The cistern
Fed by rain, where tours begin.
Christoph Strässler — CC BY-SA 2.0 · JoraKasapi — CC BY-SA 4.0 · JoraKasapi — CC BY-SA 4.0 · JoraKasapi — CC BY-SA 4.0 · JoraKasapi — CC BY-SA 4.0
Skënduli House is a three-storey Ottoman-era tower house in Palorto, an old quarter of Gjirokastër, which shares a UNESCO World Heritage listing with Berat. A first-category cultural monument since 1973, it still belongs to the Skënduli family, who show visitors round one of the best-preserved houses in town. Local heritage sources date the present house to 1823, when the wealthy landowner Skënder Skënduli built it, though guidebooks place its origins in the early 1700s. Loopholes guard its two entrances, and it has inner and outer staircases. In the 1980s the communist state took it over for the town's ethnographic museum; after the regime fell, the museum moved to the site of Enver Hoxha's birthplace and the family got the house back in the 1990s. Visits usually start at the ground-floor cistern, whose rain-fed system guidebooks say still works, as do the hoists between floors. Besides storerooms and several hammams, there are frescoed rooms, inlaid wardrobes, painted fireplaces and screens for hiding the women or watching unseen; guidebooks count nine fireplaces in all. The guest room has carved ceilings and a painted hunting scene on its outer wall by the top-floor gallery, the family's summer retreat over the valley; a wedding room has 15 windows, many of coloured glass. The house stands near the Ethnographic Museum. As the crow flies, it lies about 300 m west of the Old Bazaar and 440 m from the castle, with the Zekate House some 250 m further west. Steep cobbled lanes link them, so it slots easily into a walk round the old town.
Fed by rain, where tours begin.
Carved ceilings and a painted hunt.
Fifteen windows, many of coloured glass.
Palorto quarter, near the Ethnographic Museum, Gjirokastër
Zekate HouseZekate House is a fortified tower house, or kullë, high in Gjirokastër's Palorto3 minutes walk
Gjirokastër Old BazaarThe heart of Gjirokastër's old town, where lanes paved in white and grey stone m4 minutes walk4.6
Gjirokastër CastleA huge castle 336 m up that dominates the town of Gjirokastër and the strategic 6 minutes walk4.7Guidebooks give 9 am to 7 pm, often later in high summer, though hours can be flexible. One guidebook says that from November to March it opens only for tours booked ahead, while other sources list it as open all year, so check before a winter visit.
In old Gjirokastër, the more fireplaces a house had, the richer the family. Local accounts cite this house's nine as a sign that the Skëndulis were among the town's wealthiest.