Castle of Shkodër

Shkodër is the city in Albania with the most history, and one of the oldest in the country. It is south of Lake Scutari, near the Montenegrin border, where the river Buene, one of the country's 2 navigable rivers flows out to the Adriatic sea. There is a large meadow surrounded by mountains, and a hill where the castle was built to defend the city from foreign attacks. The castle was built 130 m above sea level, and was at the centre of several trade routes in the Balkans, hence its importance. In the First World War the Turks protected this castle, along with General Hassan Riza Pasha and Essad Pasha, the Albanian political leaders of the opposition.