page_title: Shkodër
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Shkodër / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Venezia, 1532. Il sultano ottomano Maometto II assedia invano la città albanese di Scutari (che era sotto il dominio veneziano). Rilievo rinascimentale, datata 1474, sulla facciata della ex Scola degli albanesi, in Campo San Maurizio. L'iscrizione latina ringrazia il popolo e il senato veneziano. La scena raffigura l'assedio di Scutari. Foto di Giovanni Dall'Orto, 12 agosto 2007. English: Venice, 1532, sculptor unknown (erroneously attributed to Vittore Carpaccio). The Ottoman sultan Mehmet II assieging in vain the Albanian town of Scutari (under Venetian rule). Renaissance relief, dated 1474, on the facade of former Scola degli Albanesi ("guildhall of the Albanians"), in Campo San Maurizio square. The latin inscription thanks the Venetian government. Scene depicts the siege of Shkodra. Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto, August 12, 2007.
context_page_description: Shkodër or Shkodra, historically known as Scutari or Scodra, is a city in the Republic of Albania. It is the capital of the surrounding county of Shkodër, one of 12 constituent counties of the republic. The city is one of the most ancient cities in the Balkans and the fourth most populous city in the country and exerts strong influences in culture, religion, arts and entertainment of northern Albania.
  Geographically, the city of Shkodër sprawls across the Mbishkodra plain between the freshwater marshlands of Lake Shkodër and the foothills of the Albanian Alps. Like most of the Dinaric Alps, the mountains are dominated by limestone and dolomite rocks. The lake, named after the city of Shkodër, is the largest lake in Southern Europe close to the Adriatic Sea. The city is surrounded on three sides by the rivers Kir in the east, Drin in the south and Buna in the west.
  The region that today corresponds to the city territory was founded in the 4th century BC by the ancient Illyrian tribes of the Ardiaei and Labeates. It is evidenced by the artefacts and inscriptions that were discovered in the Rozafa Castle. During that time the city was known under the name Scodra.
context_section_description: The earliest signs of human activity in the lands of Shkodër can be traced back to the Bronze Age. The favorable conditions on the fertile plain, around the lake, have brought people here from early antiquity. Artefacts and inscriptions, discovered in the Rozafa Castle, are assumed to be the earliest examples of symbolic behaviour in humans in the city. Although, it was known under the name Scodra and was inhabited by the Illyrian tribes of the Labeates and Ardiaei, which ruled over a large territory between modern Albania up to Croatia. King Agron, Queen Teuta, and King Gentius, were among the most famous personalities of the Ardiaei.
  The city was first mentioned during the antiquity as the site of the Illyrian Labeates in which he minted coins and that of Queen Teuta. In 168 BC, the city was captured by the Romans and became an important trade and military route. The Romans colonized the town. Scodra remained in the province of Illyricum, and later Dalmatia. By it 395 AD, it was part of the Diocese of Dacia, within Praevalitana.
  The dawn of the Middle Ages saw the migration of Slavs. De Administrando Imperio describes how Byzantine Emperor Heraclius gave the Serbs a territory in this region during the first half of the 7th century. The southernmost, maritime polity of the Serbian Principality at Duklja, included the Shkodër region. After the death of Prince Časlav, the state disintegrated with Duklja retaining most of the territory. Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria had by 997 conquered all of Thessaly, Epirus and most of Macedonia and Albania. In the early 11th century, Jovan Vladimir ruled Duklja amidst the war between Basil II and Samuel. Vladimir allegedly retreated into Koplik when Samuel invaded Duklja and was subsequently forced to accept Bulgarian vassalage. He was later slain by the Bulgarians. Shingjon (feast of Jovan Vladimir) has since been celebrated by Albanian Orthodox Christians.
  In the 1030s, Stefan Vojislav from Travunija expelled the last strategos and successfully defeated the Byzantines by 1042. Stefan Vojislav set up Shkodër, as his capital. Constantine Bodin accepted the crusaders of the Crusade of 1101 in Shkodër. After the dynastic struggles in the 12th century, Shkodër became an integral part of the Serbian Nemanjić Zeta province. In 1214 the city was briefly annexed to Despotate of Epirus under Michael I Komnenos Doukas. In 1330, Stefan Dečanski, King of Serbia, appointed his son Stefan Dušan as the governor of Zeta with its seat in Shkodër. In the same year Dušan and his father entered the conflict which resulted with campaign of Dečanski who destroyed Dušan's court on Drin River near Shkodër in January 1331. In April 1331, they made a truce, but in August 1331 Dušan went from Shkodër to Nerodimlje and overthrew his father.
  During the disintegration of the Serbian Empire, Shkodër was taken by the Balšić family of Zeta, who surrendered the city to the Republic of Venice in 1396, in order to form a protection zone from the Ottoman Empire. During the Venetian rule the city adopted the Statutes of Scutari, a civic law written in Venetian. Venetians built the St. Stephen's Church (later converted into the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Mosque by the Ottomans) and the Rozafa Castle. In 1478-79 Mehmed the conqueror laid siege on Shkodër. In 1479 the city fell to the Ottomans and the defenders of the citadel emigrated to Venice, while many Albanians from the region retreated into the mountains. The city then became a seat of a newly established Ottoman sanjak, the Sanjak of Scutari.
caption: Relief commemorating the Siege of Shkodër from the 15th century in Venice.
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