These three settlements lie around Lake Shkodër, west and north of the city. Shirokë, the nearest, has a lakeside promenade and fish restaurants, Zogaj suits birdwatching and walks, and Koplik is a rural town on the way to the Alps.
Shirokë · Zogaj · Koplik, ShkodërTrip outside the city
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Gjuhadol is a historic quarter at the heart of Shkodër’s old town, known for its cobbled lanes and buildings with Venetian influences. The main stretch is pedestrianised and lined with small cafés, craft galleries and cultural spaces.
Rozafa Castle (Kalaja e Rozafës) crowns a hill about 130 m above sea level at the entrance to Shkodër. Of Illyrian origin, it was enlarged by the Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and Ottomans, and its name recalls the legend of Rozafa, walled up alive in its masonry. A small museum inside covers the castle’s past.
The Marubi National Museum of Photography opened on 9 May 2016 on Rruga Kolë Idromeno to house the archive of three generations of Marubi photographers: Pietro, an Italian who set up a studio in Shkodër in the 19th century, then Kel and Gegë. It holds about half a million negatives, many of them glass plates.
Lake Shkodër (Liqeni i Shkodrës), shared with Montenegro, is the largest lake in the Balkans at around 370 km², about 149 km² of it in Albania. With the Buna River, the Albanian side is a Ramsar wetland; carp and eel live in its waters and small islands shelter birds. Shirokë and Zogaj have lakeside food and rooms.
Mes Bridge (Ura e Mesit) spans the Kir River at the village of Mes, north-east of Shkodër. Built in stone under the Bushati pashas around 1768–1770 to link mountain villages with the city and its trade, it is 108 m long and 3.4 m wide and rests on 13 arches of different sizes.
Theth is a mountain village in the Shalë unit of Shkodër municipality, set in the Theth valley of the Albanian Alps and reached by a road over the Tërthore Pass. It keeps a rare lock-in tower (Kulla e Ngujimit), where men caught in blood feuds sheltered under the Kanun, and a stone Catholic church built in 1892.
