Kulturë Tradicionale is a museum in truly all, but name.

The owner, Tolinda, is an Albanian language teacher at my old high school and she is an encyclopedia when it comes to Albanian culture. It takes nothing more than a glimpse at her shop situated in Kurrizi to understand the passion she has for our people’s history and creativity. The first time I went to her shop was back in 2019, to try out some traditional clothes for an international competition, I was left in awe.

Obviously, for every country, traditional clothes carry a lot of meaning, but I hadn’t known just how much they could show until Mrs Tolinda sat us down and explained how every colour, shape, and embroidery was a secret language to communicate a story, a fact, or even a myth. Some of the symbols are related to Besa, our sacred code of honour, and some even date back to myths about gods and goddesses.

The shop is small, but it hosts a priceless collection of traditional clothing from all corners of Kosovo, Albania, and other Albanian-populated lands, with distinctive pieces based on social class too. They are super elaborate, and sometimes the way you are supposed to wear them goes against intuition, which makes them even more complex and fascinating to analyse. Plus, they’re all at least a hundred years old!

Trust me, this tiny museum hidden in a shop is absolutely a spot not to be missed when you come to Prishtina.