The Museum of Witness and Memory is among the favorite places for tourists visiting Shkodra, as it contains important traces of the Albanian national identity, which makes tourists curious.

The recently concluded year was one of the most successful, says the director of this museum, Pjerin Mirdita.

“The number of visitors was the highest compared to previous years. Visitors came mostly from European countries. Many visitors came from Western European countries: Germany, Italy, France, and we also had visitors from Eastern Europe”.

But what attracts tourists the most to this museum?

“They are amazed when they get to know this museum because it is the only place in Albania located in an authentic space like the prison of the city of Shkodra. We are perhaps in the context of various memorials in Europe, mainly those of the Second World War, such as various concentration camps like Auschwitz, Dachau, Mauthausen; of course, here we are on a completely different scale, but the essence is the same. These are places of suffering to show people today, human society today, what man is capable of,” explains Mirdita.

The museum director explains that there is interest from youngsters to visit, but more should be done.

“We, the grown-ups must be able to guide youngsters and attract them. They are young, and like any young person, energies are channeled in a certain direction, but we must always be the ones to guide them. They have interest; the city’s schools visit this museum, but I am convinced that these should be national and institutional policies that should happen as it does in European schools, where these curricula are part of the regular lessons”.

Prime Minister Edi Rama promised that very soon this museum will undergo a total reconstruction, which is expected to give the attention and importance that this place deserves, containing the dark history of a regime, the most barbaric in all of Europe.