Modern architecture in Pristina

Most people know Pristina just in connection with war or some other problem loaded themes. For once I prefer not to write about that aspect.
But always when I saw pictures of this city I was fascinated about some peculiar modern buildings.
Pristina has some spectacular architecture - and the most amazing are the relicts from communist time!

The OSCE Headquarter looks Si-Fi like!

Shopping Center in Bregu i Diellit (an area of pristina called Sunny Hill)

The "Elektro Kosova" building, with a wonderful base in communist-time Style that looks like a transformer.

A simple but stilish building near the Skenderbeg statue

The National Library
This stunning building is the work of croatian architect Andrija Mutnjakovic and was build in 1982.
99 white glass cupolas of different sizes and an entirly covered facade in wire netting give this building a strange Space-age looks!

The library was once home to a huge depository of literature, much of wich was destroyed in the early 1990s.
The equally beguiling interior which has some fotos of old Pristina, still contains over 5'000 fime examples of old and rare books and manuscripts, dating back to 16th century.


The Palace of Youth and Sports (Rr. Luan Haradinaj)This building from 1977 is a landmark from communist time! In 1981 a shopping center and and a sport-complex were added.

Here the Rilindja-Building, one of the highest bulidngs in Pristina. Once home of a Newspaper is now cosidered a "Media House".
Next to the building a Visual of what it will look like after renovation! But so far there are still some ownership disputs going on...

Etno Selo - Sirogonjo

Sirogojno is one of the etno-villages in Serbia. It's situated about 30 km from the town of Užice and 24 km from Zlatibor Mountain and lies on the altitude of 900m. It's organized as an open air museum, realised by the plan of architect Ranko Findrik and the Republic Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments in 1980. The initial idea of the project of Sirogojno was to preserve the knowledge of domestic works.
In the course of time, the monumental complex of the St. Apostles Peter and Paul`s church from the 18th century and the open-air museum were placed under legal protection as a cultural asset.


The dinara cottages

The house style belongs to the Dinara region log cottage type. Its base is rectangular and its foundation built of stone. The walls are made of logs and with beams horizontally placed one over the other. The corners are with characteristic cross-shaped joints called "ćert". The roof is four-sided, steep and high, covered with straw, boards–shingle or stone. The opening in the sides of the roof (badža) allow channeling of smoke from the house. In the middle of the roof there is a typical chimney, the "kapić", cone-shaped with carved spindle at the top. Usually houses have two doors placed one opposite the other, the main door always facing east. Houses are divided into two rooms - `the kitchen` and `the main-room` . `The kitchen` is without attic and windows, with earthen floor.

The central place in the `kitchen` is the fireplace (a rectangular or circular surface covered with two stone stone pillars, called prijeklada, about 35 – 40cm high, built in at the edges of one of the shorter sides of the fireplace. The fireplace was used for food preparation and it was a gathering place for all the members of large family. The fireplace is also the ritual place of the house, where the most important family rites and ceremonies related to significant national holidays took place.
Today there a a few Ethno-Villages with possibility to visit, accomodation and food all around Serbia.

Here the links:
Etno Selo Trsic
Etno Selo Stanisici
Etno Selo Sirogojno
Etno Selo Latkovac
And here a post on an old forgotten cookie that you can buy in Sirogojno.

Trsic - Ethno Village

The small etno village of Trsic, 9 kilometers south of Loznica, is the birthplace of Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic, the 19th century language reformer who is considered the father of the modern Serbian language.

A portion of the village has been turned into an ethnographic park, centered on a recreation of the Karadzic family home.







Many authentic 19th century items are in the home, including a portrait of ‘Vuk' from 1816 painted by Pavle Djurakovic. In later years an amphitheater was erected to stage the many cultural events that take place in Trsic, among which the best known is 'Vukov sabor' dating since 1933.

Hotel Avala in Budva

Hotel Avala in Budva was once built in best position on the Budva bay with a stunning pool directly over the sea, but after the wars and before Budva became a hype place, it was open though but there was no money and no valuable concept (and no tourists) on what to do with this big but outdated house!

The location was good even if it can gets loud at night, since it’s next to the most two polpular beaches of Budva: Mogren I and Mogren II and to some nightclubs in the old city.
A good idea was to seek for the wealthy in Serbia and Russia and to attract some celebrities with a clean modern architecture.
So people like Severina (Croatian starlet) and Jelena Jankovic (tennis player) spent some days there and did good job to promote the hotel.

Just back in 2005 it was a scary spooky place that had seen better times.

Now what a difference, it looks trendy and groomed and adds attractiveness to Budva’s landscape.




The Belgrade based architects of sinestezia are about to renovate the pavillons (row houses) behind the hotel complex.

Communist time hotels: Hotel Canj

This in one of the fascinating communist time hotels of former Yugoslavija. Situated in a little village on a particularly beautiful coastal place in Montenegro.

Allthough this hotel has a wonderful location and is architecturally stunning, it's extremely difficult to run it profitably. It needs works to be done, and because of its size it would need a big staff to represent a classy hotel.

And for all this Canj is probably too small...only when the nearby crowded places will be saturated Canj will maybe get a good oportunity to be discovered as a magnet of tourism. For now, only the fish restaurant is properly working.

Čanj lies between bar and Budva and is surrounded by the 496 m high mountain VELJI GRAD.

The sea is really beautiful and clear around this place.
Not many years ago the place was untouched and populated just by farmers.