Berat Castle in Albania
Albania to be is an underrated tourist destination that is quickly becoming more noticed by new and seasoned travelers alike. As the country is an EU candidate country, much work has been done in the country with regards to infrastructure for increasing tourism numbers as well as for other EU standards. Therefore I predict in the coming years that more people will inevitably flock to Albania. Berat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with its crown jewel being Berat Castle, situated on a hilltop, overlooking the entire city. The castle is actually a citadel complex, complete with city walls, homes, gardens, and even a derelict cannon or two. It is definitely worth exploring when in Albania.
In this post you can see my latest video on Berat, my photos of Berat Castle, and more useful information on visiting Berat Castle.
Berat Castle, A Brief History
Berat Castle is also knon as the Citadel of Berat. It is a fortress on the highest hill in Berat (elevation 214 meters), on the left back of the Osum river, that overlooks the sprawling town below. The origin of Berat Castle goes back to the 13th century and the complex features a number of Byzantine churches and Ottoman mosques.
What is so cool about this castle is the complex of buildings inside of it, from living quarters to churches and to modern day restaurants and bars. These auxiliary buildings are considered cultural monuments as well as they also date back to the 13th century. Furthermore, though there are some ruined parts of the castle, a substantial portion of it is still standing and in excellent condition.
Berat Castle Photos
Getting To Berat Castle
To get to Berat, first you need a flight to get you into Albania. Since Berat is located in the middle/southern part of Albania, the best airport to fly into would have to be from Tirana International Airport (TIA). The airport is the largest in Albania with many rental car agencies servicing it.
Once in Albania, there are just a few ways one can get to Berat, either by bus, taxi, or rental car. For us, we rented a car for a week from Tirana International Airport. We loved having this flexibility but understand that others may not have the ability or luxury to do so. The drive from Tirana to Berat takes less than 2 hours by car.
You can take a taxi to Berat, which will likely set you back approximately 70 Euros these days (Summer 2023). The journey should be the same two hours or less as driving yourself.
You can also take a bus to Berat, specifically from Tirana. The approximate cost is 500 Lek (or 4.4 Euros) and the travel time is about 2.5 hours. The Tirana bus station is not located near the airport, but closer to the Tirana city center. You can find the location of the bus station on this Google map. Once here, you can grab a bus to Berat, with about 2 departures an hour that go from 6am to 6pm.
Once in Berat, follow signage or use Google Maps to make your way to the castle, which sits on a hilltop overlooking all of the city. Therefore, if you are walking, be prepared to go uphill for awhile. If you are driving, you can find parking spaces just outside the walls of the castle citadel complex.
Entrance was free when we got there, however there was installed ticket booths and gates that we walked past that were not manned. Therefore I am unsure if we just arrived at a special time or they were planning on charging for entry later on.
When to see Berat Castle
The best time to see Berat Castle is definitely in the spring and summer time. The areas around the castle as well as the town below are lit up so well in the warm sun which is great for photographs. Of course given Berat castle’s position in the huge valley, you can get great photos at sunrise and sunset if you wanted to take advantage of both golden hours that the day provides.
Our visit there coincided with an unusually warm July. We arrived there sometime around lunch time and found that the castle wasn’t really all that busy. There are other tourists there, exploring the castle walls and areas around but we felt that we had so much space to explore for ourselves. This feeling of course may change in the coming years as Albania becomes a more popular tourist destination.
Photographing Berat Castle
Once you get to Berat Castle, there are a few pieces of equipment that will serve you extremely well. Any camera kit with your standard focal length lens of 24-70 mm will be helpful with most of the shots you intend to shoot. If your lens has a low f value (aperture), you can experiment with incorporating some bokeh into your shots, especially with some of the flowering bushes on the grounds that would give a boost of color to your photos. Or you can just use your 50 mm prime lens, which usually have large apertures (low f number), to get this same bokeh effect.
The town of Berat can be photographed from Berat Castle as well. If you walk around the city walls of the castle, you will have many vantage point of the town below and for this, a telephoto lens of 200-300 mm focal length would be most helpful. The town of Berat sits mostly to the east and south of Berat Castle and you will find viewpoints to take these zoomed in photos. These viewpoints can be found on Google maps here:
Viewpoint 1 - Facing South
Viewpoint 2 - Facing South
Viewpoint 3 - Facing South/East
