The Fortress of Bashtovë is a very well-preserved quadrangular fortress in a plain near the mouth of the River Shkumbin, about three kilometres from the Adriatic sea. It’s easy to understand why a fortress would be built in such a place. The Shkumbin river is an important corridor across Albania and much of its course coincides with the ancient Via Egnatia, the famous Roman road that ran from the Adriatic to Constantinople. The Via Egnatia started at Dyrrachium (Durrës) and ran south to modern Bishti I Zhurit (about 15 kilometres from Bashtovë) where it turned east to Claudiana (Peqin) following the route of the Shkumbin river for a good distance and then continuing east across the country to Lake Ohrid. It would be sensible to have a fortification near the mouth of the river to defend a route so important both for trade and for troop movements. Additionally, the area is fertile flat ground and in the medieval period was well known as a location for growing and exporting grain, a valuable commodity which would have been protected.
However, the date of the fortress, and indeed whether what we see today is the original fortress on the site, is still a matter of debate among scholars. Is the fortress connected with the protection of ancient routes crossing Albania as suggested by those who consider that a fortress was first founded at the site around the 6th century CE, or was the founding to do with medieval trade routes on the Adriatic, or perhaps even built as part of the Ottoman conquest of the 15thcentury?
The census taken by the Ottomans in 1431-2 does not mention the castle, but it appears in 1521 on a map of Ahmed Muhiddin Piri (better known as Piri Reis) in his Book of Navigation (Kitab-ı Bahriye). Some scholars have therefore placed the construction of the fortress in the context of Venetian possessions along the Adriatic coast, building or strengthening fortifications to protect their valuable trade. Others date the construction somewhat later, to 1501, linking it to the Ottoman expansion up to Shkoder. The Turkish explorer Derviş Mehmed Zillî (more usually known as Evliya Çelebi) writing in the 17thcentury, said that it was built by the Venetians and then taken by the Ottomans who carried out additional work. He also notes that one of the walls of the castle was flooded by the river and destroyed. This is an interesting detail as clearly one of the walls belongs to a later phase of building.
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| Columns drums visible in the walls |
A walk around the fortress shows that there must have been an earlier building nearby since a large amount of material, particularly brick and tile (but also some column drums and other worked stone) is set into the stone fabric of the fortress. The material is unlikely to have been brought far, and has added weight to the theory of some scholars who assert that the Venetians built over an existing structure, perhaps even an earlier fort. Comparisons with other forts of a similar size and/or plan in Albania and the Balkan/Danubian area dating to the late Roman period are quite compelling in support of this theory. Albania saw a considerable amount of construction during the 6th century CE at the time of the Justinian dynasty. Some spolia visible in the walls are even earlier – for example a large limestone block with metal clamps would probably have come from a building of the Hellenistic period. These comparisons and the evidence of the spolia put the location of the original fortress in the context of the Via Egnatia and protection of the route from the Adriatic to Constantinople rather than being part of a chain of constructions protecting coastal trade.
The fortress is a rectangular structure of roughly 60 by 90 metres and is oriented north-south with the main entrance in the middle of the north wall and further entrances in the west and the east walls. It is built from local stone, with some brick and tile incorporated into the fabric. The west wall lacks the brick and tile and seems to belong to a second building phase. The walls are approximately 1.25m to 1.40m thick, are well preserved and have had very little modern intervention. They stand almost to their original height of 9 metres and had towers at each corner and midway along each side. All of the towers are rectangular except for two circular towers at the ends of the east wall. The towers stand to a height of 12 metres. As we see the fortress today, the towers at each end of the west wall are mostly destroyed. Çelebi mentions that one wall was destroyed when the river flooded, and it seems likely that this is why the west wall, and a section of the north wall were rebuilt. Nowadays, the fortress is approximately 400 meters away from the Shkumbin river.
The fortress has an arcaded fighting platform accessed by stairs. The firing ports are still visible and there are 3 rows in the walls and 5 in the towers. At some stage a mosque was inserted into the tower in the south wall – the converted mihrab is just about visible. There is nothing to see in the interior of the castle apart from one cistern, though it is possible to make out where structures did exist, as the point where roofs and walls were built against and into the stone walls can sometimes be made out. A thorough archaeological investigation (there have been some limited excavations) would no doubt reveal a lot of useful information, and may clear up the questions around the origins and dating of this impressive monument.
Bashtova is well worth a visit: the condition is very good and it has not been subject to modern restoration other than some consolidation work in the 1980s. It was declared a National Cultural Monument in 1948 and was submitted to UNESCO’s tentative list of World Heritage sites in 2017.
Further Reading
Bajenaru , C., Minor Fortifications in the Balkan-Danubian Area from Diocletian to Justinian, Editura Mega, 2010
Gilkes, O., Albania: An Archaeological Guide, I.B. Tauris, 2013
Karaiskaj, G., Pesë Mijë Vjet Fortifikime Në Shqiperi, Shtëpia Botuese <8 Nëntori>, 1981
Very interested arricy
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested in Roman History you can read this article about the story behind the establishment of Rome
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