Soldiers armed with Kalashnikovs pull aside a razor-wire barrier on a pine-clad hilltop to make way for a developer’s jeep. They are guarding a prime piece of Albanian real estate: the ruined shell of King Zog’s summer palace above the Adriatic port of Durres.

The Durres municipality recently gave permission for the former palace, built in the 1930s in art deco style, to be renovated as the country’s first luxury resort.