Prizren, Kosovo

🇽🇰 Prizren (Prizreni, Призрен) is the second most populous city and municipality of Kosovo and seat of the eponymous municipality and district. It is located on the banks of the Prizren River between the foothills of the Sharr Mountains in southern Kosovo. Prizren experiences an oceanic climate under the influence of the surrounding mountains.

Prizren is constitutionally designated as the historical capital of the country. Archaeological excavations in Prizren Fortress indicate that its fortress area has seen habitation and use since the Bronze Age. Prizren has been traditionally identified with the settlement of Theranda in Roman Dardania, although other locations have been suggested in recent research. In late antiquity it was part of the defensive fortification system in western Dardania and the fort was reconstructed in the era of eastern Roman Emperor Justinian. Byzantine rule in the region ended definitively in 1219-20 as the Serbian Nemanjić dynasty controlled the fort and the town until 1371. Since 1371, a series of regional feudal rulers came to control Prizren: the Balšić, the Dukagjini, the Hrebeljanović and finally the Branković, often with Ottoman support. The Ottoman Empire assumed direct control after 1450. Prizren first developed in the area below the fortress which overlooks the Bistrica river on its left bank. Since the 16th century, economic development fueled the expansion of the city's neighbourhoods to the river's right bank.

History The earliest archaeological find is the so-called Runner of Prizren which is a bronze figure of a running girl. A dealer sold it to the British Museum in 1876. According to the museum, the object was possibly made in Sparta between 520BC and 500BC. It may have arrived in Prizren as a gift or loot and used as a grave-god.

Prizren has been traditionally identified with Theranda, a town of the Roman era. Another location which may have been that of Theranda is present-day Suhareka as has been suggested in recent research. Archaeological research has shown that the site of the Prizren Fortress has had several eras of habitation since prehistoric times. In its lower part, material from the upper part of the fort has been deposited over the centuries. It dates from the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000 BCE) to the late Iron Age (c. 1st century CE) and is comparable to the material found in the nearby prehistoric site in the village of Vlashnjë (~10 km west of Prizren). In 2005, prehistoric rock paintings in a ritual site related to the cycle of life were found near Vlashnjë. They represent the first find of prehistoric rock art in the region.

In late antiquity, the fortification saw a phase of reconstruction. It is part of a series of forts that were built or reconstructed in the same period by Justinian along the White Drin in northern Albania and western Kosovo in the routes that linked the coastal areas with the Kosovo valley. At this time, the Prizren fortress likely appears in historical record as Petrizen in the 6th century CE in the work of Procopius as one of the fortifications which Justinian commissioned to be reconstructed in Dardania.

History: 21st century The municipality of Prizren is still the most culturally and ethnically heterogeneous of Kosovo, retaining communities of Bosniaks, Turks, and Romani in addition to the majority Kosovo Albanian population live in Prizren. Only a small number of Kosovo Serbs remains in Prizren and area, residing in small villages, enclaves, or protected housing complexes. Furthermore, Prizren's Turkish community is socially prominent and influential, and the Turkish language is widely spoken even by non-ethnic Turks.

Geography Prizren is located on the foothills of the Šar Mountains (Albanian: Malet e Sharrit) in southern Kosovo on the banks of Prizren River. Prizren Mnicipality borders Albania to the southweast and North Macedonia to the southeast.

Economy For a long time the economy of Kosovo was based on the retail industry fueled by remittance income coming from a large number of immigrant communities in Western Europe. Private enterprise, mostly small business, is slowly emerging. Private businesses, like elsewhere in Kosovo, predominantly face difficulties because of a lack of structural capacity to grow. Education is poor, financial institutions basic, and regulatory institutions lack experience. Securing capital investment from foreign entities cannot emerge in such an environment. Due to financial hardships, several companies and factories have closed and others are reducing personnel. This general economic downturn contributes directly to the growing rate of unemployment and poverty, making the economic viability in the region more tenuous.

Many restaurants, private retail stores, and service-related businesses operate out of small shops. Larger grocery and department stores have recently opened. In town, there are eight sizeable markets, including three produce markets, one car market, one cattle market, and three personal hygiene and houseware markets. There is an abundance of kiosks selling small goods. However, reducing international presence and repatriation of refugees and internally displaced persons is expected to further strain the local economy. Market saturation, high unemployment, and a reduction of financial remittances from abroad are negative economic indicators.

There are three agricultural co-operatives in three villages. Most livestock breeding and agricultural production are private, informal, and small-scale. There are nine operational banks with branches in Prizren, ProCredit Bank, the Raiffeisen Bank, the NLB Bank, TEB Bank, Banka për Biznes (Bank for Business), İşbank, Banka Kombëtare Tregtare (National Trade Bank), Iutecredit, and the Payment and Banking Authority of Kosovo (BPK).

Infrastructure All the main roads connecting the major villages with the urban centre are asphalted. The water supply is functional in Prizren town and in approximately 30 villages.

Education There are 48 primary schools with 28,205 pupils and 1,599 teachers; 6 secondary schools with 9,608 students and 503 teachers; kindergartens are privately run. There is also a public university in Prizren, offering lectures in Albanian, Bosnian, and Turkish.

Health The primary health care system includes 14 municipal family health centres and 26 health houses. The primary health sector has 475 employees, including doctors, nurses and support staff, 264 females and 211 males. Regional hospital in Prizren offers services to approximately 250,000 residents. The hospital employs 778 workers, including 155 doctors, and is equipped with emergency and intensive care units.

Demography As of the Kosovo Agency of Statistics (KAS) estimate from the 2011 census, there were 177,781 people residing in Prizren Municipality, representing the second most populous city and municipality of Kosovo. Its urban population was approximately 94,500, while the rural population was around 83,000. With a population density of 283,5 people per square kilometre, Prizren is among the most densely populated municipalities of Kosovo.

In terms of ethnicity, Prizren Municipality was 81.96% Albanian, 9.5% Bosniak, 5.11% Turkish, 1.63% Romani, 0.76% Ashkali, 0.37% Gorani, 0.13% Serbian, 0.09% Egyptian and 0.45% of other ethnicities or refugees (such as Afghans, Syrians, Ukrainians and others).

By religion, there were 170,640 (95.98%) Muslims, 5,999 (3.37%) Roman Catholics, 250 (0.14%) Orthodox, 807 (0.45%) of other religions and 85 (0.05%) irreligious.

Besides the two official languages of Kosovo, Albanian and Serbian, Turkish and Bosnian are also the official languages of the Municipality of Prizren.

The presence of Vlach villages in the vicinity of Prizren is attested in 1198-1199 by a charter of Stephan Nemanja. Madgearu argues that the series of Ottoman defters from 1455 onward showing the "ethnic mosaic" of Serb and Albanian villages in Kosovo shows that Prizren already had significant Albanian Muslim populations. Since an early period in its rapid development as an Ottoman city, Prizren had much more Muslims than Catholic or Orthodox inhabitants as in the pre-Ottoman period.

Due to urban development in the Ottoman period, with the building of mosques and other Islamic buildings, Prizren received an Islamic urban character in the 16th century. 227 of 246 workshops of Prizren were run by Muslims in 1571. Catholic archbishop Marino Bizzi reported in 1610 that Prizren had 8,600 houses, out of which many were Orthodox (who had two churches), and only 30 were Catholic (who had one church). The Orthodox far outnumbered the Catholics. Catholic archbishop Pjetër Mazreku reported in 1624 that the town was inhabited by 12,000 "Turks" (Muslims, i.e. mainly Albanians) of which most spoke Albanian, and that there were 600 Serbs (Orthodox Christians) and maybe 200 Catholic Albanians. In 1857, Russian Slavist Alexander Hilferding's publications place the Muslim families at 3,000, the Orthodox ones at 900 and the Catholics at around 100 families. In the Ottoman census of 1876, it had 43,922 inhabitants.

Culture Regarded as the historical capital of Kosovo, Prizren has been home to many different religions and cultures for centuries, shaping the cultural heritage of the city. Prizren is also considered as a museum city with many mosques, churches and old buildings of national importance. The Fortress of Prizren located above the Prizren River has seen habitation and use throughout different periods since the Bronze Age. Among the artifacts of the Middle Ages are the Sinan Pasha Mosque, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Cathedral, Holy Saviour Church, Katip Sinan Qelebi Mosque, Holy Archangels Monastery, St. Nicholas Church, Muderiz Ali Effendi Mosque and the UNESCO World Heritage Site Our Lady of Ljeviš.

Festivals The annually held Hasi Jehon Festival aims to promote and preserve the Albanian spiritual heritage, through folk music, dances and popular games from all Albanian-inhabited parts of the Balkans. The festival was first established in the May of 1976 from the cultural and artistic association "Malësori" and it takes place in the village of Gjonaj.

The annual Dokufest International Film Festival held in Prizren is considered among the largest publicly attended film festival in the Balkans. Several art and music festivals and conferences are held in the city, including the 40BunarFest and NGOM Fest, with the main objectives to promote artists and to connect the different ethnic groups in the surrounding region.

Sport The city has one sports club known as KF Liria. They currently play in the Football Superleague of Kosovo. The city is also home to one of the basketball teams in Kosovo, K.B Bashkimi.