Ismet Çmega’s Tower House, Rahovec

Ismet Çmega’s kulla (tower house) is located in the old center of Rahovec, on the “Vrella” square. It was built during the 19th century by Dervish Meriqi, and is now owned by the Çmega family.
The building has the characteristic features of the kullas that were built during the 19th century in the Dukagjin plain.
It has a quadrilateral plan with dimensions of 6.3 x 4.3 m. It is built with a ground floor and two upper floors. The ground floor and the first floor each have a single space, where only the stair space is separated by an interior wall. Based on the typical functional scheme of kullas, the most characteristic space on the second floor is the dyshekllëk (sitting area). In this kulla too, the stone dyshekllëk extends along both sides of the tower, across the whole front of the southern facade and partly on the western one.
The walls on the ground floor are built of local stone with a thickness of about 60 cm, while on the upper floors they are made of baked earth – qerpiç (adobe). Another material found in the construction of this kulla is wood, which was used for building the roof structure as well as for the mid-floor construction in the form of beams and plank flooring.
The roof is hipped and covered with stone slabs, a characteristic covering of roofs in the Rahovec region.
From the time it was built until now, the kulla was used for dwelling, while today it is uninhabited.
The restoration interventions of 2014 contributed to consolidating the structure of the kulla, restoring value to this important monument of the cultural heritage of the Rahovec region.