Key Facts
- Duration
- May 1478 – April 1479 (~11 months)
- Defender force size
- ~1,600 Albanian and Italian men
- Ottoman force (reported)
- Up to 350,000 (widely disputed)
- General assaults repelled
- 5 successive attacks defeated by defenders
- Peace treaty signed
- January 25, 1479, Venice and Constantinople
Strategic Narrative Overview
Beginning in May 1478, a vastly outnumbered garrison of roughly 1,600 men withstood Ottoman artillery and five successive mass assaults. Mehmed personally supervised the campaign. Unable to take the castle by storm, he captured the surrounding fortresses of Žabljak Crnojevića, Drisht, and Lezha, left a siege force to starve Shkodra into submission, and withdrew to Constantinople, expecting attrition to complete the conquest.
01 / The Origins
The siege occurred within the broader First Ottoman-Venetian War (1463–1479), during which the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed the Conqueror sought to expel Venice from its Adriatic and Balkan possessions. Shkodra, defended by Rozafa Castle, was a strategically vital Venetian-held city in Albania, and its reduction was essential to Ottoman dominance over the eastern Adriatic coastline and control of Albanian territory.
03 / The Outcome
On January 25, 1479, Venice and the Ottoman Empire signed a peace treaty ceding Shkodra to the Ottomans. The castle's defenders emigrated to Venice, and many Albanians retreated into the mountains. Shkodra became the seat of the newly established Sanjak of Scutari, remaining under Ottoman rule until Montenegro captured it in April 1913 after another six-month siege.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Mehmed II (the Conqueror).
Side B
2 belligerents
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.