Monday 28 November 2016

Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra

Berat and Gjirokastra are two fortified historic centres in Albania remarkably well preserved.

Bachelors' Mosque in Berat
This postcard was sent by Christina

The Bachelors' Mosque, formerly the Sylejman Pasha Mosque, is a Cultural Monument of Albania, located in Berat. It became a Cultural Monument in 1961.
The mosque is located in the lower Mangalem neighborhood. It has two floors and arcades on three sides of it. The minaret of the mosque is low. The paintings inside the mosque date from the years 1927-1928.

Berat is a city and a municipality located in south-central Albania, and the capital of the County of Berat and also one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.
The town is still renowned for its historic architecture and scenic beauty and is known as the "Town of a Thousand Windows", due to the many large windows of the old decorated houses overlooking the town. - in: wikipedia


Gjirokastra
This postcard arrived from Austria sent by Christina

Gjirokastër is a town and a municipality in southern Albania. Lying in the historical region of Epirus, it is the capital of Gjirokastër County. Its old town is a World Heritage Site described 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, at 300 metres above sea level. The city is overlooked by Gjirokastër Fortress, where the Gjirokastër National Folklore Festival is held every five years. Gjirokastër is the birthplace of former Albanian communist leader Enver Hoxha and notable writer Ismail Kadare. It hosts the Eqrem Çabej University
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 flat dressed stones. A very similar style can be seen in the Pelion district of Greece. The city, along with Berat, was among the few Albanian cities preserved in the 1960s and 1970s from modernizing building programs.- in: wikipedia

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