Historically there were 15 and tekkes and mosques, of which 13 were functional in 1945. Only Gjirokastër Mosque has survived; the remaining 12 were destroyed or closed during the Cultural Revolution of the communist government in 1967.
The city is home to an Eastern Orthodox diocese, part of the Orthodox Church of Albania.
17th-century Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi, who visited the city in 1670, described the city in detail. One Sunday, Çelebi heard the sound of a vajtim, the traditional Albanian lament for the dead, performed by a professional mourner. The traveler found the city so noisy that he dubbed Gjirokastër the "city of wailing".
The novel Chronicle in Stone by Albanian writer Ismail Kadare tells the history of this city during the Italian and Greek occupation in World War I and II, and expands on the customs of the people of Gjirokastër. At the age of twenty-four, Albanian writer Musine Kokalariwrote an 80-page collection of ten youthful prose tales in her native Gjirokastrian dialect: As my old mother tells me , Tirana, 1941. The book tells the day-by-day struggles of women of Gjirokastër, and describes the prevailing mores of the region.
Gjirokastër, home to both Albanian and Greek polyphonic singing, is also home to the National Folklore Festival that is held every five years. The festival started in 1968 and was most recently held in 2009, its ninth season. The festival takes place on the premises of Gjirokaster Castle. Gjirokaster is also where the Greek language newspaper Laiko Vima is published. Founded in 1945, it was the only Greek-language printed media allowed during the Socialist People's Republic of Albania
