Berat, the so-called City of a Thousand Windows. Curious nickname of this historic city, one of the most beautiful in Albania and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
In Berat, more than 2,000 years of history contemplate you. Although you also see the hundreds of windows of houses that are arranged in fall from the castle that crowns the city. The curious physiognomy of the town causes this effect on the visitor.
The magic of Berat circulates around the Osum River that divides the city. It is here when you feel trapped by the hundreds of windows that watch you. Small white stone houses that climb the two slopes that give shape to the meander of the river. Minarets of mosques that announce the call to prayer throughout the city. A watchman castle at the top, witness, judge and part of what has happened here. And below, in the only flat part, a wide and pedestrian boulevard that takes the put to the city.
The historical Berat is made up of three districts, Mangalemi, Gorica and Kala, the trio that composes the denomination as a World Heritage Site next to Gjirokastra, the other historic city of Albania.
Mangalemi is the right bank between the river and the castle, that wall of houses that hypnotizes you when you look at it and that will be the victim of your camera. Opposite Mangalemi is Gorica, smaller, also at the foot of another mountain, while Kala is the whole neighborhood surrounding the castle.
Mangalemi
To travel Mangalemi is to enter its narrow streets, those that hide behind thousands of windows. From the outside, nothing suggests that there is a micro world of hidden alleys. The houses are crowded together, as accommodating the hillside of the mountain that rises to the castle.berat albania
Mangalemi is the historic Muslim quarter of the city and has three mosques. The Mosque of the Sultan, from the 16th century, is one of the oldest in Albania, as is the Mosque of Lead or Izgurli, with its characteristic domes of this material. Two temples around 500 years old that give us to understand the historical importance of this place.
The silence of the narrow streets ends in the lower part, where the bustle of the city and the crowds that walk along the modern pedestrian boulevard, the new center of the city, arrive. Traffic, commerce, stores, marketing. It is worth exploring and prying around here, where an aesthetically distinct city appears, of times it does not deserve to remember.
Night falls and Mangalemi transforms. The charm takes over a city of white stone, where the dim light of the streets gives way to reflection in the facades and windows, some illuminated, others in the dark.
Gorica
On the other side of the Osum River, as if it were a reflection of Mangalemi, it was the Gorica neighborhood. Again, the windows watch, the houses extend their target at the foot of the other mountain that escorts the city. We are on the Orthodox Christian side. To get to Gorica you have to cross the bridge of the same name, witness of the city.
Kala (castle)
But Berat hides very well one of his jewels, his famous castle. From below, no trace of him. Behind Mangalemi rises this fortress whose origins go back more than 2,000 years ago, when the city was born.
From Mangalemi a hard climb leads directly to the castle gates. If you are driving, you must leave Berat and circle the castle behind to find the road that goes up there.
Time stops in the castle. Streets and lonely houses silence the noise of the few tourists who visit it. Some lady exposes her fabrics and laces, and she tries to achieve some sale. Some chickens and a rooster appear, true inhabitants of the place. Although the state of conservation of the fortress is not all bad, there are slight jobs that like many other things in Albania, go slowly.
The current remains of Berat Castle and the houses it houses belong to the thirteenth century, when it lived its last reconstruction as a citadel that houses the population. That fact has facilitated that the castle arrived until our times, maintaining an active life intramuros throughout the centuries.
Curiously, the population of the castle was Christian, there were 20 churches inside and only one mosque. Today, one of its most characteristic monuments is the Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity, also of the thirteenth century, with its characteristic Byzantine structure.
In Berat, the summers are short, hot, dry, and mostly clear and the winters are long, cold, wet, and partly cloudy. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 35°F to 92°F and is rarely below 26°F or above 99°F.
The best time of year to visit Berat for hot-weather activities is from late June to late August.
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