Shkodra - Orthodox Cathedral

With around 140,000 inhabitants, Shkodra is the fifth most populous city in the Republic of Albania. The area has been inhabited continuously since the early Bronze Age. A settlement was founded here by Illyrians in the 4th century BC. The Romans annexed the town in 168 BC. With the spread of Christianity in the 4th century AD, the archbishopric of Scodra was founded and taken over by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 535.

In the second half of the 6th century, Scodra was conquered by invading Slavs.

In 1396, the Republic of Venice took over Shkodra, which now became part of Venetian Albania. During Venetian rule, the city flourished into a rich trading town.

In 1479, after a long siege, Shkodra was captured by the Ottomans. As far as the inhabitants had survived the siege, they left the city with the retreating Venetian troops and were resettled on Venetian territory. It took a long time for the city to recover from the destruction and depopulation and become an important trading centre again, which was now able benefit from the exchange between the Ottoman Empire and the rest of Europe. By the end of the 16th century, almost all the inhabitants had converted to Islam.

The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Lord belongs to the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania. The Orthodox church, completed in 2000, stands on the site of a wooden church building that previously stood there This wooden cathedral was seriously damaged by a criminal explosive blast in 1998.