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Pro
An absolute must see
Con
Very steep slopes and lots of steps
In a nutshell
Traditional beauty
Jetgirly Says: For the best views of Gjirokastra, head up to the castle. It's a hot, strenuous walk up if the sun is shining, so get an early or late start. Upon arrival, your 200-leke admission fee buys you access to most of the castle, including a gloomy hallway lined with artillery and...
Ethnographic Museum of Gjirokastra
Jetgirly Says: If there's one thing the former Ottoman Empire loves, it's a good ethnographic museum. Ethnographic museums typically showcase the culture and lifestyle of a particular group, and in Gjirokastra's Ethnographic Museum you can see how an actual 19th-century family in...
JLBG Says: The square is named after Çerçiz Topulli (1880-1912), a national hero that fought for the independence of Albania together with his brother Bajo Topulli. I have found that in 1908, he led an uprising against the Ottomand and that he played a main part in the battle of...
Sheshi Çerçiz Topulli : hanged woman
JLBG Says: Another monument on Çerçiz Topulli square reminds the sad memory of two Gjirokastrian young women, Bule NAIPI and Persefoni KOKËDHIMA, that were hanged by the nazi during WWII as they were suspect to help the nationalists against the invaders. The anonymous sculptor has...
JLBG Says: Palorto district is a little further up in the mountain than Varosh.Photo 1 shows a part of the Palorto district, with a lot of trees and bushes growing around the houses. In the background, the soil is rocky and bare. This is one of those ravines that scare the slope of the...
JLBG Says: Photo 1 shows Zekate house from Hotel Kalemi. Zekate house is an interesting example of typical Ottoman style house. The large house is made of three parts: two towers on each side, linked by an open but covered terrace on the top level. Zekate house is private and not open...
JLBG Says: Keeping in condition the old traditional houses is expensive. Some are repaired but others are just left and decay by themselves. Their owners may have settled in more comfortable (and cheaper) apartments in the new city, or emigrated to nearby Greece or even further. The...
JLBG Says: Hotel Kalemi offers a wide view on the old and the modern city as well as on the castle.Photo 1 shows the valley in the background with an interesting house standing in the middle on a shelf. It would be interesting to spot it and view it from closer.Photo 2 shows the...
JLBG Says: Shaded under a plane tree, the "kafe", shot in 1988, looks exactly like a Greek "cafeneion". There are amazingly the same people (enlargement on the second photo), sat on the same chairs, drinking the same café or the same glass of water, or not drinking anything but just...
Restaurant Gjoca: Friendly Family Restaurant
Jetgirly Says: I have a terrible feeling that "Gjoca" might just mean restaurant, and I've called this place Restaurant Restaurant, but that was the only distinguishable word on the sign outside the restaurant in which I dined in Gjirokastra. Run by a friendly husband and wife team, this...
Bar Kerculla: The Characteristic Bar Restaurant
BarKerculla Says: Bar- Restaurant “Kerculla” is located on top of one of the hills of this magical town, even above the age long castle level. From this beauty spot the tourist has the possibility to set eyes on and admire the museum city, the magnificent castle, the Drino valley, the region...
"Viva Vino" wine bar: The best wines in the city
vivavino Says: The first bar of this kind in the Gjirokastra, built at the center of the city has the honor to serve you the best quality wines in the city. The original design and master way in the serving of the wine let the visitors to feel the flavor and aroma of our wines in all their...
Restaurant Fantasia: Restaurant Fantasia
JLBG Says: Restaurant Fantasia is a large restaurant standing at Shesti I Çerçizit with an outstanding view on the city. We had a bier and did not try their Italian cooking but there were plenty of local customers.In front of Fantasia, a wide flat space allows to park easily, which is...
Jetgirly Says: The trip between Gjirokastra and Sarande is short in distance but long in duration. The roads were frequently unpaved and there was constant construction, meaning the buses and shared vans (which had no air conditioning) were moving at a snail's pace. The trip there was...
JLBG Says: In the whole Balkan area, it is usual to have the death advices on display at every street corner. Unlike what I had seen in Bar, Montenegro, nothing allows guessing what is the religion of the deceased, if any.However, we can notice that there are two types of advices . I...
JLBG Says: Each time we came to Albania in May, we met busses of college students visiting their country as an end-of-the-year travel. They had all on their bus large posters reminding what was their class. In Gjirojaster, we found that on the front of the college, there were also the...
JLBG Says: We found that they sold only clothes, shoes, etc…Photo 1 shows a chaos of shoes that do not seem to be arranged as pairs. If you find a suitable shoe, you have to search for the other!Photo 2 had clothes piled on both sides and a flower booth.Photo 3 shows clothes with a tea...
JLBG Says: We had already visited a great part of the old town (it would not be true to say “all” the old town as it is so extensive!) and we wanted to have a look to the modern town, to the city center. After all, this is where most of the life of the city was! We found that on top of...
JLBG Says: Along the road from Jorgucat to Gjirokaster, a series of villages are spread on the lower slopes of the Mali i Gjerë mountain range, in the same way as Gjirokaster. The road sign for most of them bear both an Albanian and a Greek name : Lazarat, Haskovë, Lugar, Gorice,...
Birds eye view on the Drino valley
JLBG Says: After Delvinë, the road from Saranda to Jergucat climbs the Mali i Gjerë range (the Great mountain) and reaches a height of about 800 meters. After that, it goes down to Jergucat, into the valley of the river Drino, a tributary of the river Vjosë that pours into the Adriatic...
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NEW Gjirokastra/Argyrokastron page
I have been in Gjirokastra in 1988 for a short visit and I had built a VT page. I was again in Gjirokastra in May 2007 and visited more of the city but two days were not enough and I will have to go...
Gjirokastra, clinging to the slope of Gjere mountain (Mali i Gje:re:) above the valley of the Drin river, is one of the most beautiful cities in Albania. It is known as the town of a thousand stairs...
I came to Albania on a day trip from Ioannina and I knew that I wanted to see Gjirokaster. With only a couple of hours to see as much of the country as I possibly could, I was looking for the most...
Gjirokater is situated in south Albania, near the border with Greece (Kakavije-border crossing point). It has been declared a museum city. The town has indeed a unique architecture and everything is...
Gjirokaster is an ancient city with habitation dating back they think to about the 1st century BC. It is a UNESCO world heritage city and in 2005 was inscribed on the world heritage list saying 'A......
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