Gjirokaster, Butrint, and Berat: Albania does UNESCO

I stayed three nights in Gjirokaster. We took a day trip to Butrint, and we spent a few hours in Berat yesterday on our way to Tirana, where we are now.

Gjirokaster, Butrint, and Berat are all UNESCO World Heritage Sites. I’ll mostly let the photos do the talking, and I’ll share some of what UNESCO says about these places.

We also watched an interesting film from the 1980s describing the wonderful things accomplished by Albania’s Communist government on its fortieth anniversary, and we got to discuss that with our guide, Ilir, who came of age in the years leading up to the overthrow of Communism. So I’ll share a bit of that as well.

Gjirokaster and Berat

Berat and Gjirokastra are inscribed as rare examples of an architectural character typical of the Ottoman period. Located in central Albania, Berat bears witness to the coexistence of various religious and cultural communities down the centuries. It features a castle, locally known as the Kala, most of which was built in the 13th century, although its origins date back to the 4th century BC. The citadel area numbers many Byzantine churches, mainly from the 13th century, as well as several mosques built under the Ottoman era which began in 1417. Gjirokastra, in the Drinos river valley in southern Albania, features a series of outstanding two-story houses which were developed in the 17th century. The town also retains a bazaar, an 18th-century mosque and two churches of the same period.
These two fortified historic centres are remarkably well preserved, and this is particularly true of their vernacular buildings. They have been continuously inhabited from ancient times down to the present day. Situated in the Balkans, in Southern Albania, and close to each other, they bear witness to the wealth and diversity of the urban and architectural heritage of this region.

Berat and Gjirokastra bear witness to a way of life which has been influenced over a long period by the traditions of Islam during the Ottoman period, while at the same time incorporating more ancient influences. This way of life has respected Orthodox Christian traditions which have thus been able to continue their spiritual and cultural development, particularly at Berat.

Gjirokastra was built by major landowners. Around the ancient 13th century citadel, the town has houses with turrets (the Turkish kule ) which are characteristic of the Balkans region. Gjirokastra contains several remarkable examples of houses of this type, which date from the 17th century, but also more elaborate examples dating from the early 19th century.

Berat bears witness to a town which was fortified but open, and was over a long period inhabited by craftsmen and merchants. Its urban centre reflects a vernacular housing tradition of the Balkans, examples of which date mainly from the late 18th and the 19th centuries. This tradition has been adapted to suit the town’s life styles, with tiered houses on the slopes, which are predominantly horizontal in layout, and make abundant use of the entering daylight.

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/569/

Gjirokaster Castle

The first documented history of the castle here is from Byzantine documents in the 14th century. But archaeological evidence shows that the hill on which it sits was inhabited in the Stone Age. And the ancient Greeks built early fortifications here.

The Ottomans took the castle in 1417. There’s a legend that a local princess jumped from one of the towers with her baby in her arms to avoid capture by the Ottomans. She died, but her baby survived and the stones at the base of the castle provided it with milk. Supposedly you can still see a stone stained with white calcium.

The Castle was used as a prison during the reign of Ali Pasha in the early 19th century, during King Zog’s reign in the 1920s, and during the Communist era.

Icons

In Berat Castle is one of the finest museums of Iconographic art to be found anywhere. It is named for Onufri, a master of post-byzantine frescoes and icons from the mid 16th century. He is one of the most prestigious representatives of the iconographic art of Albania. He founded a school of painting in Berat and extended his influence as far afield as present-day Macedonia, Greece. Trained in Venice, he infused Albanian icon painting with the artistic climate of the Italian Renaissance. His works reveal a great degree of originality and ecclesiastically combined post-Byzantine and Gothic elements. Onufri’s works played a decisive role in the following trends of Albanian art, up to the 19th century.

The Town of 1,001 Windows

In this photo you can see that there are a lot of windows all facing the same direction. This has earned Berat the nickname “The Town of a Thousand Windows.”

Or, according to some sources, it’s 1,001.

There are two legends.

The first story I got at https://feel-albania.com/blog/berat-albania/.

Long ago the 200 residents of the town wanted to do something to promote travel to their town so their businesses would thrive. They agreed to each build a house with 5 windows.

But while everyone else built their houses with 5 windows, Gezim the Vain added a sixth window. When everyone realized what he’d done, they dragged him to the river, tied him up with weights, and drowned him. Then they all agreed they would never mention the thousand and first window.

But to get revenge, Gezim’s son sent letters to all the other villagers and told them of the 1,001 windows. The villagers were angry, and tried to kill Gezim’s son, but he tied himself up with weights and threw himself in the river, foiling their attempt to kill him and restoring his father’s honor.

After that, more people than ever came to see the thousand windows flocked to the town from all over to find the house with 6 windows. 

The other story was told to us by our guide, Ilir.

Someone was describing how the windows in Berat were one on top of one.

In Albanian, “një mbi një.”

But they were misheard, because Albanian for 1,001 is “një mijë e një.”

Now is a good time to check out my photos from Gjirokaster and Berat.

Butrint

Inhabited since prehistoric times, Butrint has been the site of a Greek colony, a Roman city and a bishopric. Following a period of prosperity under Byzantine administration, then a brief occupation by the Venetians, the city was abandoned in the late Middle Ages after marshes formed in the area. The present archaeological site is a repository of ruins representing each period in the city’s development.

Butrint, located in the south of Albania approximately 20km from the modern city of Saranda, has a special atmosphere created by a combination of archaeology, monuments and nature in the Mediterranean. With its hinterland it constitutes an exceptional cultural landscape, which has developed organically over many centuries. Butrint has escaped aggressive development of the type that has reduced the heritage value of most historic landscapes in the Mediterranean region. It constitutes a very rare combination of archaeology and nature. The property is a microcosm of Mediterranean history, with occupation dating from 50 000 BC, at its earliest evidence, up to the 19th century AD. Prehistoric sites have been identified within the nucleus of Butrint, the small hill surrounded by the waters of Lake Butrint and Vivari Channel, as well as in its wider territory. From 800 BC until the arrival of the Romans, Butrint was influenced by Greek culture, bearing elements of a “polis” and being settled by Chaonian tribes. In 44 BC Butrint became a Roman colony and expanded considerably on reclaimed marshland, primarily to the south across the Vivari Channel, where an aqueduct was built. In the 5th century AD Butrint became an Episcopal centre; it was fortified and substantial early Christian structures were built. After a period of abandonment, Butrint was reconstructed under Byzantine control in the 9th century. Butrint and its territory came under Angevin and then Venetian control in the 14th century. Several attacks by despots of Epirus and then later by Ottomans led to the strengthening and extension of the defensive works of Butrint. At the beginning of the 19th century, a new fortress was added to the defensive system of Butrint at the mouth of the Vivari Channel. It was built by Ali Pasha, an Albanian Ottoman ruler who controlled Butrint and the area until its final abandonment.

The fortifications bear testimony to the different stages of their construction from the time of the Greek colony until the Middle Ages. The most interesting ancient Greek monument is the theatre which is fairly well preserved. The major ruin from the paleo-Christian era is the baptistery, an ancient Roman monument adapted to the cultural needs of Christianity. Its floor has a beautiful mosaic decoration. The paleo-Christian basilica was rebuilt in the 9th century and the ruins are sufficiently well preserved to permit analysis of the structure (three naves with a transept and an exterior polygonal apse). 

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/570

Perhaps the most impressive thing for me about visiting Butrint was that, according to Ilir, estimates are that only ten percent of the site has yet been excavated. The challenge is that the area is below sea level, which makes maintenance difficult and new excavation a lower priority.

Now take a look at the rest of my photos from Butrint.

My take on Albania’s UNESCO sites

All three of these places were interesting, fascinating, and surprising. I had no idea Albania has so much of its own important history. I thought of Albania as this tiny country without a lot to entice me. But it’s a beautiful country that has suffered through a difficult past and is working toward building a better future.

Although this hasn’t been an independent nation for much of its history, the Albanian people have endured.

That said, I haven’t been wowed here in Albania the way I was in Greece. Aigai, Meteora, and Zagori each gave me the kind of weak-in-the-knees moments I hope for when I am traveling. Gjirokaster, Berat, and Butrint were all well worth visiting. I learned a lot and enjoyed my time at all three places.

I asked a few of my fellow travelers about this at breakfast this morning. Everyone I asked mentioned Meteora as the most extraordinary place we visited. And generally people seem to agree with my take. 

Albania’s Communist Past

Before you read on, watch the video. You don’t have to watch the whole thing to get a sense of what it’s all about, but at least give it five minutes or so. 

Is it all lies? According to Ilir, yes. My take: mostly.

There’s no doubt the Communist regime here was extremely repressive. They outlawed all religious practice and destroyed countless places of worship. They suppressed all dissent and imprisoned or executed those who spoke out. There was no freedom. People were assigned jobs and sent to locations where work needed to be done. Borders were closed. Highways were empty because no one could afford cars.

I asked Ilir where Albania would be if democracy had taken root immediately after World War II, and without hesitation he said, “Much better off.” I would like to imagine that the Communists early on had the best interest of the Albanian people at heart and really did a good job of rebuilding in the post-war years. But Enver Hoxha, who ruled from 1944 until his death in 1985, seems not to have had anyone’s interest at heart except his own. He adopted hard-line, Soviet-style Communist positions even before the war, and he attained absolute power quickly and absolutely. 

There was no revolution or civil war, unlike Russia or China or Cuba. So why did Albania become a Communist dictatorship?

I don’t know. Perhaps, as one of my fellow travelers said, anything is better than chaos. But prior to the war there was a king, Zog. He maintained close ties with Italy. Albania was officially independent but essentially functioned as a protectorate of Italy. But when Mussolini invaded in 1939, King Zog was forced into exile, leaving a power vacuum after the war that Hoxha was happy to fill. 

We have one more day here in Tirana before we move on to North Macedonia, so I’ll try to learn more.