BERAT, is a museum city and one of the most ancient cities in the country. The objects discovered speak of the commencement of life at the Bronze and Iron Age. At the 2nd century B.C. it was known with the name Antipatrea.
While you come nearer and nearer to the center of the city, you are deeply impresses by the typical buildings on the slopes of two hills, stone-paved roads, the walls and doors of the gardens. Hence the city has been renamed the “city of one window above the other” or “the city of one thousand windows”. What impresses most the tourists in this ancient city is its Castle. It has been built up on a rocky hill 260 m. above the sea-level. A city-quarter and many objects of cult, such as churches, etc. have survived within its powerful stony walls. One of these churches, which preserves wooden-engraved iconostasis, houses the “Onufri” Museum, named after the well-know Albania painter of the 16th century. Works of iconography by this painter and several other Albanian painters of that time have been put on display there. The visit to other objects, such as the Lead Mosques, Bachelor’s Mosque, Gorica Bridge and many dwelling houses of the 18th and 19th centuries arouse a great interest in you. The excursion to that museum-city is quite impressive.