Kalaja e Durrësit

Kalaja e Durrësit forms the old city walls of Durrës and stands as a cultural heritage monument in Albania.

Its stones preserve Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman phases. Emperor Anastasius I builds the original fortifications in the late fifth century, when Durrës bears the name Dyrrhachium. Later rulers repair and strengthen the walls after earthquake damage and changing military needs. Three entrances and several fortification towers remain within the surviving medieval structure.

The Venetian Tower provides the fortress’s clearest landmark. Its round brick structure rises above an earlier Byzantine tower, with an arched entrance, loopholes, rooms, and steep stairs. Blocks from earlier walls and fragments of ancient reliefs remain among the later masonry. Ottoman builders add the Great Gate, the Sea Gate, towers, battlements, and a smaller defensive wall.

Durrës rises above ancient Epidamnos, connecting the fortress with the city’s earliest recorded layer. The walls also reflect interventions linked with Justinian, Charles of Anjou, and Karl Thopia. Together, the gates, masonry, towers, and relief fragments show how Durrës adapts its defences across centuries.