We all like to drink a cocktail while gazing at the sea, especially when its view is wide and majestic. In coastal cities surely many of you are looking for a cafe from where you can see the sea better and have a beautiful blue view.
In fact, in Saranda you have more than that. The city castle is the best place to enjoy your favorite cocktail with the most stunning blue panorama.
Let’s visit the Castle of Lëkurës!
It is located among the ruins of the village of Lëkurës, abandoned in 1878, on the top of a high hill that rises in the shape of a pyramid. It has an almost square plan: 42 x 44 m with two rectangular towers on the west wall.
It used to hold a garrison of about 200 soldiers and its construction dates back to the middle of the 16th century. The possibility of its construction is the year 1537, when Sultan Sulejmani attacked Corfu and it was necessary to control the pier of Saranda and the road Saranda-Butrint, as the latter was occupied by the Venetians.
From the towers, the tower of the south-east corner tower is better preserved, which in its current state has a height of 7 m, which reaches the height of the second floor floor. The rectangular tower is located on the west wall. The first floors of the circular towers served as warehouses and were equipped with turrets placed about 1.20 m apart.
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From the position of placing the towers it is clear that the direction of control of the castle was the sea. The walls are built of limestone bonded with mortar and reinforced with wooden strips. The height of the walls reaches 6.70 –7 m and the thickness up to 2 m. The walls were surrounded by a parapet described with turrets for balls, covered with horizontal stones. The turrets are 0.50 m high, 0.35 m wide from the inside and 0.04 –0.06 m from the outside. The turrets at the top are covered with horizontally placed stone slabs. The ones that penetrate the parapet on the walls are not so typical for firearms, they are bigger than the turrets used by Ali Pasha Tepelena.
The above technique resembles the housesof the 15th century. XVII-XVIII of Gjirokastra.
It is now a tourist attraction, where as visitors learn about the past of these walls, you can sit at the bar and enjoy a drink while the panorama of the Saranda coast is stunning. And as the sun sets over the horizon and you enjoy the color of the sky, the lights in the castle turn on because the summer nights are long and the drinks are never enough.
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