Memorie.al publishes for the first time five rare photos of the city of Gjirokastra, in the period between 1910 – 1920. In these photos, you can clearly see picturesque views of some of the main alleys of the city. These images are fixed on celluloid in one of the most difficult periods of the fragile existence of the newly formed Albanian state. Exactly in that of the First World War.
In one of these images, the images of the large military garrison located in Gjirokastra Castle are shown. This garrison consisted of Albanian and Italian soldiers who were on standby to protect the city from a possible influx of Austro-Hungarian troops from the north.
During the period 1914 – 1918 Gjirokastra, would experience an invasion by the armies of the two states of the Entente Bloc, Italy and Greece. The former guarded the front line in southwestern Albania, while the latter took part in a fierce ethnic cleansing campaign in entire areas of the south of the country.
