Dervish Ali's Towers ( sq, Kullat e Dervish Aliut) are an early 19th century complex of towers in Dukat,

Vlorë County Vlorë County (; sq, Qarku i Vlorës) is one of the 12 counties of the Republic of Albania with the capital in Vlorë. The county spans and has a total population of 187,675 people as of 2021. It borders the counties of Fier and Gjirokastër, ...

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

. It is a

Cultural Monument of Albania In Albania, a cultural monument ''()'' is a construction or work of cultural, historical and artistic value that is built in a visible space, made in memory of important events or prominent people. Cultural monuments are usually under state protect ...

since 1979

History

The towers were built during the beginning of the 19th century as a personal property for Dervish Aliu, a local native, known as one of the organizers of the revolts against the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

Tanzimat The Tanzimat (; ota, تنظيمات, translit=Tanzimāt, lit=Reorganization, ''see'' nizām) was a period of reform in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Gülhane Hatt-ı Şerif in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. ...

reforms. The building was constructed on his land by master builders who hailed from

Ioannina Ioannina ( el, Ιωάννινα ' ), often called Yannena ( ' ) within Greece, is the capital and largest city of the Ioannina regional unit and of Epirus, an administrative region in north-western Greece. According to the 2011 census, the c ...

. It is one of the most representative defensive buildings in Southern

. There is a watchtower, a defensive tower, a main hall, called ''divan'', which has stone pillars and arches, ''the bread house'', the ''guest room'', and other surrounding buildings. On the highest edifice, which is in a dominating position, there are small windows made exclusively for shooters to fit their rifle and defend the property. The towers are not reachable by car; they are 1 km from Dukat, and there is a walking path that leads the visitors to the Dervish Ali's towers. Until 1991 the towers were a well visited landmark, as the 1979 reconstruction and rehabilitation with furniture, carpeting and pictures of Dervish Aliu and his family were well made, and the government funded its maintenance. After 1991 maintenance stopped and, as of June 2018, the towers are almost in a complete abandoned state, and likely to be thoroughly destroyed by the elements.

References

External links

{{coord, 40.2516, N, 19.5684, E, source:wikidata, display=title Cultural Monuments of Albania Buildings and structures in Vlorë County Buildings and structures completed in the 19th century