Kleisoúra

Kleisoúra stands beside the Vjosë, where the river cuts a narrow gorge through the mountains of southern Albania. In 198 BC Macedonian troops blocked the passage against Rome, until a shepherd was said to have guided Roman soldiers through the heights to attack them from two sides. A castle was built above the route in the thirteenth century. Albanian rebels seized it from Byzantine rule in 1335 and from the Ottomans in 1432.