Baleč

Baleč (Balezo, Balec ) was a Serbian medieval fortified town near Shkodër in what is now Albania. It was built on the hill whose name was Baleš (later known as it. Balezo or sq. Maja e Balecit). The settlement may have originated in Roman times. During Byzantine rule over the area, it was part of the Dyrrhachium theme. Later it was a seat of a župa of the Kingdom of Duklja, and later still of the Lordship of Zeta. Baleč suffered much damage during the Second Scutari War between the Serbian Despotate and the Republic of Venice. After the Republic of Venice gained control over it at the beginning of the 15th century, its size was reduced to a small pronoia with only 25 houses, and the fortress was abandoned and fell to ruin. Skanderbeg's forces rebuilt the fortress during his war with Venice in 1448 and established a strong garrison in it, but the Venetian forces soon drove them away and demolished the fortress. Ottoman plans to rebuild Baleč and populate it with Turkish settlers were never implemented and Baleč remained in ruins, which can still be seen today.

Balšići family name
Some authors derive the name of the Balšić noble family (Balshajt) from the name of this town. Alternative names for this family include Balesium, Balezza, Balezum, Balezo and Barizi. According to another opinion, the root of the Balšić anthroponym (which emerged in its actual form in 1455) is the name of village Balovc near Podujevo, derived from Balin Potok.

Roman Empire
According to some sources Baleč was built on the site of a former Roman settlement, and its fortress has a Roman origin. Baleč was near the road that led from Shkodër to Duklja and Onogošt (modern day Nikšić).

Duklja and Zeta
Baleč was part of Byzantine Dyrrhachium until the Kingdom of Duklja, under Stefan Vojislav (1018–1043), captured it and made it the capital of the župa of Barezi. According to the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, after the death of Stefan Vojislav in 1044 control over Baleč and the Barezi župa was inherited by his son Mihailo I Vojislavljević.

In the 14th century, control over the region, including Baleč, passed to the Lordship of Zeta, ruled by the Balšić family.

Venetian Republic
At the beginning of the 15th century, the Venetian Republic took control of Baleč, which became a pronoia, whose pronoiarios (the person to whom the pronoia was granted) lay under obligation to recognize the rights of the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Balecium, if were to return and claim them. Radič Humoj, a member of Humoj family, was appointed by the governor of Scutari as pronoier over Baleč in period 1402—1403, which was confirmed by decision of Venetian Senate in 16 September 1404. Venetian census of 1417 shows that Baleč pronoia was directly subordinated to the governor of Scutari and had 25 houses.

After Radič's death, the Venetian governor of Scutari gave the Baleč pronoia to Radić's brother Andrija (who was then voivoda of the area north of the Shkodër) and his son Kojčin. Decision of Scutari's governor was confirmed by Venetian Senate on 13 February 1419.

Rebuilding and destruction of the fortress during Skanderbeg's rebellion
In December 1447 Skanderbeg began his war against Venice and besieged Dagnum. When he realised that his siege was unsuccessful he ordered the rebuilding of the fortress of Baleč, which was unoccupied and in ruins. The main purpose of placing a garrison at Baleč was to cut the supply routes to besieged Dagnum and to gain control over the lands around Shkodër. The 2,000 soldiers of the Baleč garrison were under the command of Skanderbeg's nephew Hamza Kastrioti and Marin Span, but Kastrioti was ordered to attack Drivast, leaving Span in sole command. Marin found the newly rebuilt fortress insecure and, when his relative Petar Span informed him that a large Venetian force was heading there, he immediately retreated with his soldiers to Danj. The Venetian forces retook the fortress, burned the wooden parts and demolished the rebuilt walls. Andrija and Kojčin Humoj, together with Simeon Vulkata, led the pro-Venetian alliance against Skanderbeg, fighting particularly fiercely for control over Baleč and Drivast in 1447.

Although the Baleč area was under firm Venetian control since the beginning of the 15th century, Baleč slowly became impoverished and had ceased to exist as a town long before 1448, when the rebuilt fortress was destroyed by the Venetians and the town was already only a memory.

Aftermath
At the beginning of 1474 the whole region around Shkodër, including the abandoned Baleč, came under Ottoman rule. According to some sources the Ottoman sultan had intentions to rebuild Podgorica and Baleč in 1474 and to settle them with 5,000 Turkish families in order to establish an additional obstacle for cooperation of Crnojević's Zeta and besieged Venetian Shkodër.

Religion
There were many Orthodox churches in Baleč and surrounding villages. There are records about an Orthodox monastery in the village Kupinik almost completely populated by Slavs, which owned a mill on the river Rioli near Baleč. There are ruins of two churches in Baleč with their altars orientated toward East. In 1879 Russian consul Ivan Stepanovič Jastrebov, published his notes about his visit to Shkodër, which also included visit to ruins of Baleč. Jastrebov described the ruins of two Orthodox churches in Baleč, whose ruins belonged to the territory of Rioli tribe. He explained that the first church was a cathedral with dimensions of 25 times 10 steps, and a narthex with dimensions 17 times 10 steps. Jastrebov described another church on the southern side of Baleč as smaller and built in the same stile as cathedral.

At the beginning of the 14th century Baleč was the seat of a small Catholic diocese. In 1356, Bishop Andreas Citer complained that his bishopric was full of schismatics. The diocese had been laid waste and impoverished by "the schismatics of the kingdom of Rascia", who had completely destroyed the monastery situated 5000 paces from the cathedral. In response, Pope Innocent VI granted him in commendam, on 26 September of the same year, the Benedictine monastery of St. John in Drivast. At this time Baleč must have ceased to exist as a town, so that, although bishops continued to be appointed to the see, by 1448, when even the fortress rebuilt by Skanderberg was destroyed, the town was no more than a memory. The bishopric of Balecium, no longer a residential see, is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.