is located in south central Albania and is one of the oldest cities in Albania. Berat has been established since the Bronze Age 4000 years ago. The first traces of building on the citadel date from the late 4th century B.C. by the Illyrian tribe known as the Dassaretes. It became part of Macedonia until the Roman conquests in 200 B.C. After Roman rule Berat was part of the Byzantine Empire until its gradual collapse in the 13th century. Although today Berat doesn’t seem strategically located, before roads were built around the southern ranges Berat stood at the point where trading routes from the south met the lowland plain making control over Berat key to controlling and influencing trading networks. As a result Berat was attacked, besieged, occupied and re-occupied in the turbulent years following the decline of the Byzantine Empire. The Ottomans captured the castle and occupied the city in 1417. During Ottoman rule the Christians lived either in the citadel itself or on the other side of the river in Gorica. The citadel dominates Berat and offers panoramic views of the city below and the mountains across the river. The view of its white tiled roof houses climbing up the hillside to the citadel is one of the best-known images in Albania. The citadel includes the Church of St Mary built in 1797 and the Onufri Museum housing the work of Onufri, one of the greatest of a group of Albanian icon painters of the 16th and 17th centuries. Also within the castle walls are many medieval churches, beautiful mosques and an excellent Ethnographic Museum providing an informative glimpse of 19th century life in Berat. The city’s ancient churches and mosques were protected from urban development when Berat was designated a ‘museum-city’ by the Albanian government in 1976.