Saint Stephen Cathedral (in Albanian: Katedralja e Shkodres) was built in 1865 in Shkodra and is the largest and most significant Catholic church in Albania and one of the largest in the Balkans. It is dedicated to Saint Stephen, protector of the city, to whom the old cathedral of the 13th century, transformed into a mosque in the 15th century.
The ruins of the church of St. Stephen's cathedral in the fortress represent one of the most valuable monuments of medieval Shkodra. The church consists of the nave, the center of the altar, and the porch on the south side. In the corner of these two, the minaret is attached, an addition made when the church was turned into a mosque. From the examination of the monument in its present state, it is concluded that it was built during three phases. First the altar room was built. The second phase was the building of the porch and the rebuilding of the southern wall of the church. The third stage is when the church was converted into a sanctuary of Islam cult.
Saint Stephan Cathedral has a Romanesque architectural style and it was decorated by the great painter Kole Idromeno, Rectangular in shape (74 x 50 m) with a 23 m high bell tower, the exterior was partly redesigned after the 1905 earthquake and the siege of the city by the Montenegrins in 1913. During the communist regime it was turned into the Palace of Sports and in 1991 was returned to the Catholic Church.
In addition to the Cathedral itself, there is a museum with artifacts from the history from early stages of Albanian independence through the Islamic period, then Communist domination and finally the freedom they recently obtained.