The memorial was built in 1981 over the ruins of the Church of St Nicholas. Lezhë was where Skanderbeg gathered the Albanian nobles on 2 March 1444 to form the League of Lezhë, and it was here that he died on 17 January 1468 and was laid to rest. After the Ottomans took the town, the church was turned into a mosque and, according to tradition, soldiers opened his grave and made amulets from his bones, believing they would bring courage. Excavations from 1968 uncovered the old foundations, and the modern memorial was raised over them.
Inside, beneath a modern colonnaded shelter, a marble slab marks Skanderbeg’s grave, with copies of his helmet and sword placed upon it; the originals are kept in Vienna. Bronze shields on the walls recall his campaigns, and in the old apse you can still make out traces of a fresco of St Nicholas.
A visit takes little time but carries great meaning, and pairs naturally with the climb to Lezhë Castle on the hill above.
