Ethnographic Museum of Gjakova

The house was built in 1810. Initially, it was owned by the Sina family, while later, it became owned by the Haxhismajli family. In 1981, based on the architectural and decorative values of the folk art it had, this building passed to the Municipality of Gjakova to transform it into an Ethnographic Museum. The building located in the center of the city in front of the Municipality represents a characteristic house of the city of Gjakova with a large closed yard, a structure that is mainly found in urban areas.
The house was built on two floors where the ground floor was used as a warehouse, while the upper floor was used for living. The residential part has four rooms and two porches, which serve as closed balconies offering an open view of the surrounding area. Especially the large porch has been used for relaxation and family gatherings.
Clay brick, stone and wood were used for the construction of the house. The circular shape of the two porches unifies the architecture of the civic houses of Gjakova, along with other settlements in the Albanian lands and the Balkans. These types of circular porches were found only in the city of Gjakova. The house was built by Dibra builders well known for their construction skills.
The Ethnographic Museum of Gjakova owns a large number of museum exhibits mainly from the ethnographic discipline, and less from others such as archaeological and historical ones. Exhibits have been collected over the years, including those contributed by local donors.
On the ground floor, are exposed mainly works from old crafts, handicrafts, a multitude of household tools used in the preparation and serving of food, tools for cultivating the land, tools for processing textiles, milliners, smoking pipe makers, coppersmiths, farriers, blacksmiths, carpenters as well as other craft products from the city and villages that reflect our popular history and culture.
While on the upper floor, in the premises of the rooms of the house, it is presented the lifestyle, organization, traditions and customs in a city family from Gjakova.
In this museum, a rich collection of traditional clothing is also preserved, some of which represent the creative work of the women themselves, made in the house premises on the loom. While another part consists of products by artisanal tailors who, in addition to clothing for solemn occasions as well as daily use, sewed and worked on clothing of high artistic value embroidered with gold, silk and silver threads.
Some of these clothes follow the centuries-old local tradition, while others are clothes influenced by contacts with foreign cultures, such as those in the oriental style. The clothes and textiles presented in the museum mainly belong to the city of Gjakova, the territory of Has and Reka. The materials used for making folk clothing were fabrics made on looms and a thick wool fabric, while to sew and decorate those, wool thread, cotton or silk of different colors have been used.
The exhibited ornaments are mainly made of silver that was combined with stones or precious stones of different colors, etc. The silver working technique in Gjakova was known as the “savat” technique which means “applying a black metal alloy on white precious metals and mainly silver” used for tobacco boxes, different types of amber smoking pipes, rings, rifle ornaments, etc.