In the upper reaches of the old quarter, mostly in the Palorto Quarter, are a number of 18th- and 19th-century kullë (manorial townhouses of wealthy merchant and landowner families), of which about a half dozen are restored and open to visitors. We visited one of the finest, Shtëpia Skenduli (top two photos here), built in 1823 and especially notable for its massive stone foundations, projecting upper stories supported by wooden beams, and unusual combination of internal and external staircases, richly decorated reception rooms, and carved wooden ceilings. Also up here is the town´s Ethnographic Museum (bottom two photos), in a reconstruction of a kullë, which besides the typical reception rooms also has displays of traditional dress and other aspects of local culture and lifestyle (and fun fact: it was built in 1966 as an "anti-fascist museum" and on the site of the birth home of none other than the former Communist dictator Enver Hoxha, born here in 1908; I´d assumed, that as with the likes of Stalin, Nicolae Ceaușescu, Josef Broz Tito, and Mao Zedong, Hoxha´s birth home would´ve been transformed into a museum and shrine to him, but the original house was destroyed by fire). 

Read more in my post Our Eye-opening Exploration of Albania.

David Paul Appell