Berat and Gjirokastër, the two stone towns listed as one

For more than four centuries, from the fifteenth century to 1912, most of what is now Albania was part of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans left their mark across the country, but in two towns in the south, the old Ottoman fabric survives almost complete: houses, mosques, churches, bazaars and citadels, built in a style that blends Ottoman and local traditions. Gjirokastër was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2005, and Berat was added to the same listing in 2008. The two are now listed together as rare examples of the architecture of the Ottoman period in the Balkans.

They are different in character, and seeing both is one of the pleasures of a trip to Albania.

Berat, the town of windows

Berat stands on the banks of the Osum River, where it cuts through a gorge below a rocky hill. On one bank, the Mangalem quarter, the old Muslim district, climbs the hillside in tiers of white Ottoman houses, their many windows stacked one above another. That gives Berat its famous nickname, the town of a thousand windows. Across the river, the Gorica quarter, once mainly Christian, faces it, and an old stone bridge links the two.

Above the town, the citadel, the Kala, crowns the hill. Unusually, it is still lived in. Within its walls, among cobbled lanes and old houses, are several Byzantine churches. One of them, the Cathedral of the Dormition, houses a museum of the work of Onufri, a sixteenth-century icon painter famous for a particular shade of red that other painters have never quite matched. The view from the citadel walls over the river and the town is one of the finest in Albania.

Gjirokastër, the stone city

Gjirokastër lies further south, on the slopes of a mountain overlooking the wide Drino valley. It is known as the city of stone, and the name fits. Its tall houses are built of grey stone, with heavy stone slab roofs, and its steep streets are paved with cobbles. Many of the grandest houses, built by wealthy families in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, are fortified tower houses, with living quarters on the upper floors and storage and cisterns below. Some of them, such as the Skenduli and Zekate houses, can be visited, with their painted ceilings, carved woodwork and views over the valley.

The castle, on the ridge above the town, is one of the largest in the Balkans. Inside its vast vaults is a museum of arms. On its ramparts, curiously, sits the wreck of an American military jet that landed in Albania during the Cold War and was displayed by the regime as a captured spy plane. Every few years the castle hosts a national folk festival.

Gjirokastër is also the birthplace of two famous and very different Albanians: Enver Hoxha, the communist dictator, and Ismail Kadare, the country's best-known novelist, whose Chronicle in Stone describes growing up in the town during the Second World War.

Both towns are best seen slowly. In Berat, the walk up the cobbled lanes to the citadel is steep but short, and the houses inside the walls still have families living in them, with washing on the lines and vegetables in the gardens. In Gjirokastër, the old bazaar, rebuilt after a fire in the nineteenth century, is a cluster of stone shops at the meeting of the main streets, selling local crafts, carpets and the slightly sweet, dense cheese of the region. Evenings in both are for sitting in a café with a view, as the swallows wheel over the rooftops.

The tours that stay

Just You's Albania Uncovered, seven nights for solo travellers, includes both Berat and Gjirokastër, along with Tirana, Krujë, Sarandë, Porto Palermo, Vlorë, Apollonia and Durrës.

Travelsphere's Albania Discovered: Tirana and Beyond, seven nights, includes Berat and Gjirokastër, with Lazarat near Gjirokastër, as well as Tirana, Sarandë, Butrint, Vlora, Durrës and Krujë. Explore Worldwide's Highlights of Albania, ten nights, includes Gjirokastër on a route that also takes in the south-east and the coast.

Both towns are steep, and cobbles are slippery when wet, so good shoes are essential. Stay at least one night in each if you can. The evenings, when the day visitors have gone and the old streets fill with local families out for a stroll, are the best time.