A castle with a terrible story, a bride, a sworn virgin and a British heroine

Rozafa Castle, founded by Illyrian Queen Teuta, is apparently one of the best in Albania – and for the first time since out trip began, we encountered lots of other tourists (Israelis and some Albanians) moaning and sweating as they trudged up from the bottom of the very steep hill where their coaches had dropped them. We, of course, had assumed there would be parking and, thanks to an amused and very sweet taxi driver, managed to park half-way up. The castle was, of course, besieged many times and was the last to fall to the Ottomans. The ruins are mostly Venetian and Ottoman, although there are the remains of a thirteenth-century cathedral/later mosque.

The castle is named after a young woman who, legend has it, was walled alive into the castle by the builders, one of whom was her husband. And apparently that’s what gives the castle its strength. According to our guidebook, women still come and touch the lime which trickles down the wall (her tears) to enhance their fertility. Check out the legend on Wikipedia if you can bear to.

Continuing on the theme of women, we include the compulsory wedding photo: I don’t know how that young woman managed to get up to the top in that dress.

And, if you haven’t already encountered them, we introduce you to the ’sworn virgin’ – a phenomenon found in the high mountains of Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo until recently, we understand. Often after the head of the family had died (killed in a blood feud or some other way), they took on the responsibility themselves, wearing men’s clothing, undertaking men’s work, supporting the family and living publicly as men do (ie hanging about in cafes drinking and smoking). The photograph comes from a marvellous photography museum in Shkodra and was taken by one of the Marubi family who came to dominate the photographic scene in the town and elsewhere, one becoming King Zog’s official photographer.