The Balkans are already well-known as a crossroads of civilizations and empires, each of which left its own distinct imprint on the social landscape of the region. Albania is no exception – this country has seen multiple civilizations and cultures call it their home.
And while Albania certainly deserves its recent fame as a top tourist destination for its glistening Mediterranean beaches and soaring mountain peaks, this country is also defined by its thousands of years of heritage and history, all of which have endowed it with a beautiful cultural legacy.
Nothing exemplifies Albania’s intangible cultural heritage more than one of UNESCO’s newest additions to its list of World Heritage items: the Albanian xhubleta (pronounced “jupleta”), a female highlander traditional dress.
This garment is a mini wearable museum that exemplifies Albania’s rich culture and history. A four-thousand year old dress that was typically adorned with mythological motifs, the xhubleta’s designs referenced ancient Albanians’ pagan beliefs around the cycles of nature, featuring embroidered eagles, suns, branches and snakes.
At Albanian Night, we are lucky enough to provide a home to three original Albanian xhubleta dresses in our Costume Hall. Visitors can admire their beauty and learn all about how they are made during our guided walking tour of the center, during which our staff explain the significance of this beautiful dress and how it’s crafted by the guardians of Albanian tradition.
For those who can’t visit us in person, we wrote this post to explain: what is the xhubleta, and why was it added to the UNESCO World Heritage list of intangible cultural items?
Xhubleta UNESCO Recognition: Preserving a Cultural Legacy
The xhubleta was added to the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on November 30, 2022. Recognized as a cultural heritage item that needed urgent safeguarding by the United Nations, the xhubleta is an ancient bell-shaped, predominantly black dress characterized by undulating curves that used to be worn on a daily basis by highlander Northern Albanian women.
The communist era saw the xhubleta’s daily wearing and production diminish, as the socialist policies of the dictator took place and weakened the traditional social systems that had led to its cultivation and popularity. Women were forced to work on agricultural cooperatives that made wearing the heavy dress impractical. The regime’s goal of obliterating social strata meant that wearing the dress, which had been used to mark the wearer’s social status, became illegal or was highly frowned upon.
With the fall of the regime, Albanians in the 90s began to flock to urban centers or to leave the country entirely, placing the xhubleta and its production methods in further danger of being forgotten. Against this backdrop, the United Nations stepped in to preserve this integral cultural and social symbol of Albanian identity.
Artistic, Social and Symbolic Significance of the Xhubleta
The three xhubleta dresses on display at Albanian Night come from the Dukagjin and Malësi e Madhe regions of the north. These masterpieces blend beauty, functionality and social-status markers in one stylish garment.
Horizontal felt strips create a conical silhouette, enhanced by embroidered motifs that convey social roles and spiritual beliefs. The Albanian xhubleta features decorations like floral patterns, stars and eagles, all of which symbolize fertility, protection and prayers to the cosmos for protection and good luck. The garment’s monumental appearance, likened to the Albanian Alps, reflects highlander aesthetic preference for grandeur and the majesty of the soaring mountain peaks they call home. Regional variations, such as the red xhubleta in Kelmend or white in Dukagjin, highlight local traditions, making each piece a unique expression of identity.
A highland woman traditionally owned multiple xhubleta dresses, each serving different purposes and occasions. The specific number could vary based on the family’s economic status and regional customs, but it was common for a bride to have at least five xhubleta dresses in her dowry, each of whose design and beauty would vary according to how often it was used and for which events it would be worn, from mundane daily activities to significant family ceremonies. For example, for family celebrations, a bride would always wear the most beautiful xhubleta; in cases of death, she would wear the least decorated xhubleta, removing its various metal decorations, and put on a black headscarf.
A xhubleta’s color could also signify the wearer’s life stage: young girls would wear white to symbolize purity and the innocence of youth. Brides would wear red (for its symbolism associated with fertility and good luck as the young woman embarked on her new stage in life), and older women would wear black.
The Xhubleta’s Role in Modern Albania
Today, the xhubleta remains a living tradition among some remote Albanian communities in the north, worn during ceremonies and celebrated in cultural festivals. UNESCO’s recent designation of the xhubleta as an intangible part of humanity’s shared cultural heritage has sparked renewed interest in the ancient garment, drawing global attention to it.
And the xhubleta this year garnered renewed global interest with the entry of Shkodra Elektronike into the Eurovision music competition in 2025. The band, made up of two young Albanian artists who grew up in Italy, drew the global spotlight onto the traditional highlander garment: Beatriçe Gjergji, the lead singer, wore a modernized version of the ancient dress in her music video for the song “Zjerm.” Wearing a xhubleta is an Albanian woman’s graceful way of honoring her culture’s timeless beauty and traditions, and Gjergji, whose family hails from the northern region of Albania, wore the dress as a way to honor her ancestor’s roots and bring awareness to Albania’s beautiful traditions and costumes.
Today, the knowledge of how to make xhubleta dresses is unfortunately in danger of being lost. Albanian Night has partnered with the few remaining artisans who know how to produce these gorgeous garments to help make sure they are safeguarded for generations to come.
If you want to learn more about Albanian culture or see xhubleta dresses in person, visit us in Tirana and join us for our nightly evening show, where you’ll step back in time and learn all about traditional Albanian life: during the Albanian Night show, participants get to wear authentic Albanian clothes and experience musical and dance performances from the different regions of Albania.
