the clock tower of the old citadel of Gjirokaster
City of a Thousand Steps may well be an understatement: the town has been build against the hillside, and in between the houses many of the passageways are in the form of stairs. Like Berat, much of the town is an impressive collection of well-maintained Ottoman houses, with attractive niches and balconies, although in the Gjirokaster of the 1990s quite a few of the houses needed repairs inside.
Above town towered the citadel, somehow also well-maintained, because this structure apparently served as one of the main political prisons during the communist era. On our tour of the building we visited some of the prison cells, as well as the upper courtyard, which had been used as execution range, where firing squads regularly shot those prisoners sentenced to death. This must have been clearly audible all over the town below, of course.
Gjirokaster town and citadel
the old Ottoman houses of Gjirokaster
houses have been built against the slope
slate roofs hide the many stairs in between the buildings
the prison cells and the execution range in the castle
another view of the castle on top of the citadel
not all the houses were in pristine condition
