Tirana Castle

Tirana Castle, Kalaja e Tiranës, is the fortified enclosure a few minutes' walk east of the main square, listed as a cultural monument in 1973 and built near th…Tirana Castle, Kalaja e Tiranës, is the fortified enclosure a few minutes' walk east of the main square, listed as a cultural monument in 1973 and built near the remains of a fortress attributed to the emperor Justinian, one of the few archaeological survivals in the heart of the capital. The site belongs to the Toptani family, who arrived from Kruja in the seventeenth century and governed the district under the Ottomans; Murat Toptani, poet and independence activist, gives his name to the car-free lane that runs past it.

Inside the ramparts the old bazaar has been rebuilt as a strip of restaurants, bars, wine and juice shops, artisan and leather workshops and a boutique hotel, with an old cannon, the gates, a well and a mosaic among the things to look for on the way through.