Cape Rodon
The Cape Rodon (also Skanderbeg Cape , Albanian Cape of Rodon ) is a cape on one in the Adriatic also running, almost ten-kilometer point of land in central albania . The headland is the end of the range of hills Kodra e Gjatë (long hills) , which extends between Durrës and Tirana in a north-south direction and separates the rivers Erzen and Ishëm . The cape lies between Durrës in the south and Lezha in the north. South of the cape is Gjiri i Lalzit Bay, and Gjiri i Rodonit Bay to the east . Cape Rodon is also the southern end of the Drin Gulf .
The name Kepi i Rodonit comes from the Illyrian god Redon , god of wanderers and seafarers.
In 1417 Skanderbeg's father, Gjon Kastrioti I, created a landing pad on the Cape for ships from Ragusa and Naples . There, only a few hundred meters from the tip of the cape, you can still see the ruins of a fortress of the Albanian prince Skanderbeg, which was destroyed by the Turks in 1467 , but later rebuilt by the Venetians .
Three churches are known from the pre-Ottoman period. One of these churches, not far from the fortress, belonged to a monastery that probably belonged to the Order of the Poor Clares . The church dates back to the 12th century and was rebuilt in the 15th century in the Roman - Gothic style. The monastery and church later passed to the Franciscans (OFM) and are now named after St. Antonius ( Shën Antoni or Shën Ndoit ). Only a few remains of the monastery have survived.
During restoration work, frescoes were discovered in the apse showing a rider with a horse and a double-headed eagle . It is likely to be the oldest surviving illustration of the heraldic animal of Albania and the Kastrioti family. The rider could be Skanderbeg or a female rider. The latter could be Skanderbeg's sister Mamica , who is considered to be the founder of the monastery.
The two villages Shetaj and Draç are on the headland . An asphalt road, which mostly winds along the ridge of the range of hills, almost leads to the cultural assets at the tip of the peninsula.
“We ate a small, cold meal on the ruins of the picturesque ruins and then contested the outermost tip of the far reaching cap in the sea sand, a picturesque undertaking; Particularly beautiful and wild at the top are even the washed-out, quite high rock walls, varied in colors and shapes, full of dripping grottos, full of small, dark hiding spots in which the sea birds build their safe nests that cannot be climbed; Everywhere the red marble-like veins gleam like stuck embers of the scorching rays of the sun; bizarre spikes like turrets and canopies loosen up everywhere ... "
In the summer of 2012, environmentalists collected hundreds of bags of rubbish on the coast around the Cape, the majority of which was carried by Ishëm into the Drin Gulf and then collected on the beaches.
literature
- Markus WE Peters: Catholic Church Buildings in Albania from the Middle Ages to the Present. In: Walter Raunig (ed.): Albania - wealth and diversity of ancient culture. State Museum for Ethnology, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-9807561-2-2
Web links
- German Embassy: Securing the Skanderbeg Fortress and restoration of the Church of St. Antonius on Cape Rodon.
- Rodon Cape Guards on Facebook
- Flickr.com: some pictures
Individual evidence
- ^ Maximilian I .: Travel Sketches VIII, IX. (Gallo Africa; A piece of Albania) . 2nd Edition. Fourth volume. Published by Duncker and Humblot, Leipzig 1867.
- ^ Rodon Cape Guards - Voluntary Action to Clean Rodon Cape Adriatic Sea. In: Smart Tourist Albania. November 13, 2012, accessed on July 20, 2013 (English): "Since the early days of August 2012, one hundred cape guards have cleaned 1.5 km of coastline and collected 400 bags of waste. A lot more needs to be done. "
Coordinates: 41 ° 35 ′ 3 ″ N , 19 ° 26 ′ 59 ″ E