Roots Albania in Berat: audio stories about 15 places
Roots Albania has audio stories about 15 places in Berat (spelled Berat in Albanian too), a UNESCO World Heritage site in south-central Albania. The app covers 211 places in ten Albanian cities, in 28 languages, and needs no account: open Berat, pick a place and play its story.
In the order the app shows them, with the Albanian name after the English one.
Lead Mosque (Xhamia e Plumbit)
King's Mosque (Xhamia e Mbretit)
Halveti Tekke (Teqja Helvetive)
Berat Ethnographic Museum (Muzeu Etnografik i Beratit)
Mangalem Quarter (Lagjja Mangalem)
Church of St Michael (Kisha e Shën Mihailit)
Gorica Quarter (Lagjja Gorica)
Gorica Bridge (Ura e Goricës)
Berat Castle (Kalaja e Beratit)
Red Mosque (Xhamia e Kuqe)
Holy Trinity Church (Kisha e Shënmërisë së Trinisë)
Onufri Museum (Muzeu Onufri)
Cathedral of the Dormition (Katedralja e Ngjitjes)
Mount Tomorr (Mali i Tomorrit)
Osum Canyon (Kanioni i Osumit)
Is there an audio guide for Berat Castle?
Yes, as audio stories. Berat Castle (Kalaja e Beratit) is place 9 of the 15 Berat places in Roots Albania: it has a short introduction and a story of about six minutes, in 28 languages, with a male and a female voice.
In one line: A castle inhabited without interruption for more than 24 centuries, with walls that preserve Illyrian, Byzantine, Despotate of Epirus and Ottoman layers.
The Red Mosque and the Onufri Museum, both inside the castle, and the Church of St Michael on the castle rock have their own stories too.
Roots Albania is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.
How to use Roots Albania in Berat
Open Roots Albania and choose Berat. The city has its own map of places with all 15 places on it; tap a place to play its short introduction or its story of about six minutes. You can listen in 28 languages, in a male or a female voice, and there is no account.
Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.
Every place below has a short introduction and a story of about six minutes in the Roots Albania app. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude), the type, the period and the one line descriptions are taken from the app's catalogue on 15 September 2026; a place without a one line description here has none short enough to print.
1. Lead Mosque
Albanian name
Xhamia e Plumbit
Coordinates
40.70444444, 19.95527778
Type of place
religious
Period
Ottoman
In one line
A mid-16th-century Ottoman mosque in Mangalem, whose name comes from the lead sheets that Ragusan craftsmen laid over its brick dome.
2. King's Mosque
Albanian name
Xhamia e Mbretit
Coordinates
40.7056888, 19.9520365
Type of place
religious
Period
Ottoman
3. Halveti Tekke
Albanian name
Teqja Helvetive
Coordinates
40.706, 19.9525
Type of place
religious
Period
Ottoman
4. Berat Ethnographic Museum
Albanian name
Muzeu Etnografik i Beratit
Coordinates
40.7076724, 19.9503945
Type of place
museum
Period
modern
In one line
The Llavda House, a three-century-old home of a family of major landowners, turned into the National Ethnographic Museum in 1979.
5. Mangalem Quarter
Albanian name
Lagjja Mangalem
Coordinates
40.705387, 19.949939
Type of place
cultural
Period
Ottoman
In one line
Berat's historic Muslim quarter, clinging to the right slope of the Osum below the castle, known for the stacked-window facades that gave the city the name City of a Thousand Windows.
6. Church of St Michael
Albanian name
Kisha e Shën Mihailit
Coordinates
40.70472222, 19.94666667
Type of place
religious
Period
Byzantine
In one line
A small 14th-century Byzantine church set directly on the southern rock of Berat castle, with an inscribed-cross plan and cloisonné masonry.
7. Gorica Quarter
Albanian name
Lagjja Gorica
Coordinates
40.702566, 19.946716
Type of place
cultural
Period
Ottoman
In one line
Berat's historic Orthodox quarter facing Mangalem, linked to it by the stone bridge over the Osum, with the still-active churches of Saint Spyridon and Saint Thomas, part of the UNESCO World Heritage.
8. Gorica Bridge
Albanian name
Ura e Goricës
Coordinates
40.703284272, 19.944605181
Type of place
architectural
Period
Ottoman
In one line
An Ottoman stone bridge with 7 asymmetrical arches, built around 1780 by order of Ahmet Kurt Pasha over the Osum River.
9. Berat Castle
Albanian name
Kalaja e Beratit
Coordinates
40.708, 19.945
Type of place
historical
Period
medieval
In one line
A castle inhabited without interruption for more than 24 centuries, with walls that preserve Illyrian, Byzantine, Despotate of Epirus and Ottoman layers.
10. Red Mosque
Albanian name
Xhamia e Kuqe
Coordinates
40.70726, 19.94572
Type of place
religious
Period
Ottoman
In one line
One of the oldest mosques on Albanian soil, raised within the castle of Berat immediately after the Ottoman conquest of 1417 for the military garrison.
11. Holy Trinity Church
Albanian name
Kisha e Shënmërisë së Trinisë
Coordinates
40.707777777, 19.944527777
Type of place
religious
Period
Byzantine
12. Onufri Museum
Albanian name
Muzeu Onufri
Coordinates
40.7089617, 19.945246
Type of place
museum
Period
Byzantine
In one line
A national iconographic museum opened in 1986 inside the Church of the Dormition of Saint Mary in the castle of Berat.
13. Cathedral of the Dormition
Albanian name
Katedralja e Ngjitjes
Coordinates
40.7092, 19.9452
Type of place
religious
Period
Ottoman
14. Mount Tomorr
Albanian name
Mali i Tomorrit
Coordinates
40.709088888, 20.141802777
Type of place
natural
Period
ancient
In one line
The most imposing mountain of southeastern Albania, with a peak at 2416 metres (Çuka e Partizanit), a cult site since Illyrian times and today the holiest centre in the world of the Bektashi order.
15. Osum Canyon
Albanian name
Kanioni i Osumit
Coordinates
40.47, 20.255
Type of place
natural
Period
ancient
In one line
A karst canyon twenty-six kilometres long, carved by the Osum over two to three million years, with walls up to eighty metres high and a bed that narrows to one and a half metres.
