Welcome to Tirana, Albania

Skanderbeg Square

Tour stop audio transcript

George Kastriot, commonly known as Skanderbeg was a 15th-century Albanian nobleman. Skanderbeg was born in 1405 to the noble Kastrioti family. Sultan Murad II took him hostage at a young age and he served the Ottoman Empire during the next twenty years. He was appointed as sanjakbey of the Sanjak of Dibra by the Ottomans in 1440. In 1443, he deserted the Ottomans during the Battle of Niš and became the ruler of Krujë, Svetigrad, and Modrič. In 1444, he was appointed as a commander of the short-lived League of Lezhë, which proclaimed him "Chief of the League of the Albanian people". He was admired for defending the region of Albania against the Ottoman Empire for 25 years. Despite his military valor he was not able to do more than to hold his own possessions within the very small area in northern Albania where almost all of his victories against the Ottomans took place. Skanderbeg's rebellion was not a general uprising of Albanians, due to the fact that he did not gain support in the Ottoman-controlled south of Albania or Venetian-controlled north of Albania. His followers, along with Albanians, included Slavs, Vlachs, and Greeks. For 25 years, from 1443 to 1468, Skanderbeg's 10,000 man army marched through Ottoman territory winning against consistently larger and better supplied Ottoman forces. In 1451, he recognized de jure the suzerainty of the Kingdom of Naples through the Treaty of Gaeta, to ensure a protective alliance, although he remained a de facto independent ruler. In 1460–1461, he participated in Italy's civil wars in support of Ferdinand I of Naples. In 1463, he became the chief commander of the crusading forces of Pope Pius II, but the Pope died while the armies were still gathering. Together with Venetians he fought against the Ottomans during the Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–79) until his death in January 1468. Skanderbeg's military skills presented a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion, and he was considered by many in western Europe to be a model of Christian resistance against the Ottoman Muslims. (source: Wikipedia)