Rozafa

Rozafa is a figure in Albanian folklore, associated with Rozafa Castle (Kalaja e Rozafës) near Shkodër. The tale is a well-known part of the region’s oral tradition and explains the fortress’s name as well as a ritual sacrifice.

In the most widely told version, three brothers were completing a fortress when the walls would only stand if a woman were immured inside them to give the structure life. Rozafa, the wife of one of the builders, is said to have volunteered or been chosen; she was sealed alive behind the remaining wall with her newborn child. It is said that she asked to nurse her baby one final time, and that her milk would pass through the walls to feed the child. The men completed the construction, and the fortress stood, but Rozafa became a symbol of sacrifice.

There are many variations of the tale, including different familial roles and different details about the cause of the wall’s stability. Regardless of variant, the legend endures as a prominent element of Albanian folklore, shaping cultural associations with fertility, resilience, and communal obligation. The castle and the legend are popular in literature, music, and tourism, making Rozafa one of the region’s most enduring myths.