Albanian Cultural Heritage

ELBASANI COUNTY
The Elbasani Castle. It’s a field castle in
the city of Elbasan. It is firstly referred by
Cristobel, Second Mehemet historian. In
XVIII century, the city was visited from
ottomans chronicler, Evlia Celepiu, who
described in details the castle. During
Austrian evasion the castle became object
of full studies. The Austrian’s archaeologists,
Prashniker and Shcober, who visited the
castle during First World War and noticed
that under medieval walls has fortifications
of antique period. The castle has quadrangular
shape with 308 x 48 m dimensions.
Today we keep saved only 8 towers from
26 that have been in the very beginning
of its construction. During the late antique
period the city within the castle named
Skampini, started its life as inhabited
centre in so called “Egnatia” street.
The reconstruction of castle is done by
Turkeys for strategic purposes. Even today
the castle is still habituated. Inside her we
can still find very important Muslimism cult
objects as well as Christians ones.
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The Monastery of Saint John Vladimir
(Shën Gjon Vladimiri) in Shijon.
This monastery is located only 4 km away
form Elbasan. It was build up in the year
1381 by Albanian prince Karl Topia, who
brought here the remaints of Saint John
Vladimir. The Saint John Vladimir was the
Duke of Krajina (Montenegro). He was
declared a saint and it has a wide fame in
Balkan peninsula. For his honour a big
pilgrimage was organized in this
monastery until 1967 when the communist
regime closed by force the religious
institutions all over the country. Nowadays
this pilgrimage is organized for each 3-4
June. This monastery has been a very
important cultural centre for Albanians,
with a very rich library. Unfortunately a
part of monastery was burned during the
Second World War by Nazi Forces.
The monumental gate of the monastery,
carved in stone is actually preserved in
National Historic Museum in Tirana.