THE MANY FORTRESSES OF ALI PASHA

How a father and son are documenting the architectural legacy of a renegade nineteenth-century warlord

- BEN O'DONNELL

On a squat peninsula along southern Albania's Ionian coast, Porto Palermo Castle, a three-sided fortress of neatly dressed masonry fringed with notches for cannons, commands the sea from nearly 100 feet above azure waves. A picture-postcard spot, the castle evokes its builder, Ali Pasha of Tepelena, the infamous conqueror of huge swaths of today's Albania and Greece. It's a popular stop for thousands of tourists who descend upon the Albanian Riviera in search of an inexpensive seaside lounge chair and an Instagram-worthy cocktail amid the aura of long-ago pirates and princesses. But on a mid-February afternoon, only a few curious travelers are poking around the castle with its seasoned caretaker, Aleksandër.

Ali Pasha ruled the Pashalic of Janina—now Ioannina in northwestern Greece—as governor from 1788 to 1822. He became a living legend across Europe and the Ottoman Empire for his battlefield tenacity, extravagant appetites, and inventive cruelties, a reputation he encouraged. With just a few charges today, Aleksandër has time to air the extended cut of his well-honed Ali tales. “In this room, Ali Pasha imprisoned tax evaders,” he says, pausing in a dank corridor pockmarked with holes where shackles were once mounted. “And this next one was the execution room, where he had them beheaded if they refused to pay up.” Just as the holidaymakers start to feel the clammy walls close in, Aleksandër presses on. “This well descended to a secret escape tunnel,” he says. “Ali Pasha executed all the castle’s engineers, so no one could leak the plans.” Or so claims Aleksandër. The visitors finally exhale in a more spacious barrel-vaulted room. Their enthusiastic guide explains that women from Ali’s travel harem took turns performing for the governor and his officers while they feasted here, with the most alluring dancer clinch-ing the honor of overnighting with the Albanian pasha. Ali’s wife Vassiliki always won.