Gjirokastër Castle

Gjirokastër is known as the stone city, and its castle crowns the hill above the Ottoman tower houses, with wide views over the Drino valley. The site goes back many centuries but took its present form under the Ottomans, and the town below is UNESCO-listed.

Inside you will find an arms museum, the ruins of a communist-era prison and a US fighter aircraft left as a Cold War symbol. The National Folklore Festival has been staged here, so check for events if your dates are flexible. Come after the old bazaar and the Ethnographic Museum, and wear shoes with grip: the cobbled lanes up to the castle are steep and slippery when wet.