Safe House on the Lana

This east/west boulevard and river cutting through the center of Tirana is referred to as the Lana. In the summertime it can be an odorous place due to garbage and dumping of raw sewage into the river, but the mayor, Edi Rama, is trying to clean up the area. Five or six years ago, the area was a jungle of illegal, hastily built apartments and buildings. The mayor ordered the illegal buildings demolished and a green area to be developed along the river. One building that was left intact is shown here (to the left with the billboard). It is a safe house for some families involved in a blood feud. Unfortunately, there still are left in Albania several hundred feuds taken on mostly by people in the north of Albania who followed the code of the Kanun. The boys and men of these families never leave their homes because they can be killed outside of their safe house. The women and girls leave to work and get food for those inside. The young boys are unable to go to school. There are government agencies working with these families attempting to eliminate the code, but as evidenced by this unfortunate landmark, they have not been very successful. The feud ends when all male members of both families have died.

We recommend the book "Broken April" by Albanian author Ismail Kadare for an interesting read about blood feuds, or this short article in the Washington Post in 2007.