirana 2014, ISBN 978-9928-08155-1 , Kisha Ortodokse, p. 209 .
  11. ^ Armand Vokshi: Tracce dell'Architettura Italiana in Albania 1925–1943 . DNA, Florence 2014, ISBN 978-88-903947-4-4 , Convitto feminile - Tirana, p. 210 ff .
  12. ↑ Dorjana Bezat: Horror në të Kopshtin Zoologjik Tiranës. In: Shekulli Online. March 24, 2015, accessed April 14, 2019 (Albanian).
  13. ↑ 6 of the saddest zoos in the world: Tirana Zoo. In: Mother Nature Network. May 16, 2011, accessed on January 4, 2016 (English): “[…] most of its residents are kept in small, featureless rooms lined with hospital tiles. [...] fence to keep people from throwing food and cigarettes into the cages [...] and is grossly underfunded. "
  14. ↑ Agjencia Kombëtare e Turizmit: Parku Zoologjik ( Memento from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ Dorjana Bezat: Ngordh edhe luani i fundit në Kopshtin Zoologjik. In: Shekulli online. November 25, 2014, accessed April 14, 2019 (Albanian).
  16. ↑ a b c d Koha Jonë : "Mushkeria" e Tiranes, drejt betonizimit. In: Info Arkiva. Retrieved January 3, 2016 (Albanian).
  17. ^ Liri Dinga: The Botanic Garden of Tirana, Albania. (No longer available online.) In: Botanic Gardens Conservation International. August 1995, archived from the original on August 2, 2017 ; Retrieved January 4, 2016 (English, Volume 2, Number 5). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bgci.org
  18. ↑ Për Kopshtin Botany. (No longer available online.) In: Universiteti i Tiranës, Faketi i Shkencave të Natyrës. Archived from the original on October 1, 2016 ; Retrieved January 4, 2016 (Albanian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fshn.edu.al
  19. ↑ a b EDEN Center Albania: The National Botanical Garden in Albania is in Danger. In: YEE Newsletter. Youth and Environment Europe, accessed January 4, 2016 .
  20. ↑ Zona e liqenit 2004 & 2015. In: Imgur. Retrieved January 4, 2016 (picture).
  21. ^ Robert Elsie : Introduction . In: Bejtullah Destani (ed.): Faik Konitza. Selected correspondence 1896-1942 . The Center for Albanian Studies, London 2000, ISBN 1-873928-18-1 ( PDF [accessed January 3, 2016]).
  22. ^ Robert Elsie : Albanian Literature: A Short History . IBTauris, London 2005, ISBN 1-84511-031-5 , pp. 79 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  23. ^ Tirana Park Memorial Cemetery. In: Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved January 3, 2016 .
  24. ^ A b Vincent WJ van Gerven Oei: Lapidari . Volume I. punctum books, 2015, ISBN 978-0-692-35046-1 , pp. 153 ( book can be downloaded from the publisher's website - Open Access ).
  25. ↑ Fatos Beqiri: Image of the monument. In: Panoramio. December 2, 2015, accessed January 9, 2016 .
  26. ↑ Vizion Plus: Memorial për Hebrenjtë / Vepra kujton sakrificën e shqiptarëve on YouTube , July 9, 2020, accessed on July 13, 2020.
  27. ^ Eliana Mauro: L'architettura dei giardini del ventennio in Albania . In: Simone Gismondi, Silvia Frassi (eds.): Architetti e ingegneri italiani in Albania . Edifir, Florence 2012, ISBN 978-88-7970-583-7 , pp. 149-155 .
  28. ^ Armand Vokshi: Tracce dell'Architettura Italiana in Albania 1925–1943 . DNA, Florence 2014, ISBN 978-88-903947-4-4 , Capitolo III. I nuovi piani regulatori e la nuova architettura italiana in Albanian, 1939 - '43, p. 150 ff .
  29. ^ Berthold Hesselmann, Manfred Kahr, Marion Niederberghaus: On the geography of the Albanian city . In: Cay Lienau, Günter Prinzing (Ed.): Albania - Contributions to geography and history . Publishing house Dr. Cay Lienau, Münster 1986, ISBN 3-9801245-0-9 , p. 245 .
  30. ^ Atelier Albania: Lake Park Research Report. (PDF) January 2015, p. 1 , accessed on January 5, 2016 (English, chapter “General Information”).
  31. ↑ Lediona Braho: Vazhdon masakra te Parku i Liqenit. In: Shekulli online. April 6, 2015, accessed April 14, 2019 (Albanian).
  32. ↑ Çfarë kemi arritur së bashku gjatë këtyre viteve! (PDF) In: Bashkia Tirana. 2009, p. 6 , accessed January 5, 2016 (Albanian).
  33. ↑ Rama vendos me 4 shtator për betonizimi e hyrjes në Parkun të Liqenit. (No longer available online.) In: civitas online. August 28, 2015, archived from the original on January 9, 2016 ; Retrieved January 9, 2016 (Albanian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.civitas.al
  34. ^ Presentation of the master plan and the entry of Tirana Lake project. In: Këshilli i Qarkut Tirane. November 2, 2015, accessed January 9, 2016 .
  35. ↑ Fatjona Mejdini: Albanian Children's Park protest Turns Violent. In: Balkan Insight . February 22, 2016, accessed April 14, 2016 .
  36. ^ Feargus O'Sullivan: Rebuilding a City from the Eye of a Child. In: Citylab. December 17, 2018, accessed January 4, 2019 .

Coordinates: 41 ° 18 ′ 40 ″  N , 19 ° 49 ′ 32 ″  E