Albania

Albania Arrived Out of A Dictatorship Looking Like Aliens Laid Eggs Across It

We had an early wake up call this morning because we had a date with The White City (otherwise known as Berat) and it was in another country, Albania. Albania is the only country that we’re visiting on this trip that was never part of Yugoslavia. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, Albania became a Communist state titled the People's Socialist Republic of Albania, and was under the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour until 1991. From what I gathered in my short time in Albania, the Hoxha era was not a pleasant era. 

A miscellaneous tidbit from our travel through the country was that there are 173,000+ (some literature says 750,000) indestructible bunkers located all over the country. Hoxha believed that the others would eventually try invade his country and as a result, he wanted somewhere to hole up defensively so that his troops could practice guerrilla warfare on the invading parties. Josif Zagali, the engineer that created the bunkers had to be damn sure that they were indestructible because when he said that they were good to go, he had to go inside the prototype while 20 bombs were dropped on top. 

Because this things can’t be destroyed, everything was built around them. That means they’re in the middle of parking lots, people’s backyards, town squares, mountain passes, city streets, etc. The bunkers were never used for their intended purpose and now most sit derelict. Some of the bigger ones (they ranged in size from small enough for only one person to large enough for hundreds of people) have been revitalized into art communes, hostels, shops, residential homes, bars, etc.

Berat AKA The White City AKA The Town of a Thousand Windows AKA One Above Another Windows City

Berat is a city in the south of Albania that is known as “The Town of a Thousand Windows” for the architectural style of the buildings that comes from the time of the Ottoman Empire’s occupation of the area. The city’s inhabitants solved the issue of not having electrical light by just adding windows next to windows, next to windows, on all the sides of the buildings. Additionally, the buildings (in the old town at least) are staggered on the steep hills so that it appears that the windows (and roofs) are stacked one over the next.

Berat sits in a valley between two mountains. According to an Albanian legend, there were two brothers, Tomorr and Shpirag, that were inseparable. Within a few days span, both brothers unknowingly fell in love with the same girl, Osum. Osum dated both for a time until eventually they figured out they were in love with the same girl. Tomorr asked Shpirag to give up Osum, and when Shpirag refused, the brothers fought. Tomorr used his sword and Shpirag, his canons. They ended up killing each other and Osum cried over their deaths. For their transgressions, the brothers were turned into the mountains on either side of Berat and Osum was turned into the hill upon which the Castle sits. Her tears formed the Osum river, which forever keeps the brothers separated.

Crossing the border into Albania was painless, but sad since the clerk didn’t give anyone a customary stamp in their passport. We arrived for our scheduled tour a few minutes early, which according to Louise was a rarity, and met Bona, our local guide.

Bona took our group around Berat Castle on an informative two hour tour. The castle is the first Fortress that we’ve seen on this trip that actually still has some of the original buildings and homes in it from the time when the Fortress was an actual city. This Castle still has numerous homes where locals still work and live, and thus it gave all of us the ability to see what these ancient cities would have looked like back in the century. Bona says that for the most part, only the older generation still lives in the castle since there are no supermarkets, schools, or doctors within its walls. If a younger person grew up there, they would move down the hill to the more modern parts of town as soon as they could, to be closer to amenities. 

Within the walls of the Fortress, are the remains of many churches, homes, and the two mosques (the Black and the Red) that once inhabited the area. Most of these are currently closed to the general public or in such a a state of disrepair that they’re either bare, or in need of some structural makeover. 

During the period of of 1944 to 1985, the country was under the Communistic rule of Enver Hoxha, who declared that Albania as “the Worlds first atheist state”. As a result, many of the churches/mosques/other religious buildings were destroyed or at least subjected to the painting over/scratching out/destruction of religious art and iconography within these buildings. So much amazing culture and history was obliterated during this time period.

Luckily, not everything was destroyed. Within the Castle walls lies the Onufri Iconography Museum inside the Church of the Dormition of St Mary. This museum houses 176 religious relics (106 of which are icons and 67 are liturgical objects) that once belonged to the iconographic Albanian painters of the the 14th - 20th centuries. Of these objects, most of the religious art was done by Nikola, the son of Onufri, for whom the museum was named. The art is amazing (even if I’m not one for the subject matter) and there is also area dedicated to famous religious texts that were found in the floor of the church.

After our tour of the Castle, we had a traditional Albanian lunch at a family owned restaurant inside the castle walls. While meat is still a huge part of the diet in many of the Balkan countries, the Albanians at least like vegetables as well. We got to try an eggplant dish with minced onion, tomatoes, and garlic (yummy), some sort of mush with tomatoes, peppers, and the salty feta like cheese from the region (very tasty on the homemade bread), and a spinach and egg dish that scared most of us since the eggs are sunny side up and look like a giant eye staring at you (just taste like boiled spinach and egg). There were a few other dishes as well, but except for the chicken pieces, they all included animals Em and I don’t eat.

Our appetites sated, we closed our eyes and braced ourselves for the decent back down the hill. The roads in many of these parts are barely wide enough for one car, yet they’re meant for traveling in two directions and the large 60 person buses also like to whip along them at unsafe speeds. This all adds up to making driving in a lot of places bad on your blood pressure. The only other way into or out of the castle was a wider and less broken up road with the problem of being make of nice shiny marble. The marble has been smoothed down over the years so that it creates a super slippery surface and many of cars have rolled down it at one time or another. Zejko said he tried it once and the car’s tires began to slip, so now he braves the longer, scarier road instead.

The old city centre consists of three parts: Kalaja (on the castle hill), Mangalem (at the foot of the castle hill) and Gorica (on the left bank of the Osum river). We drove down the hill so the we could better see the architecture of the buildings and walk across the pedestrian bridge that connects Mangalem with Gorica. 

Krujë

After our short pit stop at the base of the hill, we headed to Krujë for the evening. On our way to Krujë, we passed the Tirana International Airport Nënë (Mother) Tereza which was named to honor Saint Teresa; and the George W. Bush statue (which looks nothing like him), G.W.B. bakery (where he ate a pastry) and the G.W.B. coffee shop (where he had a cup of coffee) in Fushe Kruja. Bush was the first US President to visit Albania in the post communism era and many of the country’s inhabitants really love him. 

Krujë is a small town in the central north of Albania, known as the seat of power for George Castriot Skanderbeg during the 15th century. Skanderbeg was the son of an affluent Christian Albanian family that was given as Devshirme (blood tax) to the Ottomans when he was a young boy. He was forced to convert to Islam and then enroll in the Ottoman military. He served the Ottoman Sultan for twenty years before deserting during the Battle of Niš. Skanderbeg then spent the next twenty-five years leading an army of 10,000 men in an Albanian rebellion against the Ottomans. He managed to successfully hold Krujë against three different invasions.

We only had the evening we arrived and the next morning to explore the town, but the main things to do were wander through the souk to explore the Fortress, and visit the Skanderbeg and Ethnographic museums located inside the Fortress. The Skanderbeg Museum is inside the renovated castle and really nicely put together. The museum houses memorabilia (some real, many replicas) related to the life, military career, and rebellion led by Skanderbeg. 

The Ethnographic Museum is designed to look like a traditional Albanian home from the 1800s. All of the different rooms contain fully done up mock scenes of what each of the rooms would have been used for (complete with tapestries, tools, furniture, etc. and mannequins to represent the people within the house). 

Both museums were nice and worth their entrances fess. Since we exited with a little bit of time to spare before leaving the city, Em and I ventured further down the twisting streets of the fortress to go see the “Secret Tunnel” of which there were signs directing you to visit. The Secret Tunnel turned out to by a small tunnel in the outer wall through which someone could have entered the fortress. How secret it was during the heyday of the castle is anyone’s guess, but unless the tunnel was hidden by a big tree or something, it couldn’t have been that secret. It was cool though and I’m glad we braved the polished pathways (why did the architects of this time think small smooth stones for paved paths on slopes was a good idea.) to see it.