Mother Maria Muzaka Parents Gjergj Arianiti | Name Donika Kastrioti Children Gjon Kastrioti II | |
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Similar People Skanderbeg, Gjergj Arianiti, Saint Angelina of Serbia | ||
Siblings Saint Angelina of Serbia |
Artan lame dhe fidel ylli ne lagjen donika kastrioti
Donika Kastrioti (née Arianiti-Muzaka) was an Albanian noblewoman and the spouse of George Kastrioti Skanderbeg. She was the daughter of Gjergj Arianiti, one of the greatest leaders in the Albanian war against the Ottoman Empire for more than two decades.
Contents
- Artan lame dhe fidel ylli ne lagjen donika kastrioti
- Historia e patreguar jeta dhe vdekja e Donika Kastriotit n mrgim Reporteral
- Life
- References
Historia e patreguar: jeta dhe vdekja e Donika Kastriotit në mërgim - Reporter.al
Life
Donika was born in Kaninë, in 1428. Her father, Gjergj Arianiti was amember of the Arianiti family whose domain stretched across the Shkumbin valley and the old Via Egnatia road and reached to the east today's Bitola. Her mother, Maria Muzaka was a member of the Muzaka family whose domain was the Myzeqe region.
A month after the Treaty of Gaeta, on 21 April 1451, Skanderbeg married Donika, and thus strengthened the ties with the Arianiti family, in the Eastern Orthodox Ardenica Monastery, in Lushnje, present-day southwestern Albania. Later her sister Angelina married Serbian ruler Stefan Branković. She is venerated as a saint in the Serbian Orthodox Church.
After the Ottoman conquest of Albania, the Kastriotis were given peerage in the Kingdom of Naples. They obtained a feudal domain, the Duchy of San Pietro in Galatina and the County of Soleto (Province of Lecce, Italy). Gjon Kastrioti II, Donika's and Skanderbeg's only child, married Irene Branković Palaiologina, the daughter of Lazar Branković, Despot of Serbia.