Kardhiq Castle () is a ruined hill fortress located in

Kardhiq Kardhiq is a village in the former Cepo commune, Gjirokastër County, Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality Gjirokastër. The village is inhabited by both Bektashi Muslim and Orthodox Christian Albanians w ...

, southern

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

. Built between the late 14th and the early 15th century by the Zenebishi family, it was restored by Ali Pasha in the early 19th century.

History

The castle is first mentioned in the 1431–32 register of the

Sanjak of Albania The Sanjak of Albania (, or ; or ) was a second-level administrative unit of the Ottoman Empire between 1415 and 1444. Its mandate included territories of modern central and southern Albania between Krujë to the Kalamas River in northwester ...

. The castle has five towers, two of which are of polygonal form and similar to other castles of Ali Pasha. The width of the walls, which feature

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

s, is about .

Sources

{{Castles in Albania Castles in Albania Buildings and structures in Gjirokastër Medieval history of Albania Archaeological sites in Albania