Museum town - Berat
I head out
of Tirana to go to the second museum town of Albania. The first part of the
trip is surprisingly smooth. The road is in an unusual good condition for
Albania - there are only a few potholes in the first couple of hours. And the
bus is actually driving pretty fast. But then when we are just about to get t
Berat I realize where all the potholes have gone - they were meeting up for the
annual family reunion in the giant pothole family. This year the reunion is on
the road just north of Berat.
The bus
drives into Berat and immediately I am impressed with the city. The city is
just located down at a river and the houses in the city are just really
attractive to look at while the bus drives by.
I get out
from the bus and try to find the place I got a flier from back in Tirana and I
start walking down to the river and take the small bridge across to the other
side of the river. I walk up the hill towards the place I want to stay. As I
walk along I am getting caught by a British bloke who is actually the owner of
this brand new place - so I have no problem finding the house. The door to the
garden would be easy to recognize anyway given it is clearly labeled with
number 295. Street names in Albania in general and Berat in particular is not
really something people use. And I think the number on this house is the only
house number on any house in the entire Berat area.
I get into
the place and realize one of the people I had met in Tirana a couple of days
before is still staying here - he is feeling a bit poorly though. There are not
that many tourists here in Berat but somehow it seems like there is constantly
somebody staying at this hostel because they keep getting sick.
I get ready
to go out to do a bit of sightseeing around the town. I really want to go into
the narrow streets with all the pretty houses. But then I realize - what I saw
from the bus wasn’t really Berat at all. The old town of Berat is actually made
up by three separate districts. Gorica where I am staying - it is considered
the poor part of the city and the least attractive because the sun is not
reaching this part of the city during the winter - hence the local believes
this part of town is too cold in the winter. But contrary to the other parts of
the city the houses here in Gorica actually got small gardens. On the other
side of the river are Mangalem which are the part of the city I saw from the
bus when I drove into the city. This is probably the most photogenic part of
the town and it is also home to the biggest mosques in the city. The old
mosques and churches have survived in Berat because it was declared the second
museum town in Albania - Gjirokastra - the home town of Enver Hoxha - was the
first museum town.
After I
visited Mangalem I walk up a straight road which is very steep. At first I had
actually thought Mangalem were the main attraction in Berat - but it is not.
The main attraction in Berat is the Kalasa district which is at the end of this
steep road. The road just goes on and on and there is no part of it which is
less steep where you can relax a bit. I am reasonable fit and still think this
road is pretty hard to walk up - I can only imagine what older people living up
in the Kalasa district is feeling when they need to go down to the main part of
town. Apparently some people just never leave the Kalasa district. When Berat
were admitted to the UNESCO list the local medias interview an old woman and
she was asked what she thought were the most important changed in the modern
part of Berat during the last decade - and she replied she had not left the
Kalasa district the last 30 years because the walk up and down the hill were
just too much.
I finally
get to the top of the road and the top is the Kalasa district which surrounded
by a wall.
Most of the
houses in this part of the city are several hundred years old and when they are
repaired it is required to restore them in a way so they look like the rest of
the city. When I walk around the city I see a couple of people carrying large
beams up the hills to do some repairs on one of the old houses. They did use a
truck to drive them up most of the way but they still had to carry them the
last bit of the way.
It is
getting a bit late and I get ready to walk down the steep road. Walking down
should be easy and it is going pretty smoothly - but the road is made of some
bricks and it feels a bit slippery.
The city lies at the bank of the Osum River which gives it a very attractive setting for the town. The city is made of four parts - a big new part of town which is not particular interesting and three old city districts, the Gorica, Mangalem and Kalasa districts.
The history of Berat stretch back a long time to the first Greek settlement in the area in 6 BC. Later the city was ruled by the Bulgarians who renamed it Beligrad - or White City. This is thought to be the origin of the current name Berat - and the name white city is a proper name for a city where all the houses are white.
During the general Ottoman expansion in the Balkan area Berat fell and were ruled by the Ottomans from 1450 until 1912 when Albania finally regained independence. But even though the Muslim Ottomans ruled here for so long large parts of the city remained Christian. And there are lots of old churches to be seen in the Christian districts of Kalasa and Gorica.
The main attraction of Berat is the castle which is in the Kalasa district and the entire Kalasa district is actually more or less a part of the castle. The area is also the home to many of the old churches and a museum. The only thing is it is at the end of a very steep road which does require a minimum fitness level. They have introduced a bus up the hill which only runs in the morning.
Up at the top at the castle you will not only be enjoying the old houses but also some magnificent view of the river, mountains and the rest of Berat city. But the main thing of the place is even the most touristy area in Kalasa is actually a living town with local people still going around doing whatever they do in their daily life. The number of tourist is still limited and the city seems like a real city.
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The museum is not really big but it got about a 100 icons on display. The curator is a bit worried about his collection because it seems like the Albanian government is not really supportive of his little museum - instead they will ship 11 of his icons out to an exhibition in Switzerland during the summer which is the main season for tourist in Berat.
The museum is pretty small so it is easy to see all of it fairly fast but if you like to see some icons it is a nice little stop up in the old town.
