Berat Castle

Berat Castle is located to the right of the Osum River, on a hill 187 m above the level of the river. This historic city's castle is its crown. You can overlook the entire city of Berat, the Osum River, and the ancient Gorica Bridge from the castle's fortified courtyard. One of Albania's most beautiful, significant, and large historical and cultural monuments is the castle. It established out as a proto-urban settlement and an important strategic location in the VII–V century BC.

It later became a fortified city with walls as long as 1400 meters in the seventh and fifth century BC. There have been several attacks on the castle at Berat, according to historical sources. In 216 BC, Antipatrea was mentioned, and the Romans also named it to as Albanorum oppidium (the fortress of the Arbrs). Berat Castle had 24 towers that belong to different periods of construction starting from the 4th century BC and ending during the reign of Ali Pasha Tepelena in the years (1813-1821). 

Many churches that date back to the 15th century can be seen within the 9.6 acres of the castle, including the Cathedral "Fjetja e Shën Marisë," the church of Shën Todrit, and the church of Shën Mërisë së Vllahernës.

• The Turkish palaces, the ruins of two mosques (red mosque) and (Ak Mesjit), Saranxha, Sallabanda square, the square called field, etc.
• While most of this inner courtyard is occupied by a series of alleys, gardens, baces and residential houses which make up the neighborhood called the fortress.
• The Museum of Medieval Art, built at the end of the XVIII century and decorated with frescoes up to the floor, but the most special works are the wood carvings of the iconostasis.
• The Onufri Iconographic Museum is located in this monument.
• The bust honoring Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor of Illyrian origin, who has also been declared a saint by the Catholic Church.

The castle is one of the few monuments of the medieval period in Albania that continues today to have an intense life within its surrounding walls. For all local and foreign visitors, it remains a historical and cultural monument, an exceptional tourist attraction.