Having wound up our stay in the capital, our group of four picked up a Citroën Aircross and cruised into the hills an hour or so northwest of Tirana - on roads that ranged from quite good to potholed backroads - to this small city (pop. around 51,000). Inhabited by the ancient Illyrian tribe of the Albanoi, in 1190 Krujë became the capital of the first Albanian state, called the Prinicpality of Arbanon (though it retained its independence for just 16 years), then later the Kingdom of Albania (1272-1392). These days the modern town lies below the old quarter up in the hills, which essentially consists of a small medieval bazaar, with a cobblestone street flanked by period houses (all of them occupied by souvenir shops), and at the upper end of it Skanderbeg´s ruined kalaja (fortress, dating back to the 5th of 6th century); what little remains of the 14th-century Ottoman Fethiye Mosque; and the 60-year-old national Skanderbeg Museum of history and ethnography (interior shot above right) alongside them, and in turn alongside that is the old-school looking Kroi restaurant, where we didn´t have lunch but did have coffee and a nice slice of cake.

Read more in my post Our Eye-opening Exploration of Albania.

David Paul Appell