One European country is reimagining itself after a year of communism, converting prisons and bunkers into eateries and even lodging facilities

You might not even be aware that Enver Hoxha, the former communist dictator of Albania, lived in central Tirana. Its historical significance is not marked with a marker. The two-story house, modest by dictatorial standards, has broad windows that are crisscrossed with painter’s tape, giving the impression that it is being renovated rather than preserved. Few people have visited the house because it was only briefly accessible to the public in 2018.

The condition of Hoxha’s home today reflects the sentiments of many Albanians toward the communist era. Many would want to forget he ever lived because of the collective pain of brutality.
The notoriously isolationist and paranoid Hoxha shut down Albania’s borders during the height of communist power, murdered anyone attempting to flee, and built enough bunkers to house every family in the country. His regime’s mistrust of communist allies, use of state surveillance, and Stalinist-style brutality earned Albania the unflattering (but not inaccurate) nickname, the “North Korea of Europe.”