Ceramic finds from the 7th century BCE initially attest to a settlement of the rocky hill of Berat by the Illyrians.[1] Berat has been identified with ancient Antipatrea.[2] Probably since the mid-4th century BCE the Illyrians went through a dynamic development, founding their own cities like Dimale and Byllis; however it is uncertain whether this development among Illyrians involved also Berat, or whether the foundation of the city is to be attributed to Cassander of Macedon.[3] The founding date is unknown, although if Cassander is the founder, it would date back after he took control of southern Illyria around 314 BCE.[2]

Antipatrea was involved in the Illyrian Wars and Macedonian Wars,[4] and it is mentioned as a city of Dassaretia in southern Illyria. Along with Chrysondyon, Gertous and Creonion, Antipatrea was one of the Dassaretan towns around which the Illyrian dynast Skerdilaidas and the Macedonian king Philip V fought in 217 BCE. The city eventually was conquered by Philip V until Roman intervention.[5][6] Antipatrea was described as the largest settlement with significant walls and referred to as the only urbs in the area, in contrast with other settlements that were described as castella or oppida.[7] As reported by Roman historian Livy, in 200 BCE the Roman legatus Lucius Apustius "stormed and subdued Antipatrea by force of arms and, after killing the men of military age and granting all the plunder to the soldiers, he demolished the walls and burned the city".[8][4] In Roman times it was included within Epirus Nova, in the province of Macedonia.[9] The town became part of the unstable frontier of the Byzantine Empire following the fall of the western Roman Empire and, along with much of the rest of the Balkan peninsula, it suffered from repeated invasions by Slavs. During the Roman and early Byzantine period, the city was known as Pulcheriopolis.

The First Bulgarian Empire under Presian I captured the town in the 9th century, and the city received the Slavic name Bel[i]grad ("White City"), Belegrada (Βελέγραδα) in Greek, which persisted throughout the medieval period, changing to Berat under Ottoman rule. The town became one of the most important towns in the Bulgarian region Kutmichevitsa. The Bulgarian governor Elemag surrendered the city to the emperor Basil II in 1018, and the city remained in Byzantine hands until the Second Bulgarian Empire retook the city in 1203 during the rule of Kaloyan. During the 13th century, it fell to Michael I Ducas, the ruler of the Despotate of Epirus.

 

The entrance of the citadel, with the 13th century Byzantine Holy Trinity Church

Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos sent letters to the Albanian leaders of Berat and Durrës in 1272 asking them to abandon their alliance with Charles I of Naples, leader of the Kingdom of Albania, who had captured and incorporated it at the same period in the Kingdom of Albania.[10][11][12] However, they sent the letters to Charles as a sign of their loyalty.[13] In 1274 Michael VIII recaptured Berat and after being joined by Albanians who supported the Byzantine Empire, marched unsuccessfully against the Angevin capital of Durrës.[14] In 1280-1281 the Sicilian forces under Hugh the Red of Sully laid siege to Berat. In March 1281 a relief force from Constantinople under the command of Michael Tarchaneiotes was able to drive off the besieging Sicilian army.[15] Later in the 13th century Berat again fell under the control of the Byzantine Empire.

The fortress of Tomorr in the early 14th century is attested as Timoro(n) under Byzantine control. In 1337, the Albanian tribes which lived in the areas of Belegrita (the region of Mt. Tomorr near Berat) and Kanina rose in rebellion, and seized the fortress of Tomorr.[16][17][18] There is little detail about the rebellion in primary sources. John VI Kantakouzenos mentions that the Albanians in those areas rebelled despite the privileges which Andronikos III Palaiologos had given them a few years earlier.[17] These events marked the movement of these Albanian tribes into Epirus for the first time.[18] Andronikos led an army mainly composed of Turkish mercenaries, and defeated the Albanians, killing many and taking prisoners.[17] In 1345 (or maybe 1343) the town passed to the Serbian Empire.[19] After its dissolution in 1355 Berat came under suzerainty of its former governor, John Komnenos Asen (1345-1363), Alexander Komnenos Asen (1363-1372) and Zeta of Balša II (1372-1385). In 1385 Berat was captured by the Ottomans, before the Battle of Savra. According to some sources, the Ottomans probably remained in Berat for some time with intention to use it as foothold to capture Valona.[20] By 1396, the Albanian Muzaka family took over control of Berat which became the capital of the Principality of Berat.[21][22] In 1417 Berat became a part of the Ottoman Empire.[23] In 1455 Skanderbeg, a commander with an Albanian force of 14,000 and small number of Catalan soldiers unsuccessfully tried to capture Berat from an Ottoman force of 40,000.[24]

 

Halveti Tekke

During the early period of Ottoman rule, Berat fell into severe decline.[dubious – discuss] By the end of the 16th century it had only 710 houses. However, it began to recover by the 17th century, and became a major craft centre specializing in wood carving.

During the first part of the sixteenth century, Berat was a Christian city and did not contain any Muslim households.[25] The urban population of this period (1506-1583) increased little, with the addition of 17 houses.[26] Following their expulsion and arrival from Spain, a Jewish community existed in Berat that consisted of 25 families between 1519 and 1520.[27][28]

Toward the latter part of the sixteenth century, Berat contained 461 Muslim houses and another 187 belonged to newcomers from the surrounding villages of Gjeqar, Gjerbës, Tozhar, Fratar, and Dobronik.[26] Conversion to Islam of the local urban population in Berat had increased during this time and part of the newcomer population were also Muslim converts who had Islamic names and Christian surnames.[26] Factors such as tax exemptions for Muslim urban craftsmen in exchange for military service drove many of the incoming rural first generation Muslim population to Berat.[29] Followers of Sabbatai Zevi existed in Berat among Jews during the mid-sixteenth century.[28] The Berat Jewish community took an active role in the welfare of other Jews, such as managing to attain the release of war-related captives present in Durrës in 1596.[28]

By the early seventeenth century, urban life in Berat started to resemble Ottoman and Muslim patterns.[30] From 1670 onward, Berat became a Muslim-majority city and of its 30 neighbourhoods, 19 were populated by Muslims.[31] Factors attributed to the change of the urban religious composition in Berat was pressure to covert in some neighbourhoods, and a lack of Christian priests able to provide religious services.[31]

 

The city of Berat in 1813, illustration by Charles Cockerelle

In the 18th century, Berat was one of the most important Albanian cities during the Ottoman period.[32]

In the early modern era the city was the capital of the Pashalik of Berat founded by Ahmet Kurt Pasha. Berat was incorporated in the Pashalik of Yanina after Ibrahim Pasha of Berat was defeated by Ali Pasha in 1809. In 1867, Berat became a sanjak in Yannina (Yanya) vilayet. Berat replaced a declining Vlorë as centre of the sanjak (province) in the nineteenth century.[33] The sanjak of Berat and the city itself were under the dominance of the Albanian Vrioni family.[33] The Jewish community of Yanina renewed the Jewish community of Berat in the nineteenth century.[28]

 

Berat depicted by Edward Lear, 15 October 1848.[34]

A Greek school was operating in the city already from 1835.[35] In the late Ottoman period, the population of Berat was 10–15,000 inhabitants, with Orthodox Christians numbering some 5,000 people of whom 3,000 spoke the Aromanian language and the rest the Albanian language.[36][37]

During the 19th century, Berat played an important part in the Albanian national revival. Christian merchants in Berat supported the Albanian movement.[38] The Albanian revolts of 1833–1839 greatly impacted the city, especially with revolts that occurred in October 1833. The city's castle was surrounded by 10,000 people. Berat's mütesellim, Emin Aga, was forced to leave the city in the hands of the revolt's leaders. On October 22, 1833 the revolt's leaders drafted their requests to the Sublime Porte: they would no longer accept allow that Berat give soldiers to the Ottoman government. They also demanded that Albania's local administration be led by Albanian people. The Ottoman government accepted the rebels' requests and nominated some Albanian officials in the city and declared an amnesty as well.[39] In August 1839 a new uprising took place in Berat. The inhabitants attacked the Ottoman forces and besieged them in the castle. Meanwhile, the rebellion spread out to the regions of Sanjak of Vlorë. The rebels leaders sent a petition to Sultan Abdulmejid I to have Albanian officials in administration and to put Ismail Pasha, the nephew of Ali Pasha as a general governor. In September 1839 the rebels captured the castle, however once again the Ottoman government postponed the application of reforms in Albania.[40]

Berat became a major base of support for the League of Prizren, the late 19th century Albanian nationalist alliance, while the city was also represented in the formation of southern branch of the league in Gjirokastër.[41] In the First World War, a census by Austro-Hungarian occupation forces counted 6745 Orthodox Christians and 20,919 Muslims in the Berat region.[42]

During the Second World War, Jews were concealed in the homes and basements of 60 families from the Muslim and Christian communities in Berat.[27] Albanian Muslims in the city let Jewish people worship in the local mosque, and a Star of David can still be seen on the walls of the city's main Islamic place of worship.[43]

From 23 to 30 October 1944, the second session of the Council of National Liberation of Albania was held in Berat, where the National Liberation Movement-controlled Anti-Fascist National Liberation Committee became the Provisional Democratic Government of Albania, with Enver Hoxha as its prime minister and minister of defence.

During the Communist era, Berat became a place of internal exile for those who were deemed public enemies, and their families. Starting in the 1950s, the village served as a political internment center from which the internees could not leave without permission.[44] Each day, internees were required to sign up at the Security Office or the police.[44] In 1963, a Deportation-Internment Commission report indicated that there were 30 interned in Berat, which consisted in part of internees those interned due to risk of escape.[44] The rest are convicted for ordinary causes. In 1967, Albanian author Ismail Kadare was sent to Berat, where he spent two years.[45][46] Relatives of those who had fled abroad, or sympathized with Titoist Yugoslavia were also deported to Berat.[47][48][49]

In the modern period, a Romani community numbering 200-300 lives in Berat and its outskirts whereas others in a few nearby villages, at times living in difficult economic circumstances with some seasonally migrating to Greece for work.[50][51] Some Aromanian-speakers and Greek-speakers can be found in the town and nearby villages.[52]