[1] While preparing his Corfu Campaign Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent spent some time in Vlora from the 13th of July 1537 until the 18th of August 1537.

It was in 1480 that the Ottomans first used the strategic important bay to send troops to Italy and capture the castle of Otranto.

[2][3] Mimar Sinan was most probably involved in designing the castle, as he accompanied Sulemain during his Corfu Campaign as a military engineer.

The most probable reason behind this is the usage of building material from the castle of Yengeç in modern day Triport a few kilometres away.

Aside from these, inside the iron gates at sea level there are 47 other battering guns with rifled barrels looking out towards the bay and mounted on carriages with seven-headed dragons.

It is a very tall and finely-wrought tower, 7 storeys high, and is built of chiselled stonework with a lead-covered conical dome and is topped by a guilded pinnacle.

Inside the outer fortress there are some 300 squat and narrow old-fashioned earthen houses with tiled roofs and with no vineyard, garden or courtyard.

The fortress is completely surrounded by a moat 50 paces wide on all sides and filled with sea water, which is, however, swampy.

Half of these soldiers were ordered to depart to defend the vilayet of Mania in accordance with the imperial decree.

Also here are the steward of the sipahis, the commander of the janissaries, a qadi with a salary level of 300 akçe and responsible for 105 prosperous villages in the region, a market inspector, a collector of tolls, a customs inspector, a poll-tax official, a chief architect, an officer of the admiralty, and the mayor of the town.