{"id":2746,"date":"2017-06-29T18:02:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T18:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/?p=2746"},"modified":"2017-06-29T18:02:00","modified_gmt":"2017-06-29T18:02:00","slug":"the-zekate-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/?p=2746","title":{"rendered":"The Zekate House"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The

The Zekate House<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018<\/strong>The best surviving example of an ottoman tower house in Gjirokastra\u2019 (prof. dr Emin Riza)<\/p>\n

The fortified tower houses \u2013 known as\u00a0kull\u00eb\u00a0<\/em>(kull\u00eb<\/em>\u00a0is Turkish for tower) belonged to wealthy individuals such as administrative officials or merchants. They all follow a basic layout: a secure stone lower storey topped by a wooden gallery where the principal rooms for an extended family are located. \u00a0Embrasures are set in the walls to help defend against attacking enemies. The Zekate House is a particularly grand example of the typical\u00a0kull\u00eb<\/em>\u00a0(tower-house). \u00a0Constructed in 1811-1812 it has twin towers and a great double arched fa\u00e7ade. The views of the town and the river valley below are spectacular.<\/p>\n

There are three floors; the ground floor contains storage rooms, a high ceilinged kitchen and the cistern.\u00a0 There is a central staircase which winds upwards through the building. The first floor has two rooms that were used as living quarters for branches of the family, while the third floor has a grand reception room and two other smaller rooms. The principal room is very typical of the grandest of these dwellings with frescoed walls, a carved ceiling and an ornate fireplace.\u00a0 This level would have been shared by the whole family.\u00a0 At the centre of floor at the top of the staircase there is a wooden balcony overlooking the town.\u00a0 This has a raised section on which the head of the family would sit, meet his guests and watch what went on in the city below.<\/p>\n

The Zekate house is open for visitors. A family member will come out and unlock the door.<\/p>\n

Entrance fee is 200 Leke.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018The best surviving example of an ottoman tower house in Gjirokastra\u2019 (prof. dr Emin Riza) The fortified tower houses \u2013 known as\u00a0kull\u00eb\u00a0(kull\u00eb\u00a0is Turkish for tower) belonged to wealthy individuals such as administrative officials or merchants. They all follow a basic layout: a secure stone lower storey topped by a wooden gallery where the principal rooms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25],"tags":[27,50],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}