Berat

Today was a longish journey to the town of Berat. We had a quick stop at the end of Lake Ohrid to see where the lake runs out into a river, which heads off to Albania…also our destination. We crossed the border, then stopped for coffee and had to pay in Albanian Lek – no cards taken. 

It was around 1:30pm by the time we arrived, so we checked in to the Hotel Usomi – a family-run hotel in the picturesque old town. We took Danijela’s recommendation and immediately repaired across the road for a nourishing pizza and salad in the rooftop bar of the more modern hotel 100m down the road, and, suitably refreshed (I also tried a local beer), headed first to the supermarket and then to explore a little of the town. 

Some of the 1,000 windows

We’d passed a picturesque bridge on the way in so we made our way back down towards that, along the way snapping the local architecture. Berat is known as “The city of 1,000 windows” and I think you can see why.

Gorica bridge

From the bridge we could see the Old Town. We crossed over and walked up the other side, looking up old alleyways (most of which contained restaurants and hotels). The Intrepid blurb describes it as “the rarely visited town of Berat”, but given the number of restaurants and hotels, and English, American and French voices we heard as we walked, I’m calling shenanigans. It does seem quite geared up for tourists.

At 5pm we assembled with our driver to go up to Berat Castle, which (unsurprisingly) sits atop a hill overlooking the town. There we met our guide, Eric, who told us the history of the castle, the three walls built at different stages; and heard about the Illyrian kings, and other historical stuff. The castle has since had a number of houses built inside the wall, and once housed 2,400 people – 20 per house! – but these days occupancy is a more civilised four per house. The houses do occasionally come up for sale and Eric told us that there are currently one Greek and three Italian owners of houses, mainly used for holidays although one family lives there permanently.

There were also around 40 of churches in the castle walls, although most are now in disrepair. We visited some that have impressive frescos, done by Onufri the Cypriot. During the communist era, religion was outlawed and Albania became the world’s only officially atheist state. Many of the churches were converted to other uses, such as restaurants, house, and even storerooms. Most churches throughout the country were destroyed by Enver Hoxha, but in Berat they were preserved as “cultural monuments”.

Roman Emperor Constanine

Frescoes

Intrepideers

At the top we could see most of the new town, which is architecture of an unedifying communist type. We could barely see the Old Town as it was directly beneath us.    

After the tour ended we stayed at the castle to have dinner at one of the restaurants. This consisted of the usual mixture of Greek-inspired foods – Greek salad, grilled veges, chicken skewers, moussaka, feta, bruschetta, and lamb; followed by ice cream.

After dinner we drove back down the hill and back to the hotel for an early night.