Skanderbeg Museum
Memorial museum inside Krujë Castle devoted to Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg and his campaigns.
The Skanderbeg Museum stands inside the walls of Krujë Castle, on the hillside town that Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg held against repeated Ottoman sieges in the fifteenth century. Planning began in September 1976, construction ran from 1978 to 1982, and the museum was inaugurated on 1 November 1982. It was designed by the architects Pirro Vaso and Pranvera Hoxha, and deliberately avoids the look of a conventional gallery: the building takes its cues from the stone tower houses of northern Albania and from medieval Romanesque work.
Displays are arranged chronologically through Skanderbeg's life, from his years as an Ottoman hostage to the League of Lezhë and the defence of Krujë. The collection mixes documents, arms and armour, coins, seals and large history paintings and sculptures commissioned for the building, together with a replica of the goat-headed helmet associated with him, the original of which is held in Vienna. Terraces and openings in the walls give views over the castle enclosure and the plain towards Durrës and the Adriatic.
Highlights
- Built inside the walls of the fifteenth-century Krujë Castle
- Design drawn from northern Albanian stone tower houses
- Replica of Skanderbeg's goat-headed helmet
- Chronological displays of arms, documents and history paintings
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