Ahmet Zogu's Villa of Durrës (Albanian: Vila e Zogut) was the summer villa of King Zogu in Durrës. Ironically it was used only for two summers from Zogu, but it was restituted to Leka Crown Prince of Albania in 2007.[1][2]
The villa is set on the Durrës hill, 98 m above the sea level. The sea can be seen from three sides of the villa. It is extended in the form of an eagle and was built in 1926. Kristo Sotiri, an architect that had graduated in the University of Padova and the University of Venice, Italy projected the villa. By the time when Sotiri was projecting the building, he had a vast experience that included that of being the architect of the Court of Queen Elisabeth of Wied of Romania. The building was finished in 1937, a few months before King Zogu married Queen Géraldine Apponyi de Nagyappony.[3]
The villa has been used after World War II as a government reception building. During Communist Albania many communist leaders from Nikita Khrushchev to the Cambodian prince Samde Norodom Sihanuk have been guests in the building. Former US President Jimmy Carter also has been one of its guests in the '90s.[4][5] The interior of the villa was vandalized during the 1997 unrest in Albania. Prince Leka has outlined a reconstruction plan to be implemented in the near future.
|
|||||||||||||||||