Siege of Shkodra (1478)
| Siege of Shkodra | |||||||||
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| Part of Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–1479) | |||||||||
 Gatteri's 1860 etching of the 1478 siege |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Ottoman Empire
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 Lordship of Zeta
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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| Strength | |||||||||
| Modern estimations: Tens of thousands Contemporary Ottoman and Shkodran chronicles: 150,000—350,000 soldiers 8,000-40,000 under Gedik Ahmet after sultan left the siege in September 1478 |
1,600 inside the garrison Unknown number of forces outside the garrison |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| At least 12,000 on July 22 Allegedly one-third of the Ottoman forces on July 27 |
Approximately 1,000 inside the garrison 200 sailors and 2 galleys from Lezhë 300 captives from Drisht |
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Republic of Venice
Albanian resistance forces
The Siege of Shkodra of 1478-79 was a confrontation between the Ottoman Empire and the Albanians and Venetians at Shkodra and its Rozafa Castle during the First Ottoman-Venetian War (1463–79). Ottoman historian Franz Babinger called the siege “one of the most remarkable episodes in the struggle between the West and the Crescent.” A small force of approximately 1,600 Albanian and Italian men and a much smaller number of women faced a massive Ottoman force containing artillery cast on site and an army reported (though widely disputed) to have been as many as 350,000 in number. The campaign was so important to Mehmed II “the Conqueror” that he came personally to ensure triumph. After nineteen days of bombarding the castle walls, the Ottomans launched five successive general attacks which all ended in victory for the besieged. With dwindling resources, Mehmed attacked and defeated the smaller surrounding fortresses of Žabljak Crnojevića, Drisht, and Lezha, left a siege force to starve Shkodra into surrender, and returned to Constantinople. On January 25, 1479, Venice and Constantinople signed a peace agreement that ceded Shkodra to the Ottoman Empire. The defenders of the citadel emigrated to Venice, whereas many Albanians from the region retreated into the mountains. Shkodra then became a seat of the newly established Ottoman sanjak, the Sanjak of Scutari. The Ottomans held the city until Montenegro captured it in April 1913, after a six-month siege.
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