Bank of Albania

Construction of National Bank of Albania was finished in 1936. Its architectural style belongs to “Rationalism” current, flourishing in those years in Europe and mostly in Italy. It was designed by the arch. Ballio Morpurgo. Its style has large volumes and strong lines on the façade, in order to express the strength of the government of that time as was usual in Western Europe. The first draft layout was designed as a polygon and was divided in two parts as its function: the main corpus that would perform representative functions in the Bank and the other corpus that would be the operational part. In the 40s, both parts were changed to be the same, but because of the Second World War, construction works were stopped and this idea was not fulfilled. The main corpus was built in the form of an arch, showing the strongest view to Scanderbeg Square. It includes the grand portal with the height of facades and strong columns and decorated with wall reliefs in baked clay, which give a very dignified view of the building.