12 historic sites
Castles in Albania
Albania contains two of the world's most extraordinary UNESCO-listed fortified towns — Berat ('the City of a Thousand Windows') and Gjirokastër ('the Stone City') — plus a coastline of ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine fortifications. Berat Castle is a living castle-city: an entire medieval community of houses, churches and mosques still inhabited within its walls. Albania is Europe's most undervisited medieval destination.
albania · Durrës County
Krujë Castle
The fortress where Skanderbeg held back the Ottoman Empire for 25 years
albania · Shkodër County
Rozafa Castle
Two thousand years of Balkan history from a hilltop where three rivers meet — and the sacrifice of a woman named Rozafa
albania · Gjirokastër County
Gjirokastra Castle
The hilltop fortress that has watched over Gjirokastër for eight centuries — castle of Ottoman warlords, communist prison, folklore festival stage, and the town that shaped Ismail Kadare
albania · Tirana County
Petrela Castle
The Skanderbeg castle above the Erzen valley — built by Justinian's engineers in the 6th century to guard the Via Egnatia, used by Albania's national hero as a military base 900 years later, and still accessible today on 4 km of mountain road above a village that time has left largely alone
albania · Durrës County (Cape Rodon)
Rodoni Castle
Skanderbeg's other fortress — Rodoni Castle on Cape Rodon is the coastal counterpart to Krujë's mountain stronghold, built by Albania's national hero in the 1450s to command the Adriatic and maintain access to Venetian naval support during his resistance against the Ottomans
albania · Tirana
Toptani Castle
The castle in the centre of the capital — Tirana grew up around these Ottoman-era walls, the Toptani beys governed their Albanian territory from this position, and the 2018 square renovation revealed Byzantine mosaics under the communist-era paving
albania · Durrës County
Preze Castle
The ridge castle between Tirana and the Adriatic — built by the Thopia lords of medieval Albania to hold the trade route from the sea to the interior, free to visit today, and one of the few places in the Tirana hinterland where you can see both the capital's skyline and the Adriatic on the same clear day
albania · Kavajë District
Fortress of Bashtova
A 15th-century fortress on the Via Egnatia — one of Albania's most significant yet least-visited medieval monuments, rising from the coastal plain at the mouth of the Shkumbin
albania · Berat County
Berat Castle
A living Byzantine citadel above the City of a Thousand Windows
albania · Albanian Riviera
Lëkurësi Castle
The highest point above Saranda — a 16th-century Ottoman castle on the hill commanding the Ionian Sea, Corfu, and the Butrint lagoon, accessible as the final stop on a Saranda Butrint day trip
albania · Lezhë County
Lezhë Castle
Where Skanderbeg united Albania — the hilltop where the League of Lezhë was formed in 1444 and where Albania's national hero died in 1468
albania · Albanian Riviera
Porto Palermo Castle
Ali Pasha's triangular maritime fortress on the Albanian Riviera — an early 19th-century Ottoman bastion on a rocky peninsula, one of the most distinctive landmarks on the Ionian coast