It is always now!: Berat

I guess you want to see more of Berat. Therefore this song fits well and gives us the power to move one in the heat: Skalariak - Queremos mas

The Berat castle is very old. It was before 200 BC and then used by the Romans, the Byzantines, Greeks, and Albanians until Berat became eventually part of the Ottoman empire. The idea of having nation states is relatively new and the vast majorities of the states before 1800 consisted of different communities with different languages and religions. One of the keys for the success of the three big empires, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman, was to respect these differences and to leave their inhabitants major parts of their sovereignty. This is the reason why Berat still has a Christian community and why one can find very old churches inside the castle.

View into the castle area from a wall tower at the entrance.

One of the many large insects there enjoys the sun.

The Holy Trinity church from the 14th century
in the western part of the castle.

The St. Mary of Blachernae church from the 13th century.

The area of the castle contains a small city of its own with lots of small house and alleys. To get water for the inhabitants a large cistern was built. It is a hall built inside the rocky soil of the castle. Only its roof is visible but one can look inside the get an impression of its size:

The roof of the cistern with its entrance.

Inside the cistern. Looking at the dead body
you can imagine the horrible smell.

A building vis-à-vis to the cistern.

The main outer wall of the castle is conserved as well as most parts of its Chemin de ronde. Walking it along you will find many nice views to admire the gentle landscape. The only drawback was the waste. While the city parts along the Osum river are clean the alleys of the castle were full of waste. It seemed that the waste collection was stopped - not a good advertisement for a world heritage site.