Rozafa Castle

Rozafa Castle (Albanian: Kalaja e Rozafës), also known as the Shkodër Castle (Albanian: Kalaja e Shkodrës) is a castle near the city of Shkodër, in northwestern Albania. It rises imposingly on a rocky hill, 130 metres (430 ft) above sea level, surrounded by the Buna and Drin rivers. Shkodër is the seat of Shkodër County, and is one of Albania's oldest and most historic towns, as well as an important cultural and economic centre.

Rozafa Castle
Shkodër, in northwestern Albania
Fatih Sultan Mehmet Mosque within Rozafa castle
Coordinates42.0465°N 19.4935°E / 42.0465; 19.4935
Site information
Owner Albania
Controlled byIllyrian tribes (Labeates, Ardiaei)
Roman Empire
 Byzantine Empire
Duklja
Serbian Grand Principality
 Kingdom of Serbia
 Serbian Empire
Zeta
 Republic of Venice
 Ottoman Empire
 Kingdom of Montenegro
Great Powers
 Albania
Open to
the public		Yes
Site history
MaterialsLimestone, brick

History

Antiquity

Due to its strategic location, the hill has been settled since antiquity. It was an Illyrian stronghold during the rule of the Labeates and Ardiaei, whose capital was Scodra.[1]

During the Third Illyrian War the Illyrian king Gentius concentrated his forces in Scodra. When he was attacked by the Roman army lead by L. Anicius Gallus, Gentius fled into the city and was trapped there hoping that his brother Caravantius would come at any moment with a large relieving army, but it didn't happen. After his defeat, Gentius sent two prominent tribal leaders, Teuticus and Bellus, as envoys to negotiate with the Roman commander.[2] On the third day of the truce, Gentius surrendered to the Romans, was placed in custody and sent to Rome. The Roman army marched north of Scutari Lake where, at Meteon, they captured Gentius' wife queen Etuta, his brother Caravantius, his sons Scerdilaidas and Pleuratus along with leading Illyrians.[3]

The fall of the Ardiaean Kingdom in 168 BC[4] is transmitted by Livy in a ceremonial manner of the triumph of Anicius in Rome:

In a few days, both on land and sea did he defeat the brave Illyrian tribe, who had relied on their knowledge of their own territory and fortifications.

Medieval and Ottoman period

The 19th-century German author and explorer Johann Georg von Hahn suggested that the ancient and medieval city of Shkodër was located immediately south of the Rozafa hill, between the hill and the confluence of Buna and Drin. The fortifications, as they have been preserved to date, are mostly of Venetian origin.[5]

Within the Castle there are the ruins of a 13th-century Venetian Catholic church, considered by scholars as the St. Steven's Cathedral, which after the siege of Shkodër in the 15th century, when the Ottoman Empire captured the city, was transformed into the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Mosque.[6]

The castle has been the site of several famous sieges, including the siege of Shkodër of 1478-79 and the siege of Shkodër of 1912-13. The castle and its surroundings form an Archaeological Park of Albania.

Legend
Life sized sulpture of Rozafa half buried in the wall, by Skender Kraja, Museum of Rozafa Castle.

A famous widespread legend about sacrificing a female victim and immurement with the aim of building a facility is traditionally orally transmitted by Albanians and connected with the construction of the Rozafa Castle.[7][8][9][10]

The story tells about the initiative of three brothers who set down to build a castle. They worked all day, but the foundation walls fell down at night. They met a wise old man who seems to know the solution of the problem asking them if they were married. When the three brothers responded positively, the old man said:[9]

If you really want to finish the castle, you must swear never to tell your wives what I am going to tell you now. The wife who brings you your food tomorrow you must bury alive in the wall of the castle. Only then will the foundations stay put and last forever.

The three brothers swore on besa to not speak with their wives of that happened. However the two eldest brothers broke their promise and quietly told their wives everything, while the honest youngest brother kept his besa and said nothing. The mother of the three brothers knew nothing of their agreement, and while the next afternoon at lunch time, she asked her daughters-in-law to bring lunch to the workers, two of them refused with an excuse. The brothers waited anxiously to see which wife was carrying the basket of food. It was Rozafa, the wife of the youngest brother, who left her younger son at home. Embittered, the youngest brother explained to her what the deal was, that she was to be sacrificed and buried in the wall of the castle so that they could finish building it, and she didn't protest but, worried about her infant son, she accepted being immured and made a request:[9]

I have but one request to make. When you wall me in, leave a hole for my right eye, for my right hand, for my right foot and for my right breast. I have a small son. When he starts to cry, I will cheer him up with my right eye, I will comfort him with my right hand, I will put him to sleep with my right foot and wean him with my right breast. Let my breast turn to stone and the castle flourish. May my son become a great hero, ruler of the world.

One of the most famous versions of the legend is the Serbian epic poem called The Building of Skadar (Зидање Скадра, Zidanje Skadra) published by Vuk Karadžić, after he recorded a folk song singed of a Herzegovinian storyteller named Old Rashko.[11][12][13] The version of the song in the Serbian language is the oldest collected version of the legend, and the first one which earned literary fame.[14] The three brothers in the legend were represented by members of the nobel Mrnjavčević family, Vukašin, Uglješa and Gojko.[15] In 1824, Karadžić sent a copy of his folksong collection to Jacob Grimm, who was particularly enthralled by the poem. Grimm translated it into German, and described it as "one of the most touching poems of all nations and all times".[16] Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published the German translation, but did not share Grimm's opinion because he found the poem's spirit "superstitiously barbaric".[16][12] Alan Dundes, a famous folklorist, noted that Grimm's opinion prevailed and that the ballad continued to be admired by generations of folksingers and ballad scholars.[16]

Tourism
Total Visitors
Period Visitors
2016 38,631[17]
2017 About 50,000[17]
  • Minaret of the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Mosque
  • Rozafa castle in 1863
  • Church of the Holy Mother of God
  • Ruins of the castle
  • View of the castle on the reverse of a 1964 1 Lek banknote

See also

References
  1. Evans 2006, p. 83.
  2. Berranger 2007.
  3. Wilkes 1995, p. 174.
  4. Wilkes 1995, p. 72.
  5. Von Hahn 1854, pp. 94-96.
  6. Kiel 1990, p. 230.
  7. Dundes 1996, pp. 65,68.
  8. Cornis-Pope & Neubauer 2004, p. 269.
  9. Elsie 1994, p. 32.
  10. Fischer 2002, p. 6.
  11. Dundes 1996, pp. 3,146.
  12. Cornis-Pope & Neubauer 2004, p. 273.
  13. Skëndi 2007, p. 75.
  14. Dundes 1996, p. 146.
  15. Dundes 1996, p. 150.
  16. Dundes 1996, p. 3.
  17. "DRKK Shkodër". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2018-06-12.

Sources

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