Traveling to Gjirokastra?
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📷 Adventure Albania / Unsplash (Unsplash License)
Gjirokastër is a city in southern Albania, known for its stone tower-houses and steep cobbled streets on the hillside above the Drino river valley. Due to its well-preserved Ottoman architecture, it has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a 'city of stone'. Above the old town rises a large fortress, while the bazaar and museum-houses preserve traces of the commercial and family life of the Ottoman period. The city is also the birthplace of the writer Ismail Kadare.
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One of the largest Ottoman fortresses in the Balkans, dating back to the 12th century, with its current form taking shape in the 17th and 19th centuries. Within the walls is the Arms Museum, housing collections from World War II, as well as an American F-86 Sabre military aircraft that made a forced landing in 1957. From the fortress terraces, there is a view over the entire city and the Drinos river valley.
A UNESCO-protected old city known for its stone tower-houses ('kulla') in a distinctive Ottoman style, unique stone architecture, and cobblestone alleyways. The 17th and 18th century architecture is better preserved here than in most cities in the region. A walk through the Pazari (bazaar) takes you past old shops, craftsmen's workshops, and cafes where locals gather.
The birthplace of Albania's most celebrated writer and Nobel Prize candidate Ismail Kadare has been transformed into a memorial museum. The 18th-century Ottoman kulla-style house preserves objects from the writer's childhood, manuscripts, and photographs. Kadare described this city in his novel 'Chronicle in Stone', which provides a literary context for walking through the old town.
The Benjë thermal springs near Përmet are nestled along the canyon of the Lengarica River, where warm mineral water fills natural stone pools beside an old Ottoman bridge.
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