Gjirokastra

The city of Gjirokastra is a rare example of a well-preserved Ottoman town, famous for its tall, fortified tower houses and winding network of cobbled streets. Gjirokastra is also known as “the city of stone” or “the city of a thousand steps”. It was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

Recent archaeological investigations have revealed an almost uninterrupted sequence of material from the 5th century BC, but the first historic reference to the settlement was in 1336 when the Byzantine chronicler John Cantacuzene referred to the city as Argyrokastron. Under the Despotate of Epirus the city was under the control of the Zenevisi family, but by 1419 the city came under Ottoman control.

The city’s role as the main Ottoman centre of the sancak (province) of Albania resulted in increased prosperity and an expansion of the urban quarters through the 18th to 19th centuries. Many of the dwelling houses and mosques, which survive today, date to this period.

In 1812, the regional leader, Ali Pasha of Tepelena (whom Byron described as the “Muslim Bonaparte”) seized the town and extended the castle to its present size. Encompassing an area of 2.5 hectares, it is the second largest castle in the Balkans. It is crowned by a series of five defensive towers and has three main entrances. To withstand long sieges, a 10 km long aqueduct was constructed to provide the castle with water. The aqueduct was demolished on order of King Zog in 1932, but the vast reservoirs can still be seen in the castle.

The centre of the historic town dates from the 17th century when Gjirokastra prospered as a trading centre for farmers. The Old Bazaar (Pazari i Vjeter) extends along four cobbled main streets that link it to the rest of the city. The area with its stone fronted shops is known locally as the Qafë (neck or pass) and in the summer months it bustles with life. The surviving mosque was built in 1754.

The town is famed for its tall 17-19th-century Ottoman tower houses, of a type found throughout the Balkans, belonging to wealthy merchants and landowners. The architecture of the houses reflects the turbulent history of the area where security was paramount in the minds of the occupants: raiders, foreign invaders and blood feuds dominate the history of the region.

The tower houses normally have a spacious ground floor – windowless for defensive purposes - above which the extended family and visitors would live. The first floor was used during the winter season; the uppermost floors, with their open wooden balconies, during the summer. The interiors of the bigger houses often have intricate and colourful frescoes, and well crafted woodwork, especially in the areas reserved for guests. The twin-towered Zekate House built in 1812, is one of the finest examples of a Gjirokastra Tower House.

From 1880 Gjirokastra became a centre of Albanian nationalist activity. The Albanian League, founded in the city, led the struggle for an independent Albanian state. After Albanian independence in 1912, the region saw bitter fighting and efforts by the Greek government to claim the region as part of Greek northern Epirus. During the Second World War the city was a centre of Axis administration and was liberated by Albanian and Greek partisans in 1943. The city is the birthplace of the communist leader Enver Hoxha (1908-85) and the Albanian novelist and Nobel Prize winner, Ismail Kadare.

Today Gjirokastra is a regional centre for cultural events and eco-tourism. A wealth of archaeological sites and spectacular mountain trails lie a short distance from Gjirokastra and the city itself is home to polyphonic singing, which features in the National Folk Festival held at the Castle.

 

• The region and beyond
• Saranda
• Church of the Forty Martyrs
• QTVR: View from Forty Martyrs
• Phoenicê
• Mesopotam
• QTVR: Mesopotam
• Gjirokastra
• QTVR: Zekate House
• The Gjirokastra Conservation and Development Office

A poet’s description
It was a strange city, and seemed to have been cast up in the valley one winter’s night like some prehistoric creature that was now clawing its way up the mountainside. Everything in the city was old and made of stone, from the streets and fountains to the roofs of the sprawling age-old houses, covered with grey slates like gigantic scales.

Ismail Kadare, Chronicle in Stone, 1971