The Kalà of Elbasan, recovery and development of constructive cultures

The Kalà of Elbasan holds in its limited perimeter of walls a story of enormous complexity. We must think in very broad terms, to the layering of built Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and then finally contemporary, but always with strong local characteristics and hybridization with neighboring cultures developed and steered along the route of the Via Ignazia. A declination of technological and structural according to the specific building traditions when dominant corresponds necessarily to succession and overlapping of cultures. But some environmental conditions for dramatic effect, combined with the basic knowledge and techniques developed on the spot, developed in ancient Kalà of Elbasan a set of constructive solutions of absolute value and originality. The context of Elbasan is characterized by the presence of stone materials in large quantities and the abundance of lumber. In the first case there are rocky deposits, often arrived directly downstream along the river bed, offering stones construction hardly workable, while it is easier reduce in beams and pillars rich woods of chestnut, firs, oaks etc.. Observing houses still intact within the Kalà we may identify regularities in the way of realizing the bearing masonries (both of ancient walls and of houses) determined by available materials.