Tirana's clock tower , built in 1830, stands beside the mosque. Over the Lana River to the south are the sloping white marble walls of the former Enver Hoxha Museum , which is occasionally used as an exhibition centre and slated to be turned into a disco. The red star has been removed from the pyramid-shaped building's tip. The best budget accommodation in Tirana is through private rented apartments or with local families. The formerly cheap state-owned hotels have either closed or been renovated, and now ask substantially higher prices.
New hotels are similarly out of the budget traveller's reach.
It was for centuries the largest port on the Adriatic, and the start of the Via Egnatia to Constantinople. Landings here by Italian troops in 1939 met brief but fierce resistance, and those killed defending it are now regarded as the first martyrs of the War of National Liberation. Roman ruins and Byzantine fortifications embellish this major industrial city and commercial port, Albania's second largest city. A good place to start is the Archaeological Museum , which faces the waterfront promenade near the port. Behind the museum are the 6th century city walls , built after the Visigoth invasion of 481 and supplemented by round Venetian Towers in the 14th century.