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Shkodra, the regional capital of northern Albania

Shkodra (or Shkodër when in a sentence with a preposition as in "to", "in" or "from Shkodra) is a city located on Lake Shkodra (Liqeni i Shkodrës) in northwestern Albania. It is one of the oldest and most historic towns in Albania, as well as an important cultural and economic centre. It now has a population of around 200,000. Its name may be derived from "Shko-Drin", meaning "where Drin goes" - the river Drin, coming from the east, joins with the Buna river below to the castle of Rozafa, on the outskirts of Shkodra, but the name could also be of Roman origin. It was also known by the name of Scutari in recent times. Shkodra was founded around the 4th century BC, the site of the Labeates, an Illyrian tribe. In 168 BCE, the city was taken by the Romans and it became an important trade and military route. In the early 7th century the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius gave the city of Shkodra and the surrounding territories to the Serbs, because the original Albanian inhabitants didn't agree to convert from the Catholic to the Orthodox faith! It became a major city of the medieval Serb state, later fell to Bulgarian rule and was ruled by the Byzantines, various principalities and Venetians until it fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1479, after resisting two major Ottoman attacks under the leadership of Leka Dukagjini, the leader of the Albanian resistance following the death, in 1468, of Albania's national hero Skanderbeg. Leka Dukagjini, by the way, was the unifier and legislator of the Albanian highland law, the Kanun, used mostly in northern Albania and Kosovo from the 15th century until the 20th century and revived recently after the fall of the communist regime in the early 1990s.

The city was an important trade and cultural centre in the second half of the 19th century and uprisings against the Turks and Shkodra played an important role during the League of Prizren, the Albanian liberation movement. After the final defeat of the Turks by Montenegro, the Montenegrin army entered the city, slaughtered 6,000 Albanians, but had to hand it over to the newly independent Albania in May 1913. During the First World War it was again occupied by Montenegro and later by Austria Hungary. It has had a turbulent history in the 20th century; during the early 1990s, Shkodra was a major centre of the democratic movement that finally brought to an end the communist regime established by Enver Hoxha. Symbolic of this, in 2009 the socialist-realist sculpture "5 Heroes", in the centre of Shkodra was removed and the square where it stood renamed "Sheshi Demokracia".

Three km from the centre of the city and crowning the 113 m-high hill towering above the confluence of the Buna and Drini rivers, the Rozafa castle (Kalaja e Rozafatit or Rozafat citadel) is where Shkodra's history started 4000 years ago with a Bronze Age settlement, and an Illyrian fortress dating back to 350 BCE. Illyrians fought here with the Romans in 168 BCE, and in early medieval times there were Byzantine and Slav conquests. A castle was built and the main building still standing from that time is St. Stephen's Church from 1319. The Venetians expanded the fortress in the 15th century and the worst battles during the Turkish conquest of the Balkans were fought here: in 1474, and in 1479, when the Siege of Shkodra left 60,000 people dead. St. Stephens Church was turned into a mosque by adding a minaret to it, and the castle became a garrison citadel for the Turks. When Albania became independent, the citadel lost its significance but is now worthwhile to visit. Most buildings left are from the Ottoman and Venetian periods. There are great views from the walls across the city, Lake Shkodra with the mountains of Montenegro behind it, the Buna river flowing towards the sea, and the Kiri and Drini rivers which join just below the castle before flowing into the Buna. The old location of Shkodra's town centre can be seen below the castle: the Leaded Mosque (Xhamia e Plumbit) is all that is left of the settlement, abandoned in the early 19th century after an earthquake caused the Drin river to change course. Also worth seeing, about 8 km to the northeast of Shkodra is the Central or Middle Bridge (Ura e Mesit) over the Kir river, built during the second half of the 18th century. It is a classic Ottoman bridge, over 100 metres long, with 13 arcs of stone, the largest one being 22 m wide and 12 m tall.

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