According to calculations by the National Expropriation Agency, the expropriation of the “Sarajet” villa, one of Tirana’s last historical landmarks, will cost around $4.8 million.
The request for its expropriation was filed on August 19. The Municipality of Tirana has said that the building will be transformed into an ethnographic museum.
After this assessment is published in the Official Gazette, the owners will have fifteen days to reply to it.
In the late hours of Monday, an unidentified individual set fire to “Sarajet,” a cultural monument located in the center of Tirana.
Firefighters arrived on site after 20 minutes and extinguished the fire. They then left and the fire reignited. It was put out a second time by Rudi Erebara and Zirkon Disha who were on site.
The villa, that at one point housed the first American delegation to Albania, is one of the few Ottoman-style houses remaining in Tirana. It was declared a cultural monument in 1963.
Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj told Euronews that the fire had been set intentionally, in order to stop the expropriation of the property.
He also said that the municipality plans to turn the building into a museum, and not transfer it to third parties.
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