Gjirokastër Castle
Hilltop fortress above the UNESCO-listed stone town, with vaulted galleries, a clock tower and arms museum.
The fortress occupies a long ridge above the Drino valley and dominates the Ottoman-era stone town below, which UNESCO inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2005. Fortification of the ridge began in antiquity, and the surviving walls and towers largely date from the thirteenth century onwards. Ali Pasha of Tepelena rebuilt and extended the castle between 1811 and 1812, adding an aqueduct and the long barrel-vaulted galleries that now run the length of the interior.
Under the Albanian monarchy and later the communist state the castle served as a prison, and cells from that period remain open to visitors. The vaulted galleries display captured artillery, Italian and German weapons from the Second World War and the wreck of a United States reconnaissance aircraft forced down in 1957. A clock tower rises at the eastern end, and an open-air stage within the walls has hosted the National Folklore Festival since 1968. A separate museum covers the site's long history.
Highlights
- Barrel-vaulted galleries built for Ali Pasha of Tepelena in 1811–1812
- Arms collection including a United States aircraft downed in 1957
- Cells of the prison used under the monarchy and communist rule
- Open-air stage of the five-yearly National Folklore Festival
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