By Gazmend Bakiu
The first seat of the Albanian legislature served as such in the period March 27, 1920-June 30, 1926. However, the building, owned by Zija Toptani, was not designed for Parliament. Later, this building in the years 1928-1939 was the Royal Palace and has long been the headquarters of the "Academy of Sciences".
The new headquarters of the legislature began to be built as the "Officers' Club", but with the decision of the Council of Ministers No. 498-V, dated 15.04.1925, it was decided that the building would be the headquarters of the Senate and the necessary funds were provided for its completion.
The new seat of Parliament was inaugurated on September 15, 1926, at a joint meeting, session of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, on the occasion of the opening of the 2nd Legislature of the 2nd year of the Republic, with a welcoming speech by President Ahmet Zogu.
Both representative chambers were located there, and in 1928 it was continued with a single chamber, which was called Parliament. To underline the importance of the Parliament, the number 1 was placed above the main entrance. It was the first administrative building to be built with Albanian state funds and served as the seat of Parliament in the period 1926-1944.
With the communists coming to power, the building initially served as the headquarters of the Antifascist National Liberation Council. In the years 1950-1957, the “Albanian-Soviet Friendship Club” was established in the Albanian Parliament building and it was used as a cultural center for the Soviets, at a time when the latter were in the majority in Albania.
With the break in Soviet-Albanian relations, the "Puppet Theater" was established there, as if to mock the history of this country. Interventions and adaptations were also made, but the acoustics and the beautiful hall have remained.
In the years 1996-2000, the former Parliament building, in addition to its function as a children's entertainment center, became the headquarters of the capital's "City Council", which did not continue after 2000, because after that year an addition was made to the current City Hall, which serves as a hall for the meetings of the "City Council".
That hall has no space for the public, as it should according to European standards, while the old Parliament building from 1926-1944 meets these conditions and could also be a museum of parliamentarism.
Finally, with European Union funds, the restoration of the building was carried out, as a "Puppet Theater", which was completed on December 16, 2024. On that occasion, on the right side of the building they wrote: "The First Albanian Parliament", when as is known and we have shown here, this was the second seat of the Albanian Parliament.
PS In the photo, there are some stairs, which are no longer there today, as a result of the increase in the road quota, which has been another damage to this historic building.
