Castle of Petrela and Legend of Homeric Wedding

Petrela Castle is located 15 km south of Tirana. It was built in 6th century AD.Its history dates back to Justinian I. In ancient times Petrela was known as Petralba, which translated from Greek means the “the stone of Alba”, therefore “the stone of Albanians”. The reason why it is called so, is because the town its castle are built on a huge stone on top of a small mountain. It has a triangular shape with two observation towers. The Petrela Castle was part of the signaling and defense system of the Kruja Castle. The castles signaled to each other by means of fires. During Skanderbeg’s fight against the Ottomans, the Petrela Castle used to be under the command of MamicaKastrioti, Skanderbeg's sister. Today there is a restaurant inside the castle. The castle offers spectacular views of the Erzen valley, the hills, olive groves, and surrounding mountains.

Legend of Mamica’s Homeric Wedding in Petrela

Not only is MamicaKastrioti’s name related to one of the most distinguished female warriors of the Albanian history and to the beloved sister of Scanderbeg, the Albanian national hero, but her name also represents the bloody history of her marriage.
As almost everywhere in the 15th century Europe, it was quite a tradition among the medieval Albanian noble families to strengthen family connections through marriage, and Scanderbeg’s family made no exception. His four elder sisters (Mara, Jella, Angjelina and Vlaika) were already married to highly respectable noble families, and now it was the turn of his little sister, Mamica, to get married to a noble lord.
Scanderbeg decided that she should marry the Lord of Petrela, MuzakTopia (Karl Topia), who was in fact already married to SerafinaArianiti and had two children together. Mamica’s marriage to TanushMuzaka was a purely political connection which, despite the great compromise that it involved, later on proved to be a wise decision. It is told that in fastening this bond between the two noble families of Kastrioti and Muzaka, Scanderbeg refused to acknowledge the sanctity of the previous marriage of the couple and of the children that they had together.
As the wedding day approached, and the wedding celebration and ritual was in full swing, something unusual happened. Among the many guests to the wedding were invited two of the most important figures of that period, the Lord of UlpjanaLekëDukagjini and the Lord of DanjaLekëZaharia; and among the many noble women invited to the celebration was Irena (Jerina – daughter of GjergjDushmani, Lord of Zadrima). As the Italian monk GanmariaBiemmi accounts in his records, this girl was of an exceptional beauty and served as the apple of discord to this story. Both LekëZaharia and LekëDukagjini fell madly in love with her and on the attempt to impress her, they totally forgot the reason why they were attending the wedding and started welding their swords against each other. Beautiful Irena made her choice clear by stating that she had already set her heart on LekëZaharia, but LekëDukagjini refused to accept her choice. He challenged his rival in a duel which he lost and ended up deeply humiliated. LekëDukagjini was a hot blooded person and the situation grew much worse as their duel turned into a violent and bloody battle between the escorts of these two noble men.
This must have been an extremely shocking event at the time, as it was accounted by many writers who report that at the end of the battle 105 people were killed and 150 were wounded. The story goes that while the battle was going on, Scanderbeg was not present as he was having a walk with the newlywed couple. When they returned to the wedding, instead of finding people dancing and rejoicing to their union, they found a terrible massacre.
Many thought that this was a bad omen, that this union was not a blessed one and that Serafina’s (Muzaka’s first wife) curse would follow them forever. Their leader, Scanderbeg was harsh on both lords, but he also recognized the rightfulness of LekëZaharia in this matter, so he blessed his engagement to Irena.
LekëDukagjini felt utterly offended by Scanderbeg who sided with his rival, he left the wedding and for many years their relations were cold and tense to the point of starting a war, which most likely would have happened if it weren’t for the Ottoman armies that knocked on Kruja’s door.
A couple of years later, LekëZaharia died in some unknown circumstances. Many believe that he was ambushed and killed by LekëDukagjini, who had not forgotten the bitter event of his humiliation.