Things to do
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Berat Castle
A walled citadel occupies the ridge above the Osum, lived in without a break since antiquity, so the lanes inside run past houses, vegetable plots and a dozen Byzantine churches still standing among the ruins. The cobbled approach road is steep and awkward in wet weather. Late light suits the walls, and the far end of the hill looks over the valley almost unvisited.
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Gorica Bridge
Seven stone arches carry a footbridge over the Osum between Mangalem and the Gorica quarter, rebuilt in masonry early in the nineteenth century on the line of an older wooden crossing. The span is the standard vantage point for photographs of both banks. Water runs low in summer and the gravel beds below draw swimmers on hot afternoons.
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Mangalem
Below the castle on the north bank, tiers of white Ottoman houses stack up the slope in rows of windows that gave Berat its label as the town of a thousand windows. The quarter holds the lead-domed King Mosque and a working bazaar street. Steep cobbled alleys link the levels, and the best view of the facade comes from Gorica across the river.
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Onufri Museum
Inside the castle's Church of the Dormition, the icon museum holds work by Onufri, the sixteenth-century painter whose red pigment his contemporaries could not match, alongside a carved and gilded iconostasis left in place. Labels are brief and the rooms are small. An hour covers it, and the church itself repays more attention than most visitors give it.