Demoralised and severely weakened by starvation and lack of supplies from the year-long siege, the defenders surrendered to Sultan Mehmed II, who had promised to let them go unharmed in return.
Mehmed wanted the castle to be taken as the first objective of the Ottoman offensive of 1477-79 against the Venetian holdings in Albania.
After a year-long siege, the city exhausted its supplies, which were mismanaged by the commanders of the defending troops.
The defenders of Kruje, who ate cats and dogs because of hunger, were running low on weapons, and hearing that the Sultan himself had arrived, they surrendered, realizing that there was no other alternative for survival.
[6][7] Krujë fell in June of 1478, and the Ottomans massacred all of the males within the city and carried off the women as slaves.