"Shkodër/Scutari" a Shkoder Travel Page by JLBG

Shkodër, a city of 90,000 inhabitants stands at the northern end of Albania, on Liqeni I Shkodres (Lake Skadar or Shkodra Lake), 116 km from Tiran?, 15 km from the Montenegrin border and 27 km from Ulcinj/Ulqin, as the crow flies.

The name of the city is Shkodër in Albanian, Scutari in Italian. The names Shkoder and Shkodra are also found. The name of the city is supposedly derived from Latin scutarii. literally "shieldmakers," referring to a Roman legion created by Constantine.

It is considered as one of the oldest cities in Europe. In 500 BC an Illyrian fortress was already guarding the crossing west of the city where the Buna and Drin rivers meet. It was the capital of legendary Queen Teuta. The Roman took Shkodër in 168 BC and developed it as a strategic place on a main communication axis along the Eastern Adriatic coast. It was later taken by the Serbs who made it a major trading center of the medieval kingdom of Zeta. In 1396, it was the turn of the Venetian to take the city that was soon attacked by the Turks. After several seats, the Turks took the city in 1479 and the city was devastated. It was not until the 17th century that it regained some importance. It became the economic center of northern Albania and the leading city of the Gheg cultural region (see my Albania page, to come).

I was lucky to visit Albania from North to South in 1988 and in 2005 had a day trip to Shkodër.
This page is built both with 1988 and 2005 photos and I have tried to show how the city has at the same time changed and remained the same between these two dates.