The view of Mangalem
White houses climbing to the castle.
yeowatzup — CC BY 2.0 · Planeti — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gashi Bujar — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Avi1111 dr. avishai teicher — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Karelj — CC BY-SA 4.0
Gorica Bridge spans the Osum in Berat, linking Mangalem, the old quarter at the foot of the castle hill, with Gorica on the south bank. About 130 metres long and some 10 metres above the river, it is one of the best-known symbols of Berat, whose old town has been on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 2008. In the 17th century the Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi found a bridge here with nine wooden arches on stone piers. It was rebuilt in stone in the later 18th century, usually dated to 1777, under Ahmet Kurt Pasha, the ruler of Berat after whom it is also named. Its middle was blown up in 1918, at the end of the First World War, and it was rebuilt in the 1920s, gaining the parapets it still has. Looking upstream from the bridge, to the east, you see Mangalem's white houses climbing in tiers towards the castle, facing Gorica across the river: the view behind Berat's nickname, city of a thousand windows. Openings in the piers let floodwater through. A restoration in 2014–15 renewed the cobbles and added lighting, so dusk is a fine time to come. The bridge is free to cross, open at all hours and closed to cars, and makes an easy start or end to a walk through Mangalem and Gorica. The castle is about 800 metres to the north as the crow flies, up a steep cobbled climb. Further up the same river lies the Osum Canyon, some 36 km to the south-east in a straight line.
White houses climbing to the castle.
Arched vents in the piers for floodwater.
Lit up after dark.
Over the Osum between the Mangalem and Gorica quarters, Berat
Mangalem QuarterThe historic quarter on the slope below Berat Castle, where white Ottoman houses7 minutes walk4.7
King Mosque (Berat)The King Mosque (Xhamia e Mbretit), also called the Sultan's Mosque, stands at t9 minutes walk
Berat CastleA castle on a rocky hill on the right bank of the Osum, 214 m above the town of 10 minutes walk4.8No, it is closed to motor vehicles, which cross the Osum on a road bridge downstream, to the west. Berat municipality has a car park in Gorica near the bridge, where a parking fee may apply.
For the Orthodox feast of Epiphany, a cross is thrown from the bridge into the Osum, and young men from the town's quarters dive into the cold river to catch it. By custom, whoever retrieves it carries it from house to house through Gorica, Mangalem and the castle quarter.