The City of Stone — Ottoman kulas, Enver Hoxha, and Albanian mountain cuisine
Gjirokastër is a UNESCO-listed city of Ottoman stone kula tower-houses stacked on a steep hillside above the Drino valley, topped by a massive Ottoman castle. It is the birthplace of both Enver Hoxha (Communist Albania's dictator) and Ismail Kadare (Albania's Nobel-shortlisted novelist), which gives the city an unusual intellectual and political weight. The cuisine is the best in Albania — tava kosi (baked lamb with yogurt), fërgesë (peppers, cottage cheese, and beef), and the most authentic byrek in the country.
The present city of stone tower-houses was built by the Gjirokastër pashalik — a semi-autonomous Ottoman Albanian clan — between the 17th and 19th centuries. Ali Pasha of Ioannina controlled the city briefly before Ottoman forces reasserted control. Under Enver Hoxha's communist regime (1945–1985), Gjirokastër became a museum city; the castle was converted into a military museum containing a captured US Air Force reconnaissance plane, which is still there.