“Albania 🇦🇱 ~Cape of Rodon and Castle”
We left beautiful Boge, and we would head south, in search of Cape of Rodon and its Castle ruins.
As is the norm, while we would finally find the road to the Cape, but the challenge to find the road and hiking trail to the Castle was another thing. There was not one single sign along the way, and there were so many road choices. We would try many of them; mostly washed out and rutted. It was slow going for sure. We did ask a few people we saw around the area and it helped a little. (the language barrier) We finally found the parking lot, but if not for three nice young adults, who were also going to the ruins for some beach time, we would not have found the hiking path. They all spoke some English and we enjoyed visiting a bit.
It was a steep hike, mostly down. We definitely found some beautiful coast line on this stop. The castle was unique, being built as low as sea level, right at the tip of the cape. It must have been really something in its day.
Cape of Rodon is a strip of land bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the east and the Lalezi bay in the south. It is the biggest cape in Albania and a “best kept-secret” place. Perhaps they want to keep it secret, and that may explain the lack of signage to find it.
The cape is untouched by the human hand and is situated under a rocky cliff in most areas with clay hills.
According to the locals, the history of the cape and its name is linked with an old legend which says that “Redon was the official God of the Illyrian state and its portrait got immortalized as paintings in temples and as a symbol on coins used by Illyrians during those times.” Another legend suggests that “Redon was the Illyrian Sea Deity,” according to the Illyrian mythology.
The cape shelters old castle ruins, which is also known as “Scanderbeg’s Castle.” Scanderbeg’s name comes up often, around historical places in Albania. He was a well-liked and respected Albanian nobleman and military commander from the days of yore. According to the historians, the Skanderbeg’s Castle is believed to be built by Scanderbeg in the mid-14th century. After his death, the castle was administered by the country of the Holy See of the Vatican, in 1500. having been to the Holy See, near Rome, Italy, I find this historical fact quite interesting.
At one time, the castle was surrounded by four catholic monasteries, characterized by a Roman-Gothic architecture.
The rocky Cape of Rodon is not easily reached, but is definitely worth the time. It’s a great day trip if you’re spending a day or more in the nearby seaside town of Fushe-Draci, where many people choose to stay. We did not choose to overnight in this village, be cause we had Berat as our next destination, so we got underway to make that town before dark.
The full hike to the cape takes about two hours, but the other option is to drive to a ruffed-out car park area and hike the decent to the ruins within a 45 minute timeframe. The roads leading to the cape are paved, but in poor shape, but in order to venture further you’ll have to walk because the roads soon become very rocky and steep.
We would drive from Boge, for a full day to do our sightseeing and end our evening in a place called Berat. After checking with three overpriced hotels, (literally empty of guests) we found one in our price range. 25 Euro with breakfast. We were in desperate need of showers and A/C. I was so tired, I skipped dinner, processed photos and got a good nights sleep.
This morning, we rise to another beautiful summer day. Coffee is hitting the spot, and getting me rev-ed up! We are in central, Southern Albania, and in another historical town. We will explore this really cool area of Berat, before making our way to our next stop of Gjirokaster by the end of the day.
By now, we have determined our favorite parts of Albania are the high North, and the Central, to lower region. We just did not find Tirana (capital) or Durres very interesting, though it gets mentioned for tourism quite a bit.
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Hello and Welcome to our Travel Blog Website, We enjoy writing about our experiences and taking photos of our adventuring along the way. Our names are: Daryl and Pen, but Daryl calls me “Bunny.” We met, quite randomly, whilst both… Read More
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