Not too far away from the Kruje Castle and Skanderbeg National Museum is the National Ethnographic Museum featuring cultural exhibitions of Albanian traditional life.
The biggest attraction in this place, by far, is the lovely tour-guide who uses well rehearsed Albanian style English to demonstrate each and every aspect of the Albanian family life. Watch this guy on video as he makes the story of the Albanian come to life.
The official National Ethnographic Museum website has the background :
The museum is located in a traditional house built in the middle of the 18th century A.D (1764), by Ismail Pashe Toptani.
The architecture of the building includes a closed corridor, a tower type, and is two stories high, with 60-80 cm thick walls. There are frescoes of the Baroque and Islamic style, witch decorate most of its main rooms. Starting from the entrance it is possible to see the door lintels made of sculpted stone and the stone-paved roads roads. In this building there are many traditional elements of the area, dealing with traditional life. At the entrance, there are several models of natural springs, which testify that Kruja had in the past several such springs.
The origin of the name "Kruje", comes from "kroje" which means "spring" in Albanian. Kruja was known as a farming and agricultural center and later for its commercial and artisanal activities. Grain, olives, grapes, goats, sheep and cows, poultry and bees have been all cultivated and raised in Kruja.
Another Albanian government website adds that :
The National Ethnographic Museum in Kruja was inaugurated on November 20, 1989. It is placed in a characteristic urban building of 1764. This building is a first class culture monument. It has 15-16 rooms and the objects exhibited outside give a complete view of the crafts applied in Kruja and all over Albania and also of the way of living since 300 years ago. 90% of this museum items are original and 100% are functional. Items of ceramics, wood, stone, iron, cotton, silk and wool and various embroideries are exhibited here with finesse. These objects have an age varying from 60-70 to 500 years.
Here is the story in photos.
More details :
09:00 – 13:00 & 15:00 – 18:00
Rest: Monday
Month: May, June, July, August, September
Visiting time is:
08:00 – 13:00 & 16:00 – 19:00
Good idea to present the guide’s presentation! I haven’t been in Albania but it seems an interesting experience.