The story begins with Pietro Marubi, an Italian painter and photographer who settled in Shkodër and founded a studio there in 1856. With no children of his own, he trained the sons of his gardener, and the studio passed to Kel Marubi and then to his son Gegë Marubi, who studied in France. Over three generations the family documented life in northern Albania, from portraits of townspeople and highlanders to political events and everyday scenes. In 1970 the archive passed to the state.
Today the collection runs to hundreds of thousands of negatives, many on glass, and includes some of the earliest photographs taken in Albania. The museum presents a permanent exhibition of the family’s work alongside temporary shows, giving a rare visual record of costume, faces and society over roughly a century.
For anyone curious about Albanian history or the art of photography, the Marubi Museum is an essential stop in Shkodër.
