Skanderbeg Museum
Inside the walls.
Klodi Daci — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Shkelzen A. Rexha — CC0 · Arianit — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Colin W — CC BY-SA 3.0 · a.dombrowski — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Loreta Cuka — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gertjan R. — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Enrique Íñiguez Rodríguez (Qoan) — CC BY-SA 3.0
A castle on a rocky mountainside above the town of Krujë, north of Tirana, built in the fifth or sixth century and the centre of Skanderbeg's revolt against the Ottomans in the fifteenth century, when it held out through three great sieges in 1450, 1466 and 1467. Inside the walls stands the National Skanderbeg Museum, in a fortress-style building that tells the hero's story and battles through weapons, maps and documents, plus an ethnographic museum in an old traditional house. The castle also holds the Bektashi Dollma Tekke, the remains of the Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror mosque and its minaret, an old Turkish bath, cobbled lanes and traditional houses, and its walls look out over the plain as far as the sea. The way up passes through Krujë's old wooden-roofed bazaar, full of carpets, crafts and souvenirs. Walking the castle is free; the Skanderbeg Museum is about 500 lek, per visitor guides.
Inside the walls.
Wooden-roofed.
To the sea.
Krujë, about 30 km north of Tirana
About 30 km north, roughly an hour's drive, an easy half-day trip combining the castle, museum and old bazaar.