Berat

Berat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site often called 'the city of a thousand windows' for its distinctive Ottoman-era houses stacked up the hillside.

Berat is one of Albania's greatest treasures — a UNESCO World Heritage City that has preserved its Ottoman architecture more completely than almost anywhere else in the Balkans. The city's defining image is its white-walled houses with their rows of large windows climbing up the hillside, giving it the nickname 'the city of a thousand windows'.

The Berat Castle complex towers above the city and is still inhabited, containing Byzantine churches, a mosque, cisterns and some of the finest panoramic views in Albania. Inside the castle walls, the Onufri Museum houses some of the finest examples of Albanian iconographic painting.

Below the castle, the old Mangalem quarter on the left bank of the Osum River and the Gorica quarter on the right bank are both beautifully preserved. The 18th-century Gorica Bridge connects the two, and a walk along the riverbank at sunset is truly magical.

Berat is about 2.5 hours' drive south of Tirana on good roads — an easy and highly rewarding day trip, or even better as an overnight stay.