Mother Albania

Mother Albania (Nena Shqiperi) is the female national personification of the country - mostly associated with the monumental statue erected in 1971 above Tirana at the National Martyrs' Cemetery. The roughly twelve-meter concrete figure by sculptor Kristina Hoshi and team holds a laurel branch and a star, gazing over the graves of World War II partisans. The allegory itself is older and already appears in Rilindja writers such as Pashko Vasa. Iconic under Hoxha, it has remained part of state memory politics ever since.