Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone in “Skanderbeg Square”:

 

Gratitude for the remarkable work of the Municipality of Tirana that has given us in a very short time the opportunity to come together, whether for the new Boulevard or for the Renaissance of the “Skanderbeg Square”. A difficult renaissance, but as your eyes show, to all those who have eyes, this renaissance is about to be coronated.

For the sake of truth, although there was a long delay in the project, time was good to the project.

The project that is being finalized today is not entirely the project that was launched many years ago, which was later blocked and replaced with a “diaper” in the centre of Tirana. This is a project that has been developed and now transformed in a fantastic urban metaphor for Albania and the Albanians.

This square has always been a reference point for all those who came to Tirana. It has always been a reference point for all those who get off the train and said: “Let us meet at Skanderbeg!” It has always been a reference point for all those who would take a picture with Skanderbeg just to prove that they had been in Tirana once.

But this square has increasingly been a reference point for the Albanians living outside Albania, for the Albanians of a free and independent Kosovo, for the Albanians of Macedonia, the Albanians of the Presevo Valley, the Albanians of Montenegro, for the Albanians wherever they live.

What the project has earned is not a new dimension in its surface, but rather a new dimension in its content because the Skanderbeg Square will be a unique rug knitted with stones from all Albanian lands, where the stones from Malisheve will be next to those of Konispol, the stones of Mirdite and Tropoje next to those of Manastir, and so on, in a fantastic mosaic that makes this square – I am convinced that the history of contemporary European and international urban planning will talk about this aspect of the square – a unique urban area.

The square has acquired a new dimension in terms of green. The project didn’t have in the beginning such dimension of green, which is also the result of a time when temperature is rising and the necessity to have as much greenery becomes increasingly effective even more in a city like Tirana. Therefore, this site will be unique in this regard because it will be a square built in full respect of history, in full respect of those who conceived it since the very beginning, the founding architects of the modern city of Tirana, Armando Brasini and Florestano Di Fausto, but it will be also a step further, as a square where later generations will leave their imprint.

The greenwood that will surround the square, with vegetation and trees from all the territories of Albania, will be an extraordinary invitation to and a unique attraction for all those who will visit it. Also, it will add value to the international image of Tirana also in the perception of the capital city by renowned and highly respected experts in architecture and urban planning, as a laboratory where a difficult, but not impossible endeavour is being made since long in economic conditions much tougher than those of the countries that have great urban and architectonical developments of our era, and where a square of such fantastic dimension is born in aesthetic, urban, ecologic terms, and definitely in social and democratic terms as well.

It’s not that previous governments were just an obstacle, or they just didn’t want to support Tirana. The problem is that previous governments wouldn’t see, they just didn’t have a visual range to understand what quality urban dimension means. The result of this inability to see, of this myopia, of this blindness is the fact that in these years we lost the city, we lost cities, we lost the sense of a shared space of community life which, in the history of civilizations, has always had its origin in the square.

City squares were turned into parking lots filled with potholes, patches of asphalt, dust and dirt. The squares of Albanian cities rejected for so many years their residents by refusing the community, by refusing socialization of people in a shared space of identification. City squares are community identity.

The square of the capital city is a national identity of a community of people who find in the square not just the pleasure of being in a public space where they meet with each other, but also the internal energy that stems from the sense of belonging generation after generation.

The urban transformation that is happening today in Albania is far from being a superficial transformation. It is a substantial and deep transformation to create a new source, which has been lost for so many years, of positive community and national energy in view of a social life where man is a wolf to his fellow man, where those who live together in the same space feel part of that space and create economy, create employment, create growth and the conditions for the next generations.

This square is the brightest jewel in the crown of our Program of Urban Renaissance.

The significant improvement made to the project at this stage, as well as the excellent, quality and exemplary work that is being done in this square in terms of its realization, constitute a strong incentive of inspiration and belief that nothing is impossible if we have the right vision, if we have the right leadership, if we have the right team and obviously, the right program.

Luckily for the capital city, all these fully match the synergy between the government and the Municipality of Tirana.

There is no capital in the world, except the Tirana of the years we left behind, which is abandoned by its own government. Capitals belong to municipalities as much as they belong to the government.

Obviously, this synergy has been created today thanks to the extraordinary and exemplary commitment of the mayor and his team.

Let’s not forget that neither the vision, nor the leadership, or the team, the program, commitment, the power of example would have been materialized today into something, hadn’t it been for the vote of the citizens of Tirana which decided to transform the Tirana City Hall from an impromptu dormitory for the Mayor into the common house where the shared dreams of the future are designed and become true.

To conclude, let me congratulate Erion and tell him “Just keep going”.

Thank you!

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The project for the revitalization of the Skanderbeg Square creates a space of interaction between citizens and the public environment, in addition to envisaging a series of flexible and multifunctional spaces that provide the Municipality and individuals the opportunity to constantly enliven and shape the square.

The project for the revitalization of the square “Skanderbeg” envisages:

• Green space in 50% of the square, thus providing shade to all of the main pedestrian areas;

• Planting of approximately 1500 new trees and thousands of decorative plants that will transform the initial design into a new space;

• Increased shade. Therefore, on hot days citizens will have the opportunity to walk in the perimeter of the square;

• A variety of environments and spaces, approximately 11 different gardens, each with its own function;

• Paving of the square with natural and decorative stones form all Albanian lands;

• Irrigation and fountains will work with an ecological plant system that will filter and use rainwater.