"Berat, the thousand windows city" a Berat Travel Page by JLBG

I have visited Berat three times, in 1988, 2007 and 2009. Berat is an outstanding city that deserves a visit. It was declared a museum city in 1961 and thus, even the religious buildings were protected from drestruction. It was inscribed in 1996 on the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list which means that it is nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Berat, a city of 47,000 inhabitants, stands in east central Albania, 160 km south to Tiranė.
Berat stands on the north-south high road from Durrėsi to Tepelena, Gjirokastra and Ioanina (in Greece). The first sight is of a city that spreads on the slopes of two mountains that face one another, on both sides of river Osum, a tributary of river Seman, Mali Tomor (2416 m) is one of the highest mountains in Albania. Mount Shpirag is only a little lower.

The city spreads over two hills that face one another, on both sides of river Osum. On the left bank of river Osum, Gorica, which used to be the Christian district. Gorica is topped by a ruined castle. On the right bank, Mangalem, which used to be the Moslem district. Mangalem is topped by the citadel. Inside the citadel walls, The Kala district is still inhabited. It used to be a Christian district with several churches and the ruins of two mosque. The modern city has spread in the plain, upstream and downstream along the right bank of the Osam river. Historically, the oldest part of the city is the Kala district. When the space inside the walls of the fortress became two small, both Mangalem and Gorica began to develop. The modern city began to be built at the end of the XIXth-beginning of the XXth.

The town was founded in the second century B.C. under the name of Antipatrea by the Illyrian Dasaretes tribe. The Bulgarians took it in the ninth century and kept it for two centuries under the name of Beligrad (white City) which later gave Berat. It was successively ruled by the despot of Epirus, Michael Angelus Comnenus (13th), the Serbs (1345) and the Turks (1450). In 1809, the famous Ali of Tepelen, Pasha of Janina (born in Tepelen), surnamed Arslan, also known as the Lion of Janina, took control of the city.