Berat Albania,[1]

 

 



Berati's citadel crowns the upper Town

To the modern seeker for the unusual along geographic byways, this old stronghold serves as a colorful reminder of Albania's turbulent past, when now Sicily and Naples, now Turkey, Austria, and Italy, flung their banners from its walls.

Photograph by Franz Bespaletz. © National Geographic Society 1931.

 


House-terraced hillsides overlook Berati’s Fertile valley

Althoug Roman, Byzantine, Norman and Turk successivley occupiued Albania, their hill-fortresses are to day bleared ruins, while its people remain singularly unchanged. Byron compared the Albanians to the equally tenacious Highlanders of Scotland.

Natural Color Photograph by Luigi Pellerano. © National Geographic Society 1931.

 

 

A bridge of many arches spans the Osum at Berati

Only two of Albania's rivers are navigable, their descent from mountains to sea being too swift. The Osum waters a fertile region of the South, where the olive and the fig tree, the vine and the tabacco plant, flourish.


Photograph by Franz Bespaletz. © National Geographic Society 1931.

 

 

[1] National Geographic Society 1931

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