Roundtable with stakeholders, October 30, 2025
This was the title of the roundtable discussion held at the Tirana International Hotel, within the framework of the “Heritage is Our Brand” project, implemented by the DMO Albania organization in partnership with the EU Policy Hub and funded by the European Union.
This two-year project aims to raise national awareness and educate mainly the younger generations by preserving the intangible or spiritual heritage passed down through generations.
The publication with 40 unique stories of the project was presented at the roundtable, which tells about the values of the character and life of Albanians throughout the centuries.
Present at this event was the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sports, Ms. Lira Pipa, who, welcoming the project and the work done to date, ensured that these stories can be included in improving the narrative in the archaeological sites related to them. She emphasized that storytelling, merchandising are very important for cultural tourism. Ms. Pipa added that a great help for intangible heritage is the creation of a foundation for handicrafts, which will certify the products of our Albanian artisans, so that tourists can receive a Made in Albania souvenir as a gift when they leave here. She supported the idea of certifying the history that is told to tourists, installing audio guides with certified history, setting up working groups to also control trade in areas or places that receive many tourists.
Also present at the table was Mr. Andrea Ferrero, the representative of the EU Delegation to Albania, who supported the project’s work and emphasized the importance of spiritual heritage and trade passed down through generations.
The project’s achievements so far and the steps for the coming year were further presented, which relate to the inclusion of these project findings in the education of young people.
The guest was one of the most famous ethnographers in the country, Afërdita Onuzi, who listed the large fund of spiritual heritage at the Institute of Anthropology, thousands of pages of tales, legends, stories that are waiting to be browsed, digitized, promoted. She said that 1% of this fund is known by the public, and an Ethnographic Museum of Albania, but also of Tirana, is needed as soon as possible.
Elenita Roshi, Director of the National History Museum, spoke about narrative in Museums, why museum communication with the public and children is important. She spoke about the innovations in the reconstruction project of the National History Museum, and about the current challenges in Albanian museology, especially about the miserable state of museums throughout the country today and the urgent need to improve the narrative in current museums.
Heritage is Our Brand Publication
Today’s roundtable concluded a part of this project that has to do with storytelling in intangible heritage. A unique study by a group of Albanian expert historians and archaeologists brought 40 stories of our spiritual heritage in an unprecedented form, starting from mythology, antiquity, the Middle Ages, the modern period as well as rituals and traditions.Stories from the Queen of the Seas, Teuta, to King Gent and the miraculous flower, the Illyrian wine Baliska, Via Egnatia and Maximus, such stories of Albanian survival as the Legend of the Oil Gorge, or rituals such as Beja mbi Gur, Udha e Krushqve, and many, many other stories, have come in a simplified form of commerce for all generations, in two languages. Each story has both the historical context and the message in the present day, to make these values of Albanians in centuries more current and to preserve them to this day.
This publication was prepared by experts: Marenglen Kasmi, Belisa Muka and Andi Pinari.
Grants – Transforming Stories into Artistic Products
These 40 stories, created using a rare methodology, have also been published on the platform albaniaheritage.com for everyone to read. But that’s not all. Based on these 40 stories, project proposals for grants were invited. Out of 238 applications — showcasing extraordinary creativity across multiple genres, including documentaries, installations, animated films, and many other ideas — only 15 winners will be selected. These artistic products, which will soon enrich the Albanian cultural scene and activities, will also raise awareness of our history, Albanian values, and the heritage that has been passed down through the centuries.
Education
The project began in January of this year, initially with a questionnaire for young Albanians both within the country and in the diaspora, regarding their knowledge of intangible heritage — what they know, where they learned it, what they have been taught in school or at home, whether they preserve costumes or objects, and if they know stories and legends from their region. The questionnaire revealed that most young people love their country and want to learn more, but they learn little about heritage in schools, receiving most of their knowledge about spiritual heritage from their families. This is a national urgency: our rich heritage must be taught systematically in schools.
In its second year, our project will focus specifically on schools and the educational process, planning forums with history teachers, creative competitions with students across the country, awareness campaigns, and more.
Tourism
The ultimate goal of the project is that not only the storytelling — the 40 produced stories, artistic products, installations, videos, animations, and any other outputs from the grants — will be created, but that they will also be utilized to support tourism.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Sports, many of these narratives will be added to archaeological sites and other locations related to these stories. As part of this collaboration, the intangible heritage registry will also be enriched with many of the submitted stories. The stories will be made available to tour guides in cooperation with the Faculty of History in Tirana. Additionally, a number of souvenirs inspired by these stories and produced by the project will also serve tourists.
More about the project: www.albaniaheritage.com