Preza Castle

Fushë-Prezë, Albania, Albania

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Preza Castle (Kalaja e Prezës) is a medieval fortress located on a hill just above the village of Fushë-Prezë in northern Albania, easily visible from the main road between Tirana and Krujë and only a few kilometers from Tirana International Airport.

Its oldest phases date back to the Byzantine period, when the emperor Justinian I built initial fortifications in the 550s, and the castle was later enlarged in the 14th and early 15th centuries under the local Albanian noble family of Thopia (Topiaj), who controlled much of the region around Tirana and Durrës.

From 1443 to 1468, Preza Castle became one of the key strongholds of the Albanian resistance against the Ottoman Empire, serving as an important base for the national hero Skanderbeg’s campaigns and helping to protect the Tirana plain and the approaches to the north.