ISOLATION TOWER
The last tower of this type in Albania. It was used to house men who were subject to a "blood debt").
This 19th century stone tower (Kulla e Ngujimit) is a kulla, a fortified house typical of the Ottoman Balkans. This three-story high tower had a very particular function in this Catholic region where the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini, a medieval customary law, governed life in society. The tower was used to house men who were subject to a "blood debt"(gjakmarrja) after having committed a crime. This practice still exists, but the isolation towers are no longer used: families with a vendetta prefer to hide in their homes or flee abroad. Many of these towers were destroyed or fell into ruin during the communist period. This one is the best preserved in Albania. It is also called the tower of Reconciliation (Kulla e Pajtimit) or the tower of Nikoll Zef Kaçeku, after the man who built it around 1880. It is still owned by the Kaçeku family, who own a guesthouse next door and organize tours of the tower. On the first floor, the only opening is an imposing door. The men used to reach the second floor by means of a ladder, which they used again to climb to the second floor where they lived in seclusion. There, a few openings in the walls allowed them to keep an eye on the surroundings with holes pointing downwards to shoot at possible attackers.
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