Berat is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and that is for a very good reason. The Ottoman era city centre, both the Muslim and the Christian ones are quite delightfully designed and are full of these many windowed houses that you can see many examples of below. The city is home to two hills and two centres. The beautiful Castle of Berat sits atop one of those hills and is the main reason why this article is titled as such. Unfortunately, there are not really many stairs to use to get up the hill in Berat, and instead you need to walk up and down using highly sloped roads that were designed with cars and buses in mind. Pretty much anyone up there came with either one of these, and a few walkers like us had a hard time going up and back down again, so do keep that in mind if you want to visit Berat. Some comfy shoes, some sunscreen, and a huge hat would go a long way!
To say that Berat is breath-taking would be an understatement. Pretty much any photo of the city, taken from any place, towards any direction, and at any angle produces amazing sceneries. Here you can see the Castle of Berat peeping up on the hill as well. Of course, just a tiny portion of it is visible here even though the entire hill is dominated by it.
Going to Berat is a non-issue. Being one of the more popular destinations in Albania, you can find furgons or buses going there from quite a lot of major cities around the country, and quite frequently too. It seems like the “returns” from the city are a bit rarer, as they stop a bit earlier so do keep that in mind. If you want to travel there for a daytrip like we did, it is best to go early and come back before late afternoon to avoid any mandatory stays in the town. As of June 2022, it costed 1000 Leks both ways to do this trip per person, from Tirana. There appears to be a local bus that goes around Berat as well, and it seems to wait at the bus terminal every now and then too. It would be wise to wait for it and use it as the terminal itself is a bit far away from Berat’s proper city centre, or any of its touristic sites for that matter.
It is quite possible to be seated in the “middle” row if you try to get on an already full furgon in Albania. What happens is quite simple. There are these foldable plastic chairs that the driver has laying around, which he promptly gives to you if you really do not want to wait for the next furgon to your destination. The lovely gentleman in the photo can be seen doing that, and if the angle of the photo is not already giving that away, I too was in the same situation. It may not be the most comfortable way to travel around, but it sure beats waiting half an hour more to be seated in a somewhat more comfortable seat in the next furgon. After all, at least in this case the legroom was not an issue!
Berat is home to two important landmarks if we had to boil it down a bit: its plentifully windowed Ottoman era houses and the Castle of Berat. The former is everywhere, but is most certainly best viewed from Gorica, where looking towards Berat proper gives you plenty of opportunities to snap some of the best photos of your trip in Albania. Of course, staying on the Berat-side of the river and taking some more “up and close” photos like the one you can see below may be preferable to some as well. The latter destination may take more of your time, as instead of just “looking cool” it offers quite a lot of distractions for the common traveller. There are many decent restaurants, some cool museums, and a very decent view overlooking the city from the top of Castle of Berat, and the remains of the castle itself and many buildings that once called it home offer a nice escapade from the more built-up and modern parts of the city. Castle area really is quite huge, it is much bigger than most castles I could visit so far, so if you want to explore it fully, have some lunch/dinner there, visit the museums, and just overall make sure that the time you spent climbing up the hill was well worth it. You can look forward for up to three hours to spend there, if not more.
The meandering Osum river divides the city of Berat into two not so equal parts. Gorica, the southern part, was predominantly a Christian area during the Ottoman period whereas Mangalem, the northern part, was called home by the Muslims. I say not equal because while Gorica is quite small, Mangalem and its surroundings is where everything seems to happen. The “cool houses” are mostly centred around this northern side as well. This does not mean, however, that there is nothing to do on the southern side. The Church of St. Spiridon awaits its visitors on the south, and the views from that side of the river are some of the best, causing many decent restaurants to flourish there. The northern side, on the other hand, hosts the houses themselves, the Berat Castle, and the modern city centre which we did not have time to visit. If I had to stay in Berat, I would honestly just go for Gorica to enjoy the wonderful views in the morning and after dark, as the city is small, and all the other amenities found in the northern part can be reached quite easily after a short walk from the south with the exception of the Castle itself, which would require you to sweat a little no matter where you stay.
Despite the shortcoming due to our admittedly poor preparation for the daytrip to Berat, it would not be mistaken to call it a success, nonetheless. In my rush trying to leave our place Tirana as early as possible, I even forgot to get my hat which caused me a ton of problems along the way but that never stopped us from further investigating the town. I could not help but wonder just how convenient the river must have made it to divide the city into two religiously different sections, however, given the fact that religion itself was quite “fluid” in Albania during its Ottoman period, I would be quite shocked to hear that the whole Christian-Muslim divide here stayed that rigid and simple for all its timespan. The Gorica bridge, which I forgot to take a photo of would bring these two separate worlds together and bridge not only two landmasses, but also different faiths, uniquely applicable legal terms, separate taxes etc. for many centuries. Ottoman administration sure was a doozy, and to see some truly Ottoman towns like this always makes me question whether my focus on the more recent history of Turkey was the best choice for me or not.
Berat is one heck of a town and deserves its place as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Ranging from an exceptional architecture to take many photos of, to wonderful restaurants with decent views, and offering anything from modern cafes to a medieval castle, this little Albanian town can do something to win the hearts of every single person that visits it. I kind of regretted not spending a night there myself, as I would have loved to enjoy a dinner at “Homemade Food Lili” (which apparently only really works at nights) and then have a decent breakfast with a view, alas, that could not be due to our time limitations. Keeping that in mind, I would nonetheless suggest all to see the city even as a quick daytrip, for it is perfectly possible to see most of what it holds within a relatively short period of time, if walking quite a lot is not an issue!
