The repainted capital
Tirana
Grey communist-era apartment blocks were painted in bold colours and patterns from the year 2000.
Why Tirana is painted-block orange
Tirana, the capital of Albania, came out of decades of isolation under communist rule with streets of worn grey apartment blocks. In 2000 a painter, Edi Rama, was elected mayor. With very little money, he had the fronts of buildings painted in bright colours: orange, yellow, green and violet, in stripes, blocks, arrows and abstract shapes. Illegal kiosks were cleared and trees planted. The aim was to change how people felt about shared space and to show that the city could change. The project drew wide attention, and artists from abroad were later invited to design more fronts. Some of the paint has faded since, but the idea of a coloured Tirana has lasted.
#F28C28Block yellow#F5C518Block green#5FB56FBlock violet#8F6FC2Concrete grey#8A8A88Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Tirana" on Wikipedia. If you know Tirana and we have it wrong, tell us.
More colour cities
All colour cities
🇮🇳 City of saffron and lightVaranasiSaffron robes, marigold garlands and oil lamps colour the river steps of one of the oldest living cities.
🇮🇳 The Orange CityNagpurA city in central India named for a fruit: the loose-skinned Nagpur orange grown in the country around it.
🇱🇦 Town of saffron robesLuang PrabangAt dawn lines of monks in orange robes walk the streets of the old Lao royal capital to receive alms.
🇳🇦 The red dunes of the NamibSossusvleiSome of the tallest sand dunes on earth, coloured orange-red by iron, around white clay pans.
🇮🇹 Five pastel villages on a cliff coastCinque TerreTall houses in ochre, pink and yellow crowd tiny harbours below terraced vineyards on the Italian Riviera.
🇫🇷 The ochre villageRoussillonA Provençal hill village built on, and painted with, cliffs of red, orange and yellow ochre.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Varanasi In: Marcin Białek, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Nagpur In: Gppande, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Luang Prabang La: Shelly Zohar, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Sossusvlei Na: Anagoria, CC BY 3.0, source
- Cinque Terre It: This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves . Feel free to use my pho, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Roussillon Fr: Hawobo at German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.0 de, source