Gjirokastra CHwB To restore a world heritage

Author: CHwB – Royal College University of Fine Arts
Affiliation:Dep. Of Architectural Conservation 2008/2009 – Stockholm, Sweden
Published with the permission of CHwB, Cultural Heritage without Borders, Sweden

Abstract
This year we have chosen to work with the World Heritage town of Gjirokastra in the southern, part of Albania, a unique and beautiful place, struggling with a number of problems. Our Course started in September 2008, with a two week stay in Gjirokastra. This first phase of the course was performed in cooperation with the Swedish foundation Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB), with financial support from the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency (SIDA). In Gjirokastra our students worked together with a group of colleagues from Albania and neighbouring Balkan countries, invited by CHwB.
First, we made an inventory of the Old Town as a whole, then we documented - by thorough investigation and measuring - three typical, badly damaged Girokastran town houses, two of them residential and one commercial.