The Albanian royal house has an heir. Crown Prince Leka and Princess Blerta have had their first son, Prince Alexander - and this isn't news from some distant kingdom, but from our own neighbourhood, where the crown has long had no throne, yet still has a story.

The boy was born on Friday morning, exactly at 11:11, weighing 3 kilograms and 115 grams, at the "Queen Geraldine" University Gynaecology and Obstetrics Hospital in Tirana. Mother and child are in good health, the court announced, with special thanks to the medical team for its professionalism.

Prince Leka and photographer Blerta Djelibashi married in March this year, at a private ceremony in a castle in Slovakia. For Leka this is a second marriage - he has a daughter from the previous one. He is, incidentally, the grandson of King Zog and a man who deliberately keeps away from the cameras, which makes the rare news about his family weigh all the more.

It may sound strange to speak of a "royal house" in a country that has been a republic for decades. But that is precisely what makes this story Balkan to the core: a people who abolished the monarchy, and yet warmly follow every new child in that line. Whether the crown is mere nostalgia, or still means something for identity - every Albanian probably answers differently.