Gjirokastër, the Stone City That Ismail Kadare Made Immortal

Gjirokastër doesn't approach you: it hits you. From the Drino valley floor, your gaze climbs a cascade of grey limestone slab roofs covering the mountainside like the scales of an ancient creature. There is no plaster, no colour: only stone, the same stone of the mountain from which this city was born and with which it built every house, every street, every wall. UNESCO recognised it as a World Heritage Site in 2005, but humanity, thankfully, hasn't quite noticed yet.

The fortress and the American spy jet

The fortress of Gjirokastër is one of the largest in the Balkans and has dominated the entire city for over two thousand years — the earliest structures date to the 12th century. During World War II the Italians expanded it; during the Cold War, Enver Hoxha's communist regime built underground prisons for political dissidents. In the central courtyard you can still find, displayed as a trophy, a Lockheed T-33 — the American reconnaissance jet shot down during the Cold War. Admission to the fortress costs around 300 lekë (less than three euros) and includes the weapons museum.

The Ottoman bazaar and the tower-houses

The old bazaar is one of the best-preserved Ottoman commercial streets in the Balkans: silver workshops, artisan studios, cafés where time seems to have stopped in the 18th century. The grand houses — called kullë — rise several storeys high with bay windows framed in stone, and some are open as museums. The most famous is the birthplace of Enver Hoxha, the dictator who was born here in 1908; a few steps away, a plaque recalls that the writer Ismail Kadare — who described this city in his novel Chronicle in Stone — also opened his eyes among these alleys.

How to get there and when to go

Direct buses leave Tirana daily, with a journey of about four and a half hours for 1,200–1,500 lekë (around 12 euros). The city is only 60 kilometres from Berat, another Albanian UNESCO gem: the two sites can be comfortably visited in a three-day itinerary. The ideal months are April, May and September: in summer the heat in the valley can be intense, but evenings on the bazaar are always cool.