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HERITAGE :: KOSOVO AND METOHIJA :: |
Kosovo
and Metohija is situated in the central part of the
Balkan Peninsula. The region is endowed with abundant
natural resources and has a favourable geographical
position at the intersection of major roads,
connecting South and West Europe with Middle East.
Numerous prehistoric and classical archaeological
sites in the region testify to the continuity of
civilization and the existence of different cultures
in this area.
The oldest archaeological excavations that confirm
Slavic presence in the region are dated from the time
of the Great migrations in the 6th and 7th centuries.
Already before the end of 11th century, the great part
of the territory forming today’s Kosovo and Metohija
had passed under the control of feudal Serb lords and
later became a part of the medieval kingdom and later
Empire of Serbs headed by the Nemanjić dynasty
and its successors from its foundation in 1217 to its
demise in 1459.
The territory of Kosovo and Metohija, was not only a
geo-political but also a cultural and spiritual cradle
of the medieval Serb state, with the the Patriarchy of
Peć, functioning as the seat of the Serbian
Orthodox church founded in 1219. During the existence
of medieval Serbia (1217-1459), the territory of
Kosovo and Metohija not only played an important role
in the current political developments in the
south-eastern Europe but it was also a site of a
lively cultural and artistic exchange, the fruits of
which are today recognized as representative of the
artistic and cultural achievements of the period in
the history of the Balkan nations and medieval Europe
in general.
The most remarkable achievement, testifying both the
birth of the independent Serbian state and church in
13th century, are many medieval monasteries preserved
on this territory. For the purposes of the formation
of new bishoprics, many old sacral buildings were
rebuilt along with the founding of new ones during
late 12-15th centuries, as was the case with the church of
Bogorodica Ljeviška (Holy Virgin Ljeviska) in
Prizren. These churches and the monasteries, generally
located near the principal transportation routes in
Kosovo and Metohija became prosperous artistic centres
where, between attending mas held in Serbian language,
monarchs devoted their time to copying of liturgical
books and the creation of an original literature
describing the lives of local saints.
During the course of the 14th century, economic
progress of the Serbian state lead to a great
development of this region. The mine and the town of
Novo Brdo, southeast of Priština, which also
experienced development at the time as one of the
ruler’ capital towns, provided a state of welfare as
well as great financial power to Serbian rulers, and
following the disintegration of the state, also to
regional governors. Large trading centres such as
Prizren, included several colonies founded by foreign
merchants – the so-called “Latins” - who came
mostly from the coastal region and together with
foreign miners had settled there, contributing to the
mixing of different cultures in this dynamic medieval
city. When the Serbian territory expanded on account
of Byzantine territories in the conquests of its lands
in the period between the late 13th and the middle of
the 14th century, Kosovo and Metohija remained the
centre of the state and the leader in artistic
development. Testimony of this one can find in the
fact that Serbian archbishops during this period
continued to devote their greatest attention to the
construction and decoration of the “great church”
– the Peć
Patriarchate; the Episcopal sees were
rebuilt, like the monastery of Gračanica. Also,
it was exactly in the Metohija planes that the Nemanjić
rulers started building their mausoleums in the first
half of the 14th century. Today, only the church of
Christ the Pantocrator at the Dečani
monastery,
whose founders were King Stefan Dečanski and King
and Emperor Dušan, remains to testify about the
beauty and splendour of the medieval Srbian funerary
church architecture. What is left of the monastery of
St. Stefan in Banjska, the King Milutin’s burial
church, and the Saint Archangels in Prizren, the
mausoleum of Emperor Dušan, later destroyed once
again and burned in the most recent eruption of ethnic
violence in Kosovo and Metohija in 2004, are nothing
more but ruins.
Throughout the whole mediaeval period, Serbian rulers
and noblemen paid great attention to maintaining
fortified towns such as Zvečan (near Kosovska
Mitrovica), Veliki i Mali Petrič or Kaljaja (near
Prizren) and numerous palaces such as those of
Brnjaci, Nerodimlje or Vučitrn where a
court-culture flourished among the educated layer of
the feudal society. From the treasury of monasteries,
famous by their beauty and gold, only the short
reports and rare objects remaind.
Following the disintegration of Serbian Empire in
1371, and the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, which by its
long-term consequences determined the future of this
part of the Balkans, the Serbian churches and
monasteries located in the present-day Kosovo and
Metohija continued their role as cultural canters of
the region and Christian fait by producing new books
and copying the existing ones or making fine objects
for church and everyday use.
The fall of town of Novo Brdo, a last free territory
in Kosovo and Metohija, and the arrival of Ottomans in
1455, changed the conditions of life not only on this
territory, but on whole Balkan Peninsula. It ‘s from
that time (15.th century) that the first written
sources mentioning the Albanian tribes date. Albanians
shepherds, who lived in mountains in the surroundings
of great towns and monasteries, without strong
relations among them, accept Islam relatively quickly.
In the first census of the Turkish population in
Kosovo and Metohija in 1455, Albanian names were
mentioned in, approximately 80 of the 600 villages,
and there also as minority.
After its restoration in 1557, the Patriarchate of Peć
“the mother of all churches” once again took over
the guiding role in the history of the Serbian people.
The patriarch himself was now also became the etnarch
vested with mundane authorities he did not have
before. In the 16th century, art was on the upswing
again, and there was a very busy activity in the field
of restoration and mural painting as well as
construction and painting of smaller mainly graveyard
churches, resulting in the revival of traditional
artistic crafts. Peć and Dečani monastery
became the centres of a bustling cultural and artistic
activity. It was there that famous icon painting,
woodworking, and book copying schools operated during
the course of the 16th and the 17th century.
When the Serbian people, having perceived a chance for
their liberation from the Ottoman rule sided with
Austria in the Turkish-Austrian wars at the end of the
17th century, massive prosecution of the local
population orchestrated by the Ottoman power ensued in
the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. It was in these
grave circumstances that Patriarch Arsenije III Čarnojević
found a way out of the plight in the great migration
of Serbian people to the Austro-Hungarian lands across
the river Danube. The migration in 1690 and the next
one in 1739 at the time of Arsenije IV Šakabenda was
followed by hard times that were to culminate with the
abolishment of the Peć Patriarchate in 1766 and
its subjugation to the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Kosovo and Metochija remain devastated, the Serbian
churches and monasteries were destroyed and pillaged,
while cities like Priština, Prizren and Peć were
resettled with Albanian population. The Patriarchy of
Peć was formally closed in the year 1766. Under
the terror of the Albanian groups that the weakened
Ottoman Empire could not control, a great migration of
the Serbian population from Kosovo and Metohija took
place in 1790.
Throughout the 19th century the reports of terrible
terror on Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija came
down in and the waves of the great migrations in the
areas of the central Serbia or the countries by the
Danube.
The liberation of the Turkish domination in 1912 and
the restoration of the Patriarchate of Serbia in 1920
allowed the province of Kosovo and Metohija to take
again its development within the framework of a modern
Serbia. The suffering of the Serbian people continued
in the 20th century, and has continued During the
Second World War, when the fascistic forces trained
the Albanian militia, and the empty areas of Kosovo
left by persecuted Serbs, were uninhabited by Albanian
people from Northern Albania.
The history of the Serbian people in Kosovo and
Metohija in the 20th century is one of continuing
suffering, humiliation, destruction, and displacement,
experienced by many in the region and only too
difficult to endure by those who have another chance
to witness it continuing today. Only in 1999
approximately 200 000 of Serbs left their homes and
native land in Kosovo and Metohija.
To ensure the preservation of a rich cultural heritage
in the region in these turbulent times, there was a
huge activity of Republican Institute for the
Protection of Monuments of Culture of Serbia from
Belgrade, and Province Institute for the Protection of
Monuments of Culture of Serbia from Priština.
However, more than 120 Serb churches and monasteries,
among them some from the 13-14th century, have been
burned and destroyed since the NATO war in Serbia of
1998 and the arrival of KFOR in Kosovo and in Metohija
in 1999.
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