Ethnographic Museum — Remembering Hoxha Without Preserving His House
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Transcript
The Ethnographic Museum stands on the site of the house where Enver Hoxha was born. The original building burned in 1966 and the structure here is a later reconstruction in traditional style. That fact makes the stop unusually revealing. Gjirokastër markets Ottoman domestic heritage, yet it was also the birthplace of the dictator who ruled communist Albania from 1944 until 1985. The museum does not preserve his childhood home as an authentic relic; instead, a reconstructed house presents regional material culture. The mismatch is worth noticing. Memory is selective. Cities decide which physical layers to rebuild, which to reinterpret and which political associations to push into the background.