Krujë (Definite Albanian form: Kruja) is a town in north
central Albania and the capital of the municipality and the Krujë
District. It has a population of about 15,900. Located between Mount
Krujë and the Ishëm River, the city is only 20 km from the capital of
Albania, Tirana.
Inhabited by the Illyrian tribe of the Albani, in 1190 Krujë became the
capital of the first autonomous Albanian state in the middle ages,
thePrincipality of Arbër. Later it was the capital of the Kingdom of
Albania, while in the early 15th century Krujë was conquered by
the Ottoman Empire, but then recaptured in 1443 by Skanderbeg, leader of
the League of Lezhë, who successfully defended it against three Ottoman
sieges until his death in 1468.
The Ottomans took control of the town after the fourth siege in 1478,
and incorporated it in their territories. A 1906 local revolt against
the Ottoman Empire was followed by the 1912 Declaration of Independence
of Albania. In the mid-1910s Krujë was one of the battlefields of the
conflict between the short-lived Republic of Central Albania, founded
by Essad Toptani, and the Principality of Albania. In 1914 Toptani
managed to seize the town but during the same year it was reincorporated
by Prênk Bibë Doda in the Principality of Albania. During WWII was the
center of the activities of resistance leader Abaz Kupi.
The museums of Krujë include the Skanderbeg museum, located in the
environs of the Krujë castle, and the national ethnographic museum.
