Berat's early history

Berat prides itself as being one of the oldest towns in Albania, nearly 2400 years old. The cyclopic walls that can still be seen today at the foundations of the castle were probably laid out by the Desaretes, an Illyrian tribe. We don't know what the Dasaretes named their city, but Ptolemei, a Greek geographer, calls it "Antipatrea" in the second century BC. Being at a strategic point, that controls the gorge of Osum river, and access to the interior of the country, it changed hands many times. Under Byzantines, was part of the province of Dyrrachium (Durres), until was taken by the Bulgarians (under czar Simeon) in the 9th century, who held it until the 11th century and renamed it Beligrad (white City), from which the present name Berat is derived.

The city was taken again by the Byzantines (under emperor Basil II) in the 1014, who put out the eyes of 15,000 Bulgarian prisoners. It remained under Byzantines until 1204, when, after the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders, Michael Comnenus, a member of the imperial family, withdrew to Ioannina and founded the Despotate of Epirus. The despotate of Epirus was held by the Comnenus family until 1318, and by princes of the house of Orsini until 1358. (remember Duke Orsino from Shakespeare's 'Twelve Night', situated in Illyria?)

Berat was taken again by the Sicilian kings of the house of Anjou, who formed the "Kingdom of Albania", stretching from Kruja to Berat. In 1368, a local prince of the Muzaka house conquered the city and the surrounding area, including the fertile flatlands to the west. Today that area is called Myzeqe, a name derived from Muzaka.

When Skanderbeg began his anti-Ottoman rebellion in 1443, Theodore Muzaka, joined him in the Albanian League of Lezhe. In 1450 a small force of Ottoman solders came from their garrison in Vlore, quietly scaled the poorly guarded walls of the castle, and slaughtered the Albanian garrison of about 500 soldiers led by Pal Kuka. In 1455, Skanderbeg led siege to the city, with some 10000 troops, including some 500 Neapolitans, that Skanderbeg had brought from Kingdom of Naples as experts in demolition, artillery, and siege warfare. However, during the early days of the siege, he received news that one of his top generals, Moisi Golemi, assigned with guarding the north-eastern border at Diber against any surprise attacks, had defected to Istanbul. Leaving in charge of the siege Tanush Muzaka, his brother-in-law, he left with a sizable force first to secure the border and then in the direction of Vlore, to cut any relief efforts to Berat. This turned out to be his most disastrous blunder. Although, the Albanians continued to bombard the castle, hopping for its surrender, without a towering figure like Scanderbeg to inspire them, discipline fell, and troops grew bored. One night, a turkish solder was lowered with a rope on the side of the castle situated directly above the river. It's a height of nearly 300 meters, however he went unnoticed. Having swam across the river he ran in the direction of Gjirokaster, to notify the turkish troops there of the situation. Ten days later, the sultan sent an army of 40000 troops at the head of Evrenoz Pasha, that fell on besiegers like sudden death. The Albanians were slaughtered by the thousands. Only one Albanian commander, Vranakonti, managed to resist the initial Ottoman onslaught and pushed back several attacking waves. However, in the end the Albanians were overwhelmed in the field by sheer numbers, and lost nearly 5000 men. Skanderbeg himself was not at the battle, and when he rushed back was all but over. It was the only battle lost in his war against the Ottoman Turks, but a serious setback in his efforts to liberate the country. Berat was sadly to remain in Ottoman hands and never to be taken again. The Muzakas continued to fight the Turks under the banner of Venice, until the last of them, Gjon Muzaka - author of a chronicle on Muzaka dynasty - was forced to flee to Southern Italy when Venice made peace with the Turks