Place · city

Gjirokastër

Also known as Argyrokastron, Gjirokastra, Argyrokastro

Gjirokastër is a town in southern Albania, built on a mountainside above the Drino valley and dominated by a large castle. It was taken around 1386 by the Albanian chieftain Gjon Zenebishi and fell to the Ottomans in 1419. Its stone tower houses of the Ottoman period earned it a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2005. It was the birthplace of Enver Hoxha and the writer Ismail Kadare.

Gjirokastër
Image: Name: Armin Flickr: flickr.com/octopuzz/ · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 2 state histories

Principality of GjirokastërAutonomous Republic of Northern Epirus

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Gjirokastër. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/gjirokaster
MLA
“Gjirokastër.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/gjirokaster. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Gjirokastër.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/gjirokaster.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Gjirokastër’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/gjirokaster (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻