Elbasan Fortress - Kalaja Elbasan

Elbasan Fortress - Kalaja Elbasan, Elbasan, Elbasan County, Republic of Albania.

   The interest that the Elbasan field fortress is arousing among foreign visitors undoubtedly has to do with its Roman origin.

   This imposing fortress, built on the cobblestones of the imperial Egnatia road, has been baptized by three prominent emperors in history over the course of 1200 years, Diocletian, the Roman emperor of Illyrian origin, Justinian I, the Byzantine from Bederiana near Pristina, and the most famous sultan of the Ottoman Turks, Mehmet Fatih Ngadhnjyesi.

   Skampini owes its birth, development and final collapse to the same factor, the “Egnatia Road”.

   During the time of the Roman Empire, its construction became a source of prosperity and prosperity, not only for Skampini, but for the entire surrounding region, while on the eve of the invasions of peoples and their continuation, it became a cause of continuous misery.

   This fortress represents a castrum statum, for the shelter of a Roman legion that would serve to preserve and secure the Egnatia Road. Only a power such as the Roman state could have the certainty of building and maintaining a field fortress. Our predecessors built fortresses on cliff tops protected by nature, while the Romans followed the principle “Fortresses protect men, not walls!”. Along the entire length of the Egnatia Road, monumental values ​​and the authority of their power are felt.

Source: https://elbasani.gov.al/historiku-i-qytetit/