Castle of Canina

Castle of Kanina it is located in the village of Kanina, 3 km from the Bay of Vlora, on a hill 379 m above. In the ancient period, Kanina was established as a fortified coastal center of the tribal community of Amants, which played a strategic role in controlling the Gulf of Vlora. In late antiquity, the surrounding walls were rebuilt, while gradually in the Middle Ages (IX-X centuries) it turned into an ecclesiastical-administrative center. It was part of the Byzantine, Norman, Angevin and Serbian possessions. After the last ruler of Serbian origin, Ivan Komnrn Asenit, Vlora and Kanina will be placed under the rule of the Albanian lords of the Muzakas, Balshays and Aranites. The last Albanian ruler Rugjina Balsha, after not finding the support of the Republic of Venice, in 1417 was forced to leave the fortress in the hands of the Ottomans. During the Ottoman rule at the time of Sultan Sulejman, Gjegju Sinan Pasha, the founder of the Vlora family dynasty, settled in Vlora and Kanina. His descendants, who ruled the Sanjak of Berat and Vlora, built their residence in the Kanina Castle. Pinjolli of this family, Ismail Qemali, proclaimed the independence of the Albanian state and raised the national flag in Vlora on November 28, 1912. From the Turkish traveler Evlija Çelebi at the end of the century. XVII, we learn that within the surrounding walls were about 300 stone houses, the mosque of Sultan Mehmed II, as well as the palaces of Gazi Sinan Pasha next to it. The Citadel was located in the western part, which was connected to the rest of the fortress by means of a gate. Outside the fortification in the south and east was the varoshi (neighborhood outside the surrounding walls of the castle). The castle begins to gradually lose its strategic importance in the middle of the century. XVI, after the fortress of Skela in Vlora was built. It was damaged by Venetian artillery bombardments in 1690 and at the beginning of the century. XIX the castle was abandoned. Its further destruction was caused by the bombings of the Italian army in the First World War and during the Vlora War in 1920.