La fortezza di Scutari dal secolo XV al XIX: il racconto dell’assedio

During the second half of the 15th century, Albania was deeply affected by the Ottoman-Turkish conquest that brought significant territorial and political changes to the Balkan Peninsula and the important coastal cities of the south-eastern Adriatic. This period saw the end of the independent Albanian principalities and the emergence of resistance led by George Kastrioti Scanderbeg, a skilful leader who strategically succeeded in blocking the Ottoman Turkish Empire for years through the Balkan territories, slowing down its advance. Despite his death in 1468, resistance continued until the subsequent Ottoman conquest of Albanian cities: Croia and Alessio in 1478, Shkodra in 1479 and Durres in 1501. Biographies of well-known personalities, treatises on events such as sieges of war and descriptions of cities and fortresses contained in works of odeporic literature are particularly interesting tools that often offer the possibility of analysing defensive architectural structures through the centuries. Among the descriptions of the Turkish siege of Shkodra, the account of the same author of the biography of Kastrioti, Marino Berlezio, who published De obsidione Scodrensi in Venice in 1504, stands out. Other works, such as Giorgio Merula's Bellum Scodrense of 1474 or Coriolano Cippico's Petri Mocenici imperatoris gestorum libri tres of 1477, also document these events and the resistance of the Albanian population. The works of illustrious authors allow, therefore, in-depth studies of towns and fortified architecture that represent testimonies of considerable interest for the analysis of known territories and lesser-known places that qualify as landmarks of exceptional historical value. The present essay intends, therefore, through the descriptions of Albania contained in documentary sources, of its territories and ancient fortifications, to highlight the strategic importance of the Shkodra fortress and the difficulties it faced during the Turkish Ottoman attacks, as in the particular case of the siege of 1479.