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The Rozafat Citadel is magnificently situated on a rockt outcrop of limestone 135m high above the point where the river Buna meets the river Kir.
For most visitors, it has everything, in terms of romance and drama of its setting, that a large medieval castle in the Balkans could be expected to have. Below the citadel , and to the left of it , was the old bazaar quarter of the Ottoman town. |
It can be approached by car up a steep winding road from the south side, with very fine Ottoman paving,although parking at the top is difficult.It began to take on military importance as early as the 2C BC, and never lost it until the Firts World War.There are spectacular views of the surrounding countryside from all sides,particaluary of Lake of Shkodra, the river Buna and the drained marshlands and flood plains of the rivers . Even if the visitor does not have time to make an exhausted tour of the citadel, for which at least three hours is needed , a short visit should be made simply to enjoy the outstanding situation and to contemplate the scene of so many seminal events in Albanian history.
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Rozafat citadel was , in a general sense, quite impregnable, built on sheer cliffs, with its own water supply and secret passages leading down to the riverside below. It hence gave rise to some of the most blood-soaked sieges ever seen in Europe, particulary the final heroic defence in 1479.
This cataclysmic event was the subject of Veronese frescoes of 1585 in the Doge's Palace in Venice.
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The Legend
The name of Rozafat Citadel is derived from a version of the woman built into the castle wall, which is common in folklore in many Balkan countries.According to local folk stories in northern Albania, three brothers
who were working on the construction of the castle found that the work
they had done during the day was always demolished during the night.
An old man who lived near the castle told the brothers that the Devil was acting against them.
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According the old man the only way to frustrate the efforts of Devil was to wall someone up in the bulding as a human sacrifice to appease him.The brothers therefore decided to kill whichever of their wives was the first to bring them food on the following day, and say nothing to any of the women about their murderous pact.
But the two elder brothers did tell their wives about the plan , so the wife of the youngest ,Rosapha , was the only one to come with food next day, and
she was duly built into the wall of the citadel.
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Shkodra Citadel is the earliest major building in the Balkans with a tradition of human sacrifice in its construction. The legend was classified by the 19C German folklorist Jacob Grimm as a characteristic example of a legend of
Immurement.Elsewhere in Albania similar legends are associated with castles , and also with bridges in Albanian inhabited regions, such as the Saint's Bridge in Kosova, the bridge arta in northern Greece and Qine Bridge in Cameria. The Shkodra legend received its earliest exposition in Barleti's
Chronicle, written in Shkodra in 1504.
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