Gjon Bocarit Castle - Kalaja e Gjon Boçarit

Gjon Bocarit Castle - Kalaja e Gjon Boçarit, Tragjas, Vlore County, Republic of Albania.

   The Gjon Bocari Castle is built on a dominant hill above the Dukat, Tragjas and Radhimë village fields, controlling the coast and the roads leading to the Llogara and Shën Gjergj passes. This castle is formed by a right-angled quadrangle (30xl8 m), with two polygonal towers in the northern and eastern corners, while the only entrance is located in the middle of one of the narrow edges of the quadrangle. The curtains have a thickness of 1.80 m and the same is the width of the walls of the towers. Their height is also equal. The height of the walls, up to the guard's path, reaches 4 m, while the parapet, preserved only as a trace, had a width of 0.54 m. The guard's path was led by two pairs of stairs built within the thickness of the northwestern and southeastern walls.

   The towers are completely open from the inside of the fortification, being thus more of a continuation of the surrounding walls. Their walls, in the lower part, are crossed by a gun turret, covered with horizontal stone slabs. While the full thickness of the curtains is crossed only by two turrets located on both sides of the gate. The Austrian archaeologist Carl Patsch in 1904 described the castle and the extensive ruins of the buildings to its north. He thinks that the garrison that stood in this castle, lived in tents or light wooden structures.

   From the architectural elements, the castle coincides with the enclosures of Albanian monasteries built in the second half of the 17th century, and it remains to be studied whether there was any construction during the time of Ali Pasha Tepelena, as it does not appear to have typical elements of construction from the latter.

Source: https://vlora.gov.al/turizem/informacion-per-vizitoret/