An Ottoman Town Below a Forbidding Medieval Castle
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| Albania |
08-Jun-2019
On to Gjirokastër
Leaving the Blue Eye for Gjirokastër, Edi first drove us east…
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| Edi drives us east from the Blue Eye |
…on a well-made road as the countryside became ever more hilly…
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| Inland Abania is distinctly hilly |
….and then turned north along the flat-bottomed valley of the River Drino towards Gjirokastër.
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| The flat bottomed valley of the Drino - probably best not viewed through a crash barrier, but you have to take what you can get |
Gjirokastër: A Little History
The earliest written record of Gjirokastër dates from 1336, but by then the city had already grown on the lower slopes of the hillside below a fortress that commanded the Drino Valley. At the break-up of the Byzantine Empire this was the disputed frontier between the Greek Despotate of Epirus and Albanian tribal lands. The Ottomans arrived in 1417 and stayed until 1913 and the document granting the Old City UNESCO World Heritage status described Gjirokastër as "a rare example of a well-preserved Ottoman town, built by farmers of large estates."
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| The fortress of Gjirokastër above the Old City |
Southern Albania has a large Greek population and when the independent Principality of Albania was established in 1913 a revolt in the south briefly made Gjirokastër capital of the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus. World War I soon trumped Albania’s internal problems and when the dust settled the 1913 borders were confirmed.
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| We have now reached Gjirokastra (or Gjirokastër), still in southern Albania but some way inland |
A Lunch of Byrek and Fërgese
Edi stopped in the main square of the old town, pointed us at his recommended restaurant and suggested a time to meet afterwards.
On a terrace beside the square and overlooking the hillside, we ordered byrek and fërgese, two typical Albanian dishes which together made a light lunch for two. Although etymologically related to Bosnian burek - a coiled tube of filo pastry baked round tiny meatballs (see Mostar) - byrek, filo pastry stuffed with fermented cheese and spinach, is closer to Moldovan/Romanian plăcintă. Fergesë is a dish of peppers, skinned tomatoes and onions baked with fermented cheese and olive oil to a delicious mush. Both were excellent.
The Old Bazaar Hotel, Gjirokastër
Feeling pleased with our choices we re-joined Edi, and sympathised as he moaned about how far the one-way system had made him drive to deliver our cases to a hotel only 100m away. We walked to The Old Bazaar Hotel, a delightful 18th century Ottoman building with many levels to accommodate the steep hillside.
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| Hotel Old Bazaar, Gjirokastër |
After a warm welcome we were led through an interior of wooden panelling and heavy furniture and down a narrow wooden spiral staircase.
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| A wooden door at the bottom of a tight wooden spiral staircase. So this is room 101! |
Our room was large and characterful. The street-level windows were barred for security while those across the room were some height above the ground. We saw no fire notice, and doubted the hotel in general, and our room in particular, would conform to western European fire standards, on the other hand the hotel had stood for over 200 years, so the chances of it burning down on the one night we were there seem reassuringly remote.
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| Large, comfortable, characterful and just possibly a death trap |
The Ethnographic Museum and the Skenduli House
A couple of Gjirokastër’s major sights were a short walk away along Ismail Kadare Street.
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| The view from Ismail Kadare street, Gjirokastër |
Kadare, a novelist and poet, is one of Gjirokastër’s favourite sons. Chronicles of Stone, published in 1971 and telling the story of a child in Gjirokastër during the chaos of World War II, is considered his and possibly Albania’s greatest novel. Despite many of his works being criticised and some banned, he managed to stay just on the right side of the regime almost to the end, only seeking political asylum in France in 1990 as Ramiz Alia attempted to follow in the footsteps of his mentor Enver Hoxha who had ruled Albania with a rod of iron from 1944-85. Now 83, Kadare divides his time between France and Albania.
Rruga Ismail Kadare has many traditional houses…
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| Traditional House, Gjirokastër |
…including the childhood home of Enver Hoxha, because he too was a son of Gjirokastër. The house burned down in 1966 and the reconstruction, intended as a model of a traditional Gjirokastër house, is a pastiche of features borrowed from around the city. It served as the Anti-Fascist Museum until 1991 and now houses the city’s Ethnographic Museum.
The rooms are typical of a wealthy 19th century Gjirokastër family of merchants or Ottoman administrators…
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| Ethnographic Museum, Gjirokastër |
…and are decorated with household items,…
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| Ethnographic Museum, Gjirokastër |
….folk costumes and cultural artefacts.
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| Ethnographic Museum, Gjirokaster |
Enver Hoxha is not entirely ignored, though few Albanians remember him fondly. The son of a well-to-do cloth merchant, he was born here in 1908 when Albania was still part of the Ottoman Empire.
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| A young Enver Hoxha in his old home (sort of), Gjirokastër |
Just up the road is the early 18th century Skenduli House.
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| The Skenduli House, Gjirokastër |
Apart from a brief period when it was requisitioned by the communist government the house has been owned by the Skenduli family for generations, and still is.
The Skendulis joke that they were richer than the Hoxhas as they had 9 fireplaces – apparently a local guide to wealth – while the Hoxhas had one. The Hoxha house that was rebuilt after the fire in 1966 is far grander than the original.
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| One of the Skendulis fireplaces, Gjirokastër |
The interiors are not that dissimilar, but here we had an engaging guide, possibly a member of the family - I wish I had asked. The wedding room with its stained-glass windows was spectacular (but no photos permitted). We were also shown the bomb shelter in the basement and the kitchen, with the very first electrical appliances available in Albania, though far out of reach to most ordinary Albanians.
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| The Skenduli kitchen, Gjirokastër |
I particularly liked the raised plinth beside the open balcony, where the elderly gentlemen of the family would sit in a summer evening and be brought their coffee and raki. ‘Raki?’I asked. ‘Were they not Muslims?’ ‘They were Muslims,’ I was told, ‘but they were also Albanians, and Albanians drink raki.’
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| Plinth for the mature raki drinker, Gjirokastër |
We walked back down to the bazaar area and had a coffee – Albania claims to have more coffee houses per head than any other country in the world. Then we did some shopping, because gifts and souvenirs do not buy themselves. The bazaar might have looked better if the cobbles had not been in the process of replacement, and maybe Edi would have had an easier drive earlier.
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| Part of the Gjirokastër bazaar under renovation |
Dinner in Gjirokastër
We dined at the oddly named Check-In Restaurant. We had spotted it on a terrace as we walked up the hill to our hotel, but the Gjirokastër topography allowed us to walk in on the flat when descending the hill.
Being no longer on the coast, grilled meat dominated the menu. We went for a mixed sharing platter (served on a slate – even here you cannot be sure your food arrives on proper china). The huge pile of chargrilled lamb, pork, chicken, assorted sausages and anything else they could bung on the barbey was a carnivores’ delight; not art and best hidden from vegetarian eyes but very satisfying. A ‘village salad’ – lob in everything available and sparge with good olive oil – was the perfect accompaniment.
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| Grilled meats at the Check-In Restaurant, Gjirokastër |
As on the coast, anonymous Italian wine by the carafe was cheap, but it was time to investigate the local product. The cheapest Albanian wine we saw in shops was £5 or £6 a bottle - expensive for the average citizen. We were offered a bottle of Kallmet, a local grape and new to me, from the Arbëri winery in northern Albani for 2000 Lekë (about £15, cheap for a restaurant wine at home, but steep by local standards). Kallmet is a major variety in Albania with a spicy/sweet perfumed nose (or so they claim). I thought it elegant, a touch smoky with deep red fruits. On the palate it was short and rather thin at first, but with plenty of tannin it coped well with the meats and revealed subtle pleasures as the bottle (or rather decanter) went down.
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| Arberi Kallmet |
We finished with a glass of raki – well, this is Albania.
09-Jun-2019
Breakfast in the Old Bazaar, Gjirokastër
We breakfasted on a wooden balcony, or was it a patio - in a building on a slope the difference is not always obvious. Sausages and egg with tomato, cucumber and high-quality bread, a basket of tiny pancakes and a pot of local honey (memorably delicious), fruit juice, tea and ‘mountain tea’ made from locally gathered greenery made an excellent start to the day.
Gjirokastër Fort
Edi arrived with a local guide and drove us up to the fort. The rambling stone edifice that crowns the hill above the city has existed in some form or another since the 11th century. It is more a citadel than a castle in the Western European sense and the area inside the walls has been renovated and extended many times and used for various purposes. The prison was extended under King Zog who ruled from 1922 to 1939, first as Prime Minister, then as President and from 1928-39 as Albania’s first and only King. The communist tyrant Enver Hoxha (ruled 1944-85) made full use of the prison for his real and imagined political enemies. The old walls look forbidding…
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| Inside Gjirokastër Fortress |
…but their main use now is as a museum of sorts. We passed down an avenue of guns captured by partisans in World War II, German on one side, Italian on the other.
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| Avenue of Guns, Gjirokastër Fortress |
At the end was a ‘little tank’, looking much more sinister than Lieutenant Gruber’s in ‘Allo! ‘Allo!...
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| 'Little Tank', Gjirokastër Fortress |
…and a ‘socialist realism’ statue resembling no soldier who has ever lived.
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| Unreal realism, Gjirokastër Fortress |
Beyond the gloomy corridor was a patch of grass. We were advised to keep off it by a sign displaying a little humour.
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| Keep off the grass, Gjirokastër Fort |
The cannons in question belonged to Ali Pasha and were British made. Ali Pasha, born 1740 was an Albanian bandit turned Ottoman apparatchik who established and ruled the semi-autonomous state of Western Rumelia (the western half of the Balkan Peninsula) from 1788 until 1822 when he upset the Ottoman sultan enough to get himself killed. After Lord Byron's visit to this efficient but ruthless and cruel ruler he became the personification of an "oriental despot" in western literature. British arms trading has remained a morality free zone to this day.
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| One of Ali Pasha's British Cannons, Gjirokastër Fort |
They also have the remains of an American spy plane shot down in the 1950s when it accidently (according to the Americans) strayed into Albanian airspace.
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| The remains of an american spy plane, Gjirokastër Fort |
But something seems to have happened to the plane. Atlasobscura has a rather different picture; I am not sure when it was taken but it cannot be many years ago.
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| The plane as it used to be - photo Marc Morell (reproduced under creative commons licence) |
From here there are fine views down over the old town and its stone roofs – Gjirokastër is known as the city of stone - …
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| Gjirokastër Old Town |
….and over the new town spreading out across the flat valley of the Drino - more concrete than stone here.
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| Gjirokastër New Town |
The end of the castle sits on a spur. The Gjirokastër Folklore Festival has been held here every five years since 1968 and showcases Albanian traditional music, dress and dance from Albania, Albanian inhabited lands in the Balkans and Southern Italy and the wider Albanian diaspora.
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| Stage for the Gjirokastër Folklore Festival |
At the very end of the spur is a clock tower erected in the early 1800s by Ali Pasha when he expanded the castle.
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| Ali Pasha's clocktower, Gjirokastër |
The Gjirokastër Obelisk
From the castle we made our way down to the obelisk that is central in the view (above) of the Old Town from the American spy plane. It looks a long way down, but it is still high enough to give a good view of the stone roofs of the Varosh district of the Old Town.
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| The roofs of Old Gjirokastër |
The obelisk is a recent construction, though the area around it looks somewhat neglected. It is a monument to Albanian education in the 20th century and stands near the site of the first Albanian school in Gjirokastër which was opened in 1908. Under the Ottoman Empire there had previously been no education in Albanian and opening the school was an act of defiance.
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| The Gjirokastër Obelisk |
It was time to say goodbye to our local guide and for Edi to drive us on towards Berat and the next post.
Part 3: Gjirokastër
Part 4: Berat
Part 5: Tirana
Part 6: Tirana to Saranda
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