Kruja History

Kruja is an important centre of Albanian culture and heritage. The name "Krujë" is said to come from the word "spring" or water spring, as there are many water springs in Kruje and it is similar to the word still used today: kroi . The city is situated on a hillside with a breathtaking view.

In ancient times Kruja was inhabited by the Albanians, members of the Illyrian tribe. In 1190 Kruja became the capital of the first autonomous Albanian state in the Middle Ages, the Principality of Arbër. Later it was the capital of the Kingdom of Albania. Kruja was conquered by the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 15th century, but was liberated by Skanderbeg in 1443.

After the fourth siege in 1478, the Ottomans took control of the town and built it into their territory. After a local revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1906, Albania declared its independence in 1912. Today Kruja is an important tourist centre in Albania, with visitors not only from abroad, but also from Albania itself.

Skanderbeg – Albanian National Hero (1405-1468)

  George Kastrioti, pronounced in Albanian: Gjergj Kastrioti, commonly known as Skanderbeg, was a 15th century Albanian nobleman and the national hero of the Albanian people.

George was born in 1405 to the noble Kastrioti family. He was the son of John Kastrioti, the prince of Mathia (today Mat in Albania). Already at a young age George was given to the Turkish Sultan for his army. Converted to Islam and trained in Edirne in Turkey, he was given the name Iskander by Sultan Murad II - after Alexander the Great and the rank of Bey/Beg - and was therefore called Skanderbeg. During the Battle of Nish in Serbia in 1443, in which the Turks were defeated, Skanderbeg left the Ottomans and joined his Albanian countrymen against the forces of Islam. He accepted Christianity, took back his family property and in 1444 organised a League of Albanian Princes, known in history as the League of Lezha. He was appointed commander-in-chief of this organization and defended the region of Albania against the Ottoman Empire for 25 years.

From 1444-66 he effectively fought off 13 Turkish invasions, and his successful resistance to the armies of Murad II in 1450, which also kept the Ottomans away from Eastern Europe, made him a hero throughout the Western world. Over the years he gained the support of Naples, Venice and the Papacy and was appointed Captain General of the Holy See, Pope Calixtus III. In 1463 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the crusade troops of Pope Pius II, but the Pope died when the armies were still gathering. He fought with the Venetians against the Ottomans during the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1463 until his death in January 1468. During his lifetime he successfully fended off all Turkish invasions. But in 1478, only ten years after his death, his fortress Kruja fell, and Albania fell under Turkish rule into several centuries of indeterminacy.  

First Siege of Kruja (1450)

In the spring of 1450, Sultan Murad II decided to end the Albanian resistance. According to the Byzantine chronicler Laonik Halkokondili, Sultan Murad II gathered all the armies of Asia and Europe, about 100,000 men, and set off for Albania in the first days of May 1450. The Ottoman host drove through Macedonia to Ohrid and took the road to Kruja.  

The superiority in numbers and weapons allowed the Ottoman army to penetrate deep into Albania and reach the walls of Kruja instead of fighting Skanderbeg in the open field. During the Ottoman march to Kruja, through the valley of Shkumbin, the Albanians caused great damage to the Ottoman army by attacking them in mountainous terrain.

The Ottomans arrived in Kruja on 14 May 1450 and besieged the castle. Most of the Albanian army was stored in Tirana. Inside the castle of Skanderbeg there was only a garrison of 1,500 men under the command of Count Uranus, one of his most prominent lieutenants. While Skanderbeg himself with an army of almost 8000 soldiers remained outside the walls of Kruja, with base camp on Mount Tumenisht, today's Mount Skanderbeg, which lies north of the city.

In the beginning, Murad II tried to take the castle without a fight. He offered Count Uranus a very large quantity of gold ducats, but the protector of the castle rejected this with contempt. Then the Ottomans began bombing the fortress and hoped that the Albanian defenders would give up because of the huge cannons used for the first time. Skanderbeg, however, fiercely attacked the Ottoman army from the outside, attacking supply convoys coming from Macedonia and military camps.

The siege lasted throughout the summer. Thousands of Ottoman soldiers were killed. The Ottoman food reserves dwindled due to Skanderbeg's attacks on the convoys. As winter approached and after all attempts to persuade Skanderbeg to make peace against a tribute, Sultan Murad II was forced to flee to Adrianople with his remaining fighters on 26 October 1450. Sultan Murad II suffered a humiliating defeat in this battle, despite the almost five months of siege and even with the use of modern weapons. A few months later, Murad II died in Adrianopel, allegedly of resentment.

The Albanians reaped a brilliant victory. The victory had great repercussions in Albania and in various European countries. In Albania it increased the authority of Skanderbeg, who was recognized by the masses as the only leader and defender of their freedom. In other countries, the Albanian people gained general respect, and Skanderbeg was recognised by the European public as one of the most brilliant commanders of the time.

Second Siege of Kruja (1466)

AK150606 Sultan Mehmet II, the son of Murad II, was enraged by the humiliating loss that his father had suffered in the First Siege of Kruja. He therefore sent a wide-ranging military expedition into Albania whose aim was to completely devastate the country's resources and economy and to destroy the will of the Albanians.

In June 1466 about 150 thousand ottoman soldiers came to Albania to take Kruja. According to the ottoman Chroniclers, this time the sultan had decided to suppress Albanian resistance using all available means. However, the Albanians knew that this time would be a fight to the death. For this reason, by the time the Turkish armies entered Albania, the Albanians had abandoned their settlements at Dursun Bey and were camped in the rugged mountains and narrow gorges where they were more secure.

The Sultan divided his army into two parts. One besieged Kruja and the other was ordered to protect the military camp and caravans. The Ottoman chronicler, Kemal Pasha-Zade, has written that this time the ottomans were so fierce that they killed everyone who was captured alive, they burned everything and took the women and children captive. The spoils of war were so large, reported Kemal Pasha, that the heavily-burdened horses died on the way to Istanbul. Despite all of this, Albanians resisted heroically. Kritobuli from Imbrosi, the Byzantine chronicler who observed this war closely, wrote that Albanians prefer death than falling into the hands of the ottomans.

Mehmet II tightened the Siege of Kruja. As in the First Siege of Kruja in 1450, Skanderbeg left in the castle a garrison of four thousand men under the command of Tanush Topia, while again Skanderbeg himself remained outside the walls of Kruja. As before, Skanderbeg caused extensive damage to the Ottoman army with his frequent attacks from the outside. The Sultan himself led the siege for two months. In August he was convinced that Kruja was a fortress that he could not take at that time. So Mehmet II, the Conqueror of Constantinople, the sultan who had designed the plan for the invasion of Italy, was covered with shame under the walls of Kruja. Albania was still free.

The third siege of Kruja (1467)

The third siege of Kruja by the Ottoman Empire took place in 1467. The destruction of the army of Ballaban Pasha and the siege of Elbasan during the previous siege of Kruja forced Mehmed II to attack Skanderbeg again in the summer of 1467, only 2 months after his victory in the second siege of Kruja. This time Skanderbeg did not immediately retreat to the mountains, but decided for the first time to hit the large Ottoman army head-on in Burshek, in the valley of the Shkumbin River, to give the civilian population time to retreat to the mountains. This time the battle did not produce a conclusive result. Then Skanderbeg withdrew and the Ottoman Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha Angelović pursued him, but Skanderbeg managed to flee to the coast and then to the mountains. In the meantime, Mehmed II. Units to invade the Venetian possessions, especially Durrës, which were also besieged and briefly bombed to isolate them. He besieged Kruja for several days, but when he realized that he could not conquer it by attack, he lifted the siege. Although the Ottomans did not take Kruja, they managed to plunder areas around Durrës and Skodra.

The Fourth siege of Kruja (1478)

The fourth siege of Kruja took place in 1478, after the death of Skanderbeg, and led to the Ottoman occupation of the city after the failure of the three previous sieges.

Kruja and his defenders fought heroically against the Ottoman offensive with more than 100,000 fighters for about a year. They used tactics Skanderbeg had used during the earlier sieges, but this time everything was more difficult for them. Albania had a small population and the previous sieges had weakened the Albanians. The Albanian defenders of Kruja, heavily demoralized by the continuing siege, exhausted by previous battles against a superpower of the time, weakened by hunger and lack of supply, surrendered to Sultan Mehmed II. He had promised them that they could leave the castle, that they would not be punished; the Ottomans, however, did not keep this promise, but killed almost all of them. A year later the Ottoman troops invaded Shkodra, Albania's last stronghold. After that, the Albanians would never again become a serious threat to the Ottoman Empire. Many Albanians left Albania and went to Italy and Greece. Most of the Albanian population would gradually convert to Islam and Albania would be part of the Ottoman Empire until early 1900.