The house of the Painter Sali Shijaku, which is considered the oldest house in the Balkans, is located in Tirana, on “Siri Kodra” street. Its construction with stone wall, adobe and wooden skeleton belongs to the year 1400. Once this building functioned as a Turkish hospital.
On the first floor, there is the waiting room where various activities took place near the fireplace, and the place is filled with rare paintings. The second floor houses bedrooms, also filled with paintings and portraits. The stairs connecting the floors are made of wood.
In this house, there’s an old chest with dark paintings where the bride’s dowry was placed. It doesn’t have a ceiling because, in the past, the smoke from the central hearth would go out through the roof spaces. This unique feature is preserved even today, bringing us a concrete example of the most developed type of Tirana apartment.
At the beginning of the century XX is a reconstruction of its surroundings.
The museum house is a first-category cultural monument, which has not only architectural but also historical values of an entire generation that grew up in this house of patriots and warriors.
