Court of Appeal

In front of you stands the Gjykata e Apelit of Gjirokastër, the Court of Appeal, one of the key judicial institutions in southern Albania. Located just a short distance from the Old Bazaar, the building sits at a crossroads between the administrative city and the historic quarter. The Court of Appeal is a second-instance court, responsible for examining appeals against rulings issued by the courts of first instance in the region, particularly those of Gjirokastër, Sarandë and Përmet. It is part of the modern Albanian judicial system established after the fall of the communist regime in 1991, later reinforced by the 1998 Constitution and by the major judicial reform launched in 2016, which aimed to strengthen judicial independence and combat corruption. The building itself has a sober, functional style, typical of administrative architecture, and incorporates the local stone that characterises Gjirokastër, even though its exact date of construction is not clearly documented.