Scutari
SCUTARI:
(1) - (Turkish, Uskudar, anc. Chrysopolis), a town of Turkey in Asia, on the E. shore of the Bosporus, opposite Constantinople of which it forms the gth Cercle Municipale. Its painted wooden houses and white minarets piled upon the slopes of the shore and backed by the cypresses of the great cemetery farther inland present a very picturesque appearance from the sea. The town contains eight mosques, one of them, the Valideh Jami, built in 1547, of considerable beauty. Other remarkable buildings are the vast barracks of Selim III. and a hospital used during the Crimean War (see NIGHTINGALE, FLORENCE). The chief industry of Scutari is the manufacture of silk, muslin and cotton stuffs. The population is estimated at 105,500, of which two-thirds are Mahommedan. The most striking feature of Scutari is its immense cemetery, the largest and most beautiful of all the cemeteries in and around Constantinople; it extends over more than 3 m. of undulating plain behind the town. Between Scutari and Haidar Pasha the English army lay encamped during the Crimean War, and in a cemetery on the Bosporus are buried the 8000 English who died in hospital. At Haidar Pasha is the terminus of the Angora, Konia and Smyrna railways. Chrysopolis (" Golden City "), the ancient name of Scutari, most probably has reference to the fact that there the Persian tribute was collected, as at a later date the Athenians levied there a tenth on the ships passing from the Euxine. Scutari was formerly the post station for Asiatic couriers (Uskudar= courier), as also down to the introduction of steam the terminus of the caravan routes from Syria and Asia.
(2) - (anc. Scodra, Slav. Skadar, Albanian ShkSder, or with the definite article Shk6dr-a), the capital of the vilayet of Scutari and principal city of Albania, European Turkey; o.n the south-eastern shore of Lake Scutari, near the confluence of the Drin and Boyana rivers, and 14 m. inland from the Adriatic Sea. Pop. (1905) about 32,000. The plain in which Scutari is built extends southwards to Alessio and northwards to the Montenegrin frontier. It is enclosed by lofty mountains on every side except where it adjoins the lake. It is very liable to be flooded, and this liability was greatly increased towards the close of the 19th century by the deflection of the Drin and its junction with the Boyana. Its bazaar and mosques give Scutari an oriental appearance, but the finest of its buildings are Italian an old Venetian citadel on a high crag, and a Roman Catholic cathedral. The city is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop and a Jesuit college and seminary, which are subsidized by the Austrian government. The trade of Scutari tends to decline and to be diverted to Salonica and other ports connected with the main European railways. Grain, wool, hides and skins, tobacco and sumach are exported; arms and cotton stuffs are manufactured; and textiles, metals, provisions and hardware are imported. Large quantities of a kind of sardine, called scoranze by the Italians and seraga by the Albanians, are caught in the Boyana and cured for export or home consumption. The Boyana is navigable by small seagoing vessels as far as Oboti, 12 m. from its mouth; cargoes for Scutari are then transhipped into light river craft. The steamers of the Anglo-Montenegrin trading company ply on the lake.
Livy relates that Scodra was chosen as capital by the Illyrian king Gentius, who was here besieged in 168 B.C., and carried captive to Rome. In the 7th century Scutari fell into the hands of the Servians, from whom it was wrested by the Venetians, and finally, in 1479, the Turks acquired it by treaty.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
