Old Town Berat — Attraction in Berat Municipality

Exploring Berat's Old Town: A Perfect Day! 🏰🚶‍♀️

Berat's old town is truly a gem. We highly recommend starting your exploration from the Berat Castle (Kalaja e Beratit). After soaking in the castle's history, you can begin the scenic walk down to the old city below.

We started our descent in the Mangalem Quarter, which shares the same hillside as the castle. This is the iconic 'city of a thousand windows' you see in photos, and it's absolutely worth getting lost in its charming, narrow streets. We approached it from Boulevard Republika, which offers fantastic photo opportunities even before you fully enter the district.

Next, we crossed the New Bridge (Ura e Rilindjes) to the Gorica Quarter. This area has lovely restaurants with beautiful views back across to Mangalem. It's especially magical as the sun begins to set, illuminating Mangalem's windows – a perfect time for more photos!

From Gorica, we continued our walk to the historic Old Bridge (Ura e Goricës). This ancient stone bridge provides breathtaking panoramic views of both the Mangalem and Gorica quarters, with the castle walls towering above. After crossing it, we headed back towards our car, completing our loop.

Berat is a genuinely stunning place, and we were surprised that it wasn't overly crowded, especially considering its beauty and historical significance. A truly memorable visit!

(This walking tour was the perfect way to experience Berat, a city that captured our hearts during our 2025 Albanian road trip. For our full itinerary, you can find my summary review of Skanderbeg...

#thetownofathousandwindows

According to the legend, the Tomorr mountain was originally a giant, who fought with another giant, called Shpirag over a young woman. They killed each other and the girl drowned in her tears, which then became the Osum river.

Berat (alb. Berati) - 2400 year old town located in southcentral Albania is known as "the town of a thousand windows, also the Museum City". It is one of the oldest and most beautiful towns of Albania, with a settlement having existed there since at least the 6th century BC, when it was a fortress-settlement of the Greek Dassaretae tribe on the old border between Illyria and Epirus.

Berat and Gjirokastra are inscribed as rare examples of an architectural character typical of the Ottoman period. Located in central Albania, Berat bears witness to the coexistence of various religious and cultural communities down the centuries. It features a castle, locally known as the Kala, most of which was built in the 13th century, although its origins date back to the 4th century BC. The citadel area numbers many Byzantine churches, mainly from the 13th century, as well as several mosques built under the Ottoman era which began in 1417. Gjirokastra, in the Drinos river valley in southern Albania, features a series of outstanding two-story houses which were developed in the 17th century. The town also retains a bazaar, an 18th-century mosque and two churches of the...

Berat is a very ancient and colorful city, spread out on the hills at the foot of Mount Tomori on the banks of the Osumi River. Without visiting Berat, the impression of Albania will be incomplete. It is he who can tell a lot about the history of the local civilization, because his history dates back to the 4th century BC.

Today, Berat looks like a medieval city: narrow cobbled streets, old houses, bridges, people not in a hurry - time seems to have stopped here. In the middle of the 20th century, Berat was officially recognized as a city-museum, and in 2008 it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as an example of buildings from the...