Tower houses (singular: Albanian: kullë; Bosnian: odžak Bulgarian: кули, kuli; Serbian: кула, Romanian: culă) developed and were built since the Middle Ages in the Balkans,[1] particularly in Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro,[2] but also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia and Serbia, as well as in Oltenia, in Romania.
Originating from the Mediterranean-Medieval stone tower houses, they were developed by Albanian carpenter-mason craftsmanship, which had a strong reputation within the Ottoman as well as the European elites for the construction of advanced residential housing. Mid-19th century studies pointed out that all the men – almost without exception – who build walls, fell trees and saw lumber in the European part of the Ottoman Empire and in the Kingdom of Greece, were from Albania, specifically from mountainous regions. For metal work Balkan Egyptians were contracted, and specific fortification features were sometimes left to stone mason specialists from the Adriatic coast.[3]
The practice became very widespread among both Christian and Muslim communities during the decline of Ottoman power in the 17th century and flourished until the early 20th century. The tower houses were typically made out of stone, rose three or four storeys, and were square or rectangular in shape.[4] They served both military (defence, watchtower) and civilian (residential) purposes in order to protect the extended family.[1]
- ^ a b Greville Pounds 1994, p. 335: "In southeastern Europe, where the extended family was exemplified as nowhere else in the western world, the home itself was often protected, giving rise to the kula or tower- house."
- ^ Jerliu & Thaçi 2024, p. 1.
- ^ Jaeger-Klein 2018, pp. 7, 10.
- ^ Grube-Mitchell 1978, p. 204: "a distinctive form of defensive tower-dwelling, the kula, developed among both the Christian and the Muslim communities during the insecure period of the decline of the Ottoman authority in the 17th century ..."