Libohovë Castle

Libohovë Castle, locally known as Kalaja e Libohovës, lies in the town of the same name, in the county of Gjirokastër in Albania.

Libohovë Castle was built, probably using the ruin of an earlier fortification, between 1796 and 1798, by Ali Pasha of Ioannina, an Albanian ruler who ruled as a very autonomous Ottoman pasha. Tradition has it that he built it as a wedding gift for his sister Shanisha.

It was built on the slope of the Bureto Mountain, on the east side of the Drino River valley. Although its remains may give the appearance of a strong castle, it was more built like a castle-palace and the thickness of its walls nowhere exceeds 1.40 meters. The residential structures inside the castle have disappeared. There is a drawing of them shown below, but I have no idea of its accuracy.

When the castle was abandoned, I do not know. In the center of the castle there is an underground structure, which I suspect to be something of a bomb shelter, built during the time when Albania was a communist state between the 1960s and 1980s.

Libohovë Castle is freely accessible. A nice castle ruin.

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