Shkodra free zone

settled, such as Pjeter Dodmasej. The shipment through the river of
Buna mostly provided supplies for the joint market, which at that
time was known as the “axle” between Vienna, Trieste, Shkodra,
Thessaloniki and Instanbul. Shkodra’s contribution to this market
was constant and influential up until the revolt that embraced our city
in 1839 against the new systems of taxes, liabilities, etc.
Furthermore, the use of the Sues Canal in the year 1869 and the
Mitrovice-Thessaloniki railway gave Shkoder two successive hits.
Similar to what happened in all the other seaports of the region,
under the absorbing effect of the Sues Canal, the flux of goods
passing through Shkodra’s port was further reduced because the port
lacked connections with the freight railway network of the Balkan
countries.
Two years ago (1872) merchants of Shkodra, headed by Filip
Parruca, raised the necessary capital to pay the designers and start
building the whole railway Shengjin-Shkoder-Prizren-Ferizaj, but
this undertaking was interrupted leaving the city isolated for ever
from the railway network of Balkan and Europe. The operation of the
faster and safer railway freight through all the Balkan and European
countries, except Shkodra, challenged considerably the classical
routes towards Shkodra market. The trade took other directions
towards Mitrovice, Prishtine, Ferizaj, Thessaloniki. The use of Sues
Canal increased the value and the importance of Thessaloniki port.
Under the new circumstances (determined by the separation from the
railway network) the economic authority of Shkodra metropolis
began to fade and city’s elite began to focus their attention on the
fluvial route of Buna River. The activity was so powerful that out of
the custom duties imposed on the imported colonial goods, in 1895
they managed to raise the necessary financial capital to engage a
group of Austrian and French engineers to carry out the necessary
studies and design projects to clean the river mouth, dredge and
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