Forsaken Albania

By Artan Lame
Kruja, around about the twenties’. Kruja is one of those Albanian towns, where life has continued uninterruptedly since early in the Middle Ages through to our days. Nevertheless, it was only around the 16th Century that the city began to spill out beyond the walls of the castle behind which it had been confined, and to spread up into the surrounding hills. This is chiefly linked with the establishment of a “pax Ottomana”, which guaranteed peace and minimal stability required to open up and develop life beyond the walls of the towns too. In the case of Kruja, this outlying suburb developed chiefly to the North of the Castle, because there was more flat land to build on than on the other sides of the castle where the terrain was more broken and rugged. It was to this side that the ancient land route linking the North of the country and beyond, with Tirana, also passed. It can clearly be seen from the photograph that the town’s bazaar was much bigger than the one that has survived through to our days. The section of the bazaar that has been preserved to this day commences at Point 1 in the photo where there is an abrupt breach in the row, and where today there is a tiny square for vehicles to drop off their visitors. Further on down, at a spot where there is a gap in the row of shops on the left hand side, there is a flight of stone steps that lead to the entrance to the local mosque (3). Fortunately, the mosque is in good condition to this day, with the exception of its minaret, which, demolished in the sixties, was only re-built after 1990. It was made of concrete however and did not have the elegance of the touch of the old craftsmen. The northern row of the shops (4) disappeared during the first half of last Century and it was replaced by new shops, minus any historical value. Close to the northern entrance to the bazaar there is a Teqe (5) a place of worship of the Bekteshi. This also was re-built after the nineties’, but it is very ugly. Right next to it today is the main square of the city(6), while further up the street stands a monument to the Albanian national Hero Skenderbeg(7). On the opposite side, the road goes around a bend(8) and ascends the slope of the hill to the castle. In general the shops are two stories, the bottom story in most cases is used as a workshop and a shop. After they closed in the evening, the street was patrolled by a guard whom all the vendors shared; this tradition is continued today as well. The biggest peril however was from fires rather than from thieves, understandable when you see how much timber is present in the buildings. The last time there was a major fire in the bazaar was in 1960. Today’s version of the bazaar is a faithful reproduction.
Following the Turkish invasion in 1478, the Castle was almost completely abandoned by the traditional residents. It was re-populated, first of all by the Turkish garrisons, and the gradual return of local craftsmen who served the garrison was very slow. With this in mind, the population of the town is probably very mixed between the locals and Turks, something which explains the large percentage of Bekteshi, which was the religion of the Ottoman military detachments. These strong ties with Turkey were visible up until the first years of the 20th Century, when, with the occasional exception, the people from Kruja, up until the first years of independence remained, at least indifferent towards the Albanian State, supporting chiefly separatist movements, of Esat Pascha and Haxhi Qamili respectively. It was only the conviction that the epoch of the Ottoman Empire was over once and for all that compelled them to become, once again, a normal part of Albania.