Tirana has the Skanderbeg Monument in its central Skanderbeg Square.
The square is named for Gjergj Kastrioti, known as Skanderbeg, the 15th-century Albanian nobleman and military leader who resisted Ottoman expansion. The monument, showing Skanderbeg on horseback, was unveiled in 1968 for the 500th anniversary of his death.
Skanderbeg Square is Tirana’s principal civic space. It lies near important institutions including the National History Museum, the Et’hem Bey Mosque, the Palace of Culture, and the Tirana International Hotel. Its broad paved surface has been redesigned several times as the capital has modernized.
Skanderbeg is not the name of a modern Albanian president or a city district. It is a historical epithet associated with Albania’s best-known medieval national hero, whose image appears widely in Albanian public culture.