Tower houses in the Balkans during the Ottoman period
Mic Sokoli tower house in Bujan, northern Albania.
A distinctive type[1] of Ottoman tower houses (singular: Albanian: kullë; Bosnian: odžak Bulgarian: кули, kuli; Serbian: кула, Romanian: culă, all meaning "tower", from Arabic قَلْعَة (qalʿa, “fort, fortress”) via Persian qulla,[2] meaning "mountain" or "top", and Turkish kule) developed and were built in the Balkans,[3] including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia, as well as in Oltenia, in Romania, after the Ottoman conquest in the Middle Ages by both Christian and Muslim communities.
The practice began during the decline of Ottoman power in the 17th century[1] and flourished until the early 20th century. The tower houses were typically made out of stone, rose three or four storeys, and were square or rectangular in shape.[1] They served both military (defence, watchtower) and civilian (residential) purposes in order to protect the extended family.[3]
^ abcGrube-Mitchell 1978, p. 204: "a distinctive form of defensive tower-dwelling, the kula, developed among both the Christian and the Muslim communities during the insecure period of the decline of the Ottoman authority in the 17th century ..."
^Fishta-Elsie-Mathie-Heck 2006, p. 435
^ abGreville Pounds 1994, p. 335: "In southeastern Europe, where the extended family was exemplified as nowhere else in the western world, the home itself was often protected, giving rise to the kula or tower- house."
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