Tomornitsa

Tomornitsa, also known by the Bulgarian names Koprinista and Pronista, is an ancient fortress and an ex post facto Bulgarian fortress. It was the last source of resistance before Byzantine domination over the Bulgarian lands.

The ruins are situated near the present-day Albanian town of Berat, on the north-western slopes of Mount Tomorr.

The fortress dates back to the Roman period and stood on a steep rocky platform 50 metres high, accessible only by a narrow path. The walls of the acropolis differ in their stonework and there are several archaeological layers. The acropolis was 210 metres long, its walls were 1.3 metres thick and it had the shape of an irregular trapezium.

The position of the fortress is key to the control of the Via Egnatia. It dominated the defensive system of the region, which comprised 8 small fortifications, and with the castle of Berat the number of fortifications came to 10.

In this fortress, on 15 August 1018, the voivode-duke Ibatzes was treacherously blinded after an unsuccessful siege of 55 days — the blinding was the work of Eustathios Daphnomeles.

The fortress had its own independent water source and a reservoir for 100,000 litres of water. Unfortunately, no serious archaeological excavation has been carried out on the site and information about it comes solely from written sources.

Machine-translated from “Tomorrnitsa” on the French Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Tomornitsa ranks #5,614 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #26 of the 27 mapped in Albania. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Vlorë, 60 km away. See how Albania compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia (in French) ↗