The town assumed its full shape in the year 59 B.C.
At this time, the town was surrounded by walls with a circumference of 2.5 km and 8 meters high. It continued to be an urban centre known by the name of Lissus until the early Middle Ages. Until 1398 the town was under the rule of the Dukagjini feudal family, who later gave it up to Venice. It was here that the Lezha Assembly was held on 2nd March 1444, under the leadership of Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, Albania’s national hero. The Assembly created a political-military league of Albanian princes and a common Albanian army of 10,000 strong as a response to the Ottoman threat.
It is thus no surprise that when he died, Gjergj Kastrioti was buried at the Shën Kolli Cathedral in 1468, though his grave was later destroyed by the Turks.
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Lezha is situated 69 km from Tirana and lies on both sides of the Drin River. Lezha is one of the most ancient cities in Albania, having first being mentioned in 835 B.C. and flourishing by the second half of the 3rd to the beginning of the 2nd century B.C., when it minted its own bronze coins.
