CASTLE OF PETRELA
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Beautiful little Byzantine castle dominated by a large semicircular tower and triangular ramparts with two corner turrets.
This beautiful little Byzantine castle (Kalaja e Petrelës) is located on top of a rocky spur at 329 m above sea level, just above the village of Petrela. It is dominated by a large semicircular tower that was erected in the 6th century during the reign of Emperor Justinian. The walls that form a triangle around it were added between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries and were equipped with two corner turrets. The whole was used to control the road of the Krraba Pass which connected the Via Egnatia. In the 15th century, the castle belonged to the powerful Muzaka Thopia family. It was part of the defense system set up by the Lezha League against the Ottomans with the fortresses of Preza and Kruja. Captured in 1444, it was freed soon after by Skanderbeg and became the residence of one of his five sisters, Mamica Kastrioti, married to Karl Muzaka Thopia in 1445. The castle was taken over by the Ottomans around 1466. Judged to be militarily outdated, it was nevertheless remodeled at the beginning of the 16th century and at the end of the 18th century to accommodate a small garrison. Abandoned in the early nineteenth century, it was restored in the 2000s to its "medieval" appearance. The main tower is thus surmounted by a "hourd", a corbelled wooden structure that was erected during sieges. Today it houses a bar-restaurant with a magnificent view of the Erzen valley. Good traditional Albanian dishes are served here or in the castle courtyard.
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