Classroom lesson 路 Skanderbeg and Albania's stone castles馃嚘馃嚤 Albania

Skanderbeg and Albania's stone castles

A famous hero on horseback, and the castles still standing today

Photo 路 Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Albania has dozens of stone castles built on hilltops, some of them over 600 years old. The country's most famous historical figure is a leader called Skanderbeg, who lived in the 1400s and rode a horse with a goat-horn helmet. Today he is on Albania's flag, statues and even the national football team's badge.

Tell me more

Skanderbeg's real name was Gjergj Kastrioti. He was famous for being a clever leader who used the mountains of Albania to protect his home region. He wasn't huge or super strong - what made him special was thinking carefully and moving quickly, like a chess player on a horse.

His helmet is one of the most recognisable in Europe - it has a goat's head with curling horns on top. You can see the real one (or a careful copy) in the museum at Kruja Castle, on a steep ridge above the town. Children in Albania learn his name as soon as they start school.

Albania has many other castles too. Gjirokast毛r Castle sits above a beautiful old town full of stone-roofed houses - it looks a bit like a wedding cake from a distance. Berat, another castle town, is called 'the town of a thousand windows' because so many white houses are stacked up the hillside that they look like one giant face full of eyes.

Today the castles are not used as fortresses any more. They are museums, viewpoints, or just places to picnic with a view. School trips often end with a class climbing up to one and looking out at the country from above. From the top of Berat's castle, you can see for kilometres in every direction.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Why do you think old castles are usually built on top of hills?
  2. 02What might a really memorable hat or helmet say about a leader?
  3. 03If your town built a hilltop castle today, what would you put inside?
Try this

Classroom activity

Design your own 'national helmet' for a brave but kind hero. Use the goat-horn helmet of Skanderbeg as a starting point. What animal or shape would yours have on top, and why? Share your designs in a class gallery.