BazarDeScutari--balkansfromwithi00wyonuoft

The Shkodër Bazaar (also known as the Grand Bazaar or the Old Bazaar) was the economic and civic hub of

Shkodër Shkodër ( , ; sq-definite, Shkodra; historically known as Scodra or Scutari) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, fifth-most-populous city of Albania and the seat of Shkodër County and Shkodër Municipality. Shkodër has been List of o ...

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

for centuries and was one of the most important trade hubs in the Western

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

. After the rise of the

People's Socialist Republic of Albania The People's Socialist Republic of Albania, () was the Marxist-Leninist state that existed in Albania from 10 January 1946 to the 29 April 1991. Originally founded as the People's Republic of Albania from 1946 to 1976, it was governed by the P ...

in 1944, the bazaar became a camp for refugees from the Orthodox population of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

-speaking

Albanians The Albanians are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, Albanian culture, culture, Albanian history, history and Albanian language, language. They are the main ethnic group of Albania and Kosovo, ...

fleeing the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War () took place from 1946 to 1949. The conflict, which erupted shortly after the end of World War II, consisted of a Communism, Communist-led uprising against the established government of the Kingdom of Greece. The rebels decl ...

. In 1968, the bazaar was demolished and replaced with a park.

Location

The Bazaar lay at the foot of

Rozafa Castle Rozafa Castle () or Shkodër Castle () is a castle near the city of Shkodër, in northwestern Albania. It rises imposingly on a rocky hill, above sea level, surrounded by the Buna and Drin rivers. Shkodër is the seat of Shkodër County, and i ...

, about south of the modern city center, on the plain stretching to the bank of the Buna. According to legend, the bazaar dates to before the city fell to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and once stretched all the way to the Qafa neighborhood. This is attested to in

Marin Barleti Marin Barleti (, ; – ) was a historian, humanist and Catholic priest from Shkodër. He is considered the first Albanian historian because of his 1504 eyewitness account of the 1478 siege of Shkodra. Barleti is better known for his second work ...

’s

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

on the

Siege of Shkodra The siege of Shkodra () took place from May 1478 to April 1479 as a confrontation between the Ottoman Empire and the Venetians together with the League of Lezhë and other Albanians at Shkodra (Scutari in Italian) and its Rozafa Castle durin ...

in 1478-79.

History

A market was held there from the earliest times. As early as the 14th century, the Statutes of Scutari refer to the area as a favolete (trading post). Originally associated with the river pier and the holdings of the

Bushati family The Bushati family () is an Albanian Muslim family that ruled the Pashalik of Scutari from 1757 to 1831. Origins They are descendants of the medieval Bushati tribe, a pastoralist tribe () in northern Albania and Montenegro. The name Bushat is c ...

, the Bazaar became one of the most famous markets in the Balkans. It continued to play a major role in the craft trade as late as the 1870s, when as many as 2500 merchants were licensed to trade there. Beginning in the 1860s, the Bazaar began to decline due a variety of factors. These included competition from industrial production, the opening of the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

in 1869, the construction of the Mitrovica-

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

Railway,

Montenegro , image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg , coa_size = 80 , national_motto = , national_anthem = () , image_map = Europe-Mont ...

’s annexation of

Ulcinj Ulcinj () is a town in the Coastal Montenegro, Coastal region of Montenegro and the capital of Ulcinj Municipality. It has an urban population of 11,488. As one of the oldest settlements in the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic coast, it was founded in 5th ...

and

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

in 1880, flooding, general Ottoman decline, steamships on the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

, competition from

Edirne Edirne (; ), historically known as Orestias, Adrianople, is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the Edirne Province, province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second c ...

, and a 1905

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

. During the Montenegrin occupation of Albania in the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

, departing troops burned the prime

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

and

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

shops completely down, damaging 250 stands.

Decline

Major historical factors in the decline of the Bazaar include the following: # Damage during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

# Changes in the flow of the Drin that swelled the Bojana up the plain and flooded the most picturesque part of the Bazaar # In 1940, road construction from Molo to Bahçallëk cut off the waterfront.

References

{{coord missing, Albania History of Shkodër Bazaars in Albania Demolished buildings and structures in Albania Buildings and structures demolished in 1968