Rozafa Castle
Facades & Architecture
Shkodra, Albania
Application
Outdoor
Location
Shkodra, Albania
Lighting designer
Fulvio Baldeschi
Photo
Pietro Savorelli
Year
2020
Rozafa Castle
History, culture and nature in the Land of the Eagles
Shkodra is the most important city in northern Albania. It has always been a border town, subject to Venetian, Slavic and Ottoman influences and dominations. An interweaving of cultures still clearly visible today in the traces of Islamic and Catholic, Italian and Turkish architecture found in the monuments, buildings and also in Rozafa Castle, the symbol of Shkodra and the best vantage point over the city and its surroundings. Perched atop a promontory, wedged between three rivers, the fortress once controlled the entrance to the city. It was built by the Illyrians and later enlarged over the years by the Venetians and then the Ottomans, with interventions still clearly visible today. Its name is linked to the legend of the young Rozafa, who was walled up alive inside it as an offering to the gods.
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New light for the city's iconic fortress
Prolamp from I-LèD Industrial is the luminaire of choice and widely used for the illumination of the city walls. It is a projector equipped with a robust housing that allows extensive use in outdoor environments, and has the characteristics of a professional product: efficiency of the light source, high colour rendering, and the ability to maintain aim to emphasise the depth and three-dimensionality of the walls. For the lighting of the inner part of the walls and the minaret, on the other hand, two solutions were chosen: on the one hand, Periskop, the projector with modern lines and design that allows accent lighting emphasising architectural details; on the other hand, the linear High Wired profile, which allowed to obtain a counter-field light playing again with shadows. The lighting of the entrance area is provided by Envelope, the versatile walkway luminaire used here in a single-emission version, and by Xenia, the family of luminaires with multiple configuration possibilities that adapt to every lighting requirement, used here specifically to illuminate the barbican entrance. Finally, most of the luminaires have been fitted with a protection grid to prevent vandalism and with an external Bluetooth dimmer with Casambi protocol, the advanced professional system designed for wireless lighting management which, compared to the Dali network and thanks to Bluetooth technology, allows for more effective programming in relation to the length of the wall.