Albania

Krujė is a town and a municipality in north central Albania. Located between Mount Krujė and the Ishėm River, 20 km north from the capital of Albania, Tirana. Krujė was inhabited by the ancient Illyrian tribe of the Albani. In 1190 Krujė became the capital of the first autonomous Albanian state in the middle ages, the Principality of Arbėr. Later it was the capital of the Kingdom of Albania, while in the early 15th century Krujė was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, but then recaptured in 1443 by Skanderbeg, leader of the League of Lezhė, who successfully defended it against three Ottoman sieges until his death in 1468.

The Ottomans took control of the town after the fourth siege in 1478, and incorporated it in their territories. A 1906 local revolt against the Ottoman Empire was followed by the 1912 Declaration of Independence of Albania. In the mid-1910s Krujė was one of the battlefields of the conflict between the short-lived Republic of Central Albania, founded by Essad Toptani, and the Principality of Albania. In 1914 Toptani managed to seize the town but during the same year it was reincorporated by Prźnk Bibė Doda in the Principality of Albania. During World War II it was the center of the activities of resistance leader Abaz Kupi.

Click on the picture you want to look at - panoramic pix available


We have reached the city of Krujė
It's quite steep and we had to change to smaller busses to take us along the hillside
What a view from the top
         
Slowly going down the hillside again
Back in the city

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