Shkodër, also known as Shkodra, is the fifth-most populous city of Albania, located in the north of the country, and south of Lake Shkodër. Originally known as Scodra, Shkodër was first inhabited by the Illyrians, including the Ardiaei tribe of King Gentius and Queen Teuta. In 168 BC, the Romans captured Shkodër during the Illyrian Wars, and it became an important trade and military route, also transforming into a Roman colony. During the early 11th century, the Serbian ruler Jovan Vladimir ruled over Shkodër as part of Duklja, but he was slain by the Bulgarians in 1016. In 1042, Stefan Vojislav expelled the Byzantines from the region and established Shkodër as his capital. It later passed into the hands of the Nemanjic dynasty (during the 12th century), the Despotate of Epirus (from 1214), the Serbian Empire (during the 14th century), Republic of Venice (from 1396, under whom the city was known as Scutari), and the Ottomans after 1479. Under Venetian rule, many Dalmatians were brought in to settle in Scutari, but the Black Death led to its repopulation with Albanians and Slavs. After the Ottoman takeover, Shkodër went from having 70 Christian homes and 27 Muslim homes in 1485 to having 200 Muslim homes and 27 Christian ones a century later. By the 1880s, Shkodër had 37,000 inhabitants, of whom 75% were Muslims and 25% were Christians. During the Balkan Wars, Shkodër was occupied by both the Ottomans and Montenegro, with the Montenegrins, bitter at suffering 10,000 losses in the capture of Shkodër, committing several atrocities. During World War I, Montenegro occupied Shkodër on 27 June 1915, followed by Austria-Hungary from January 1916 and France from 11 November 1918 to March 1920. Shkodër experienced a slow industrial development during the Interwar period, and Shkodër's population also grew in size. During the 1990s, Shkodër was a center of the democratic movement that brought an end to Enver Hoxha's communist regime. In the late 2000s, the city's main streets were paved, buildings were painted, and streets were renamed. In 2011, Shkodër had a population of 135,612 people. Shkodër was a stronghold of the conservative Democratic Party of Albania.
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