Gjirokastër or Gjirokastra is a city in southern Albania

admin ♦ July 30, 2010 ♦ 1 Comment

Gjirokastër or Gjirokastra is a city in southern Albania with a population  of around 34,000. Lying in the historical region of Epirus, it is also the capital of both the Gjirokastër District and the larger Gjirokastër County. Its old town is inscribed on the World Heritage List as “a rare example of a well-preserved Ottoman town, built by farmers of large estate.” Gjirokastër is situated in a valley between the Gjerë mountains and the Drino River, at 300 meters above sea level. The city is overlooked by the Gjirokastër Castle.

Gjirokastër is home to an ethnic Greek community of about 4000, as well as communities of Vlachs and Roma. Gjirokastër is considered the center of the Greek community in Albania

The novel Chronicle in Stone of the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare tells the history of this city during the Italian and Greek occupation in WWII.

Gjirokastër is home to the National Folklore Festival (Albanian: Festivali Folklorik Kombëtar) that holds every five years, most recently in 2009

The city is built on the slope surrounding the citadel, located on a dominating plateau.

Although the city’s walls were built in the third century and the city itself was first mentioned in the 12th century, the majority of the existing buildings date from 17th and 18th centuries. Typical houses consist of a tall stone block structure which can be up to five stories high. There are external and internal staircases to surround the house and it is thought that such design stems from fortified country houses typical in southern Albania. The lower storey of the building contains a cistern and the stable. The upper storey is composed of a guest room and a family room containing a fireplace. The upper stories are to accommodate extended families and are connected by internal stairs

Many houses in Gjirokastër have a distinctive local style that has earned the city the nickname “City of Stone”, because most of the old houses have roofs covered with stones.

The city, along with Berat, were among the few Albanian cities that were preserved in the 1960s and 1970s from modernizing building programs. Both cities gained the status of “museum town” and are UNESCO World Heritage sites.

The Gjirokastër Castle dominates the town and overlooks the strategically important route along the river valley. It is open to visitors and contains a military museum featuring captured artillery and memorabilia of the Communist resistance against German occupation, as well as a captured United States Air Force plane to commemorate the Communist regime’s struggle against the imperialist powers.

Additions were built during the 19th and 20th centuries by Ali Pasha of Tepelene and the Government of King Zog. Today it possesses five towers and houses a clock tower, a church, water fountains, horse stables, and many more amenities. The northern part of the castle was eventually turned into a prison by Zog’s government and housed political prisoners during the communist regime.

Gjirokastër also features an old bazaar which was originally built in the 17th century, but which had to be rebuilt in the 19th century after it burned down. There are more than 200 homes preserved as “cultural monuments” in Gjirokastër today.

When the town was first proposed for inscription on the World Heritage List in 1988, ICOMOS experts were nonplussed by a number of modern constructions which detracted from the old town’s appearance. The historic core of Gjirokastër was finally inscribed in 2005, 15 years after its original nomination.Error processing request