Gjirokaster Things to Do Tips by njonjo

The old quarters are situated in the upper part of the city. You can't miss this part of city, the old house are very different from the 5-planes buildings of real soc architecture. So walk up and up. There are many interesting views, unique architecture, but a lot of signs of abandon also. I found that there was quite total lack of explaining signs so I missed some buildings I wanted to see.

In the first moments of the walk we thought that we'll be lost and never find again our hotel, but it was not so difficult, being the town built on a mountain side you can always see important points of orientation as the castle, or some small squares.

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Directions: Qafa e Pazarit and Palorto quarter

'Qafa e pazarit' is the most preserved and beautiful point of the old city. It is a crossroad of narrow stone alleys, once the center of the bazaar, it's still full of shops, lovely part of the city. The rough translation in English should be 'neck of bazaar'.

I'll add the right picture later.

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After walking around among old houses and in narrow streets, the next thing to do in Gjirokaster is the visit of the castle. Being the highest point of the town, the castle offers some scenic views over Drinos valley and is the best point to have a panorama of the city itself.
The fortress is named 'castle of princess Argjiro', so the name of the town Gjirokastra, castle of Argjiro. Princess Argjiro, the legend says, killed herself when she saw that Turk army had entered in the castle.
Inside the castle there is a modest museum where different weapons are exposed. I saw many galleries still waiting to be discovered. I asked the staff why they do not dig to discover all the tunnels and they answered that there were not funds for that work. My idea is that there is an undiscovered world down there.
Castle of Gjirokaster is also famous as the traditional stage of the National Folk Festival.

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There are not so many things to see in this museum, but puting some canons in the interiors of the castle created another atmosphere that I enjoyed. Some of the weapons belong to the WWII, but there are a lot of older ones.

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This is famous.
It's a US plane that crossed the Albanian space in the 50's or 60's and Albanian Mig's forced the pilot to land. A great victory for the communist regime and 15 years ago I should have been proud of this picture :). Now that the regime is over and the Americans are 'our best friends' authorities are discussing about removal of the plane from the castle.
Anyway, a photo of the aircraft has become a 'must' for everyone visitng the castle.

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