The hook
The "city of a thousand windows," where tiers of white Ottoman houses climb a steep hillside stacked so their rows of windows all seem to look out at once, below a castle quarter people still live in.
01Why it's worth it
Berat is one of Albania's oldest towns and its best-kept, an Ottoman-era townscape that survived the country's isolated 20th century largely intact. Its signature is the Mangalem quarter, where whitewashed timber houses rise up the slope in tight ranks, each with big wooden windows, so from across the Osum river the hillside reads as a wall of glass and stone, hence the nickname. Up top, the castle is not a ruin to tour but a living neighbourhood, with families, churches, and lanes inside the old walls and long views over the valley. There are Byzantine churches with fine icons and, across the river, an Ottoman quarter and old bridges. After decades when Albania was closed to the world, towns like this feel like a discovery, and prices are still low.
02How to experience it
Wander up into the inhabited castle quarter as well as the photogenic Mangalem houses, and cross the river for the view of the "thousand windows" hillside in low light. See the icon collection in the castle church. Berat pairs well with the nearby stone city of Gjirokastër.