October 2, 2009

Prizren Impressions

Prizren

For this post I put my favorite shots of Prizren that I havn't already published.
This are manly impressions and nice situations I captured strolling around the city.
Here one of the many mini-markets along the streets.


Prizren

This fantastic stone wall is in front of the newly renovated house of the League of Prizren. The League of Prizren is mainly to blame if ethnic extremist attacks happened all the time in this city. Formated in 1878 it consisted of nationalistic Albanians with the goal to unite all the regions with Albanian majority and to form a Nation State.

Unintetionally the international community (UNMIK; KFOR, NATO) gave a big help to realize some of their goals!



Shadervan area in Prizren

Our friend's uncle runs this Fast-food restaurant in one of Prizren's main streets. In this kind of places the BBQ is incorporated in the windows, and you see how the fresh meat is roasting!

Shadervan area in Prizren

Nicley arranged vegetables and sure good roasted meat...but no pork is served around Prizren (94% Muslims is the explanation for that). What is also served in places like that that and is really delicious is the "jogurt" (a liquid version of jogurts like they are sold in western europe and with very mild jogurt-cultures.....

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In the Podkaljaja district you find distroyed buildings, coloured walls and new building sites near each other.

Prizren

Entering Prizren shows the ruling law quite clearly: Invented numberplates with -KS- in the middle (created from Kosovo-Albanian separatists years ago to start secession with Serbia) and blackened traffic signs to show that Serbian language is not wished to be heard/spoken/writen.


Prizren

Also the new houses mirror the traditional style architecture. Four sided roofs covered with ceramic roof tiles and overlapping first floor with big wooden gridded windows looks like the old houses of Prizren.

The old houses in Prizren belong to the traditional balkan "bondruka" style (wooden skeleton construction filled with straw and earth covered with plaster).
This kind of hosuses are common throu all the region of south of Serbia and Macedonia.

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September 30, 2009

The Prizren fortress Kaljaja (Каљаја)

Prizren panorama

Kaljaj
a (Каљаја) or Prizren Fortress

Kaljaja is the medieval fortress in Prizren dating from 11th century, in which once the capital of Serbian Empire was located. It was built on a hill above the Bistrica River, around which the modern city developed. The first fort, erected on this location by the Byzantines, was further expanded by Tsar Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia. The fort then came under the Ottomans, who controlled it for four and a half centuries, giving it its modern shape.



The fort is now in ruins, but still can be see its monumentality, although it is difficult to discern the outlines of the original medieval town and the number of Towers due to later expansion.

Prizren

It's sure worth to climb up the Podkaljaja quarter to reach the fortress as it pays back with a wonderful panoramic view of the city of Prizren, the Bistrica Valley and the surroundings.

Podkaljaja the eyesore of Prizren

Prizren

As beatuful and charming the city of Prizren might be...there is however a black sopt that disturbs the eye of the tourist: the former Serbian district of Podkaljaja.


Prizren

In March 17th of 2004 some rioting albanian terrorist destroyed and devastated the serbian district of Podkaljaja (lit. the district under the Kaljaja). Moderate Albanian leader condemmend the actions of those extremistes.



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What you see in these pictures happened in "peace" time when KFOR was controlling the territory.


Saint Saviour Church (Sveti Spas)

St. Saviour Church Prizren
Walking up to the fortress you walk by a Churche controlled by German KFOR and warning signs everywhere.

The endowment of landowner Mladen Vladojevic with his parents, at the time of Tsar Dusan's rule, was built around 1330 and in 1348 given as a gift to the nearby monastery of Holy Archangels. The Vlach community in Prizren, which had the right to use this little church from the second half of the 18th century, built, in 1836, high walls of a future shrine which was never completed and the church of St. Spasa thus became only a part of its northern nave.

The medieval church is of small dimensions, with the foundation in the shape of the shortened cross with octangular dome and the apse three-sided from outside. It was decoratively built with neat alternate layers of limestone and brick and with ceramoplastic ornaments.

St. Saviour Church Prizren



The paintings were painted in two phases: firstly in the altar around 1335 and the paintings are of poorer quality and then in the rest of the church until 1348 when a part of the altar area was repainted. The original paintings on the altar were painted by one painter, a member of the workshop which also painted the church of St. Nikola, endowment of Dragoslav Tutic. Small dimensioned frescoes from the second phase were painted by local painters educated by the good traditions of the Byzantine art who had a sure and prominent drawing. A third painter painted Christ and the Virgin Paraklisa in priprata most probably after 1348. The paintings were greatly damaged and a fire in the 19th century changed their palette.
Conservation works on architecture and frescoes were carried out in the 1953-1963 period.

After the Kosovo war 1998-1999 St. Savior church is under constant guard by German KFOR troops. It's not possible for now to visit the ruins.

St. Saviour Church in Prizren


September 27, 2009

Šadervan Mahala in Prizren (Metohija)

Next to the Maraš Mahala (from the last post) is another old district of Prizren that gives to this city a charming atmosphere: the Šadervan Mahala.

Theoretically Mosques and Churches stands here next to another and there are big efforts to convince that Prizren is a multi-ethnic city. The reality is far away from that!
What concernes the multi-ethnicity here some numbers from 2007 (from wikipedia): The population of 171'464 inhabitants is composed of: 81,6 % Albanians, 9,6 % Bosniaks, 6,4 % Turks, 2,3 % Roma und 0,09 % Serbs. It makes 94% Muslims.

And to be honest, if you wanna get treated friendly by the locals (and they are friendly, no doubts) DON'T SPEAK SERBIAN!




The old commercial center of Prizren is all around Šadervan Square so the district is called Šadervan Mahala. Along pedestrian cobblestone streets are shops, coffee places, bars and restaurants.


Shadervan area in Prizren

The entrance to the Šadervan Mahala crossing the bridge over Bistrica River. On the right is the Sinan Paša Mosque and in the background the older houses that in the center are all just 2-storey high and in earth tinted colors. Most of the houses however are recently built and there aren't almost any old houses anymore.

Sinan Pasha Mosque in Prizren

The Sinan
Paša Mosque one of the main landmarks of Prizren.

The mosque, according to inscriptions, was built in 1615. Thanks to its position and elegant proportions, it dominates over the surrounding part of the town. The enormous dome is fitted harmoniously into the square mass of the building. The interior of the mosque is decorated with geometrical designs, still life, and draperies, while the other parts of the walls are painted in strong light colors.

The mosque dates from the ottoman (turkish) occupation in Prizren.




Shadervan area in Prizren

The Serbian orthodox church of St Nicholas in the very center of Prizren's Šadervan Mahala dates from 1332.

Despite the presence of the German KFOR troops in Prizren, the church was attacked by Albanian terrorists and devastated not during the war but in "peace" times!


Above a picture from TANJUG shortly after the attacks. Today the church is protected by wooden wall. The PDK means Democratic Party of Kosovo.


Bistrica River Prizren

Over the Bistrica River are several old bridges that connect the old districts Maraš and Šadervan with the newer part of the city.

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September 23, 2009

Maraš Mahala in Prizren (Metohija)

Shadervan area in Prizren

In the next few post I'll put a series of pictures of an extraordinary city in southern Metohija: the city of Prizren. Here a few pictures of Maraš Mahala an old district that should be preserved.

Already known in roman times as the city of Teranda, Prizren was developed between 6th and 9th centuries and can be considered the historical and cultural capital of the Kosovo and Metohija region. After 830 it belonged to the Bulgarian Empire, Byzantin Empire and Serbian Empire.
During the 14th century Serb Emperor Dušan raised the city to an important trading and cultural center that was called Serbian Constantinople.
During the Turkish reign from 1460 to 1912 the town on the river Bistrica develops a new urban structure by shaping its center (carsi) and quarters (mahala) and with constructing monumental Ottoman edifices.


Marash area in Prizren


One of this quarters is the Maraš Mahala (Мараш Махала)

Situated in the bend of the river Bistrica, the
Maraš area has kept a village identity with its Maksut Paša Mosque, its cemetery, its mill (recently destroyed) and its fountains.

Marash area in Prizren

The houses in Prizren belong to the Balkan traditional style of a ground and oreal first floor buildings with carved ceilings, facades painted in bright colours, with neatly arranged gardens and cobblestoned patios through which water gutters passed.

Marash area in Prizren

Here a newer part of Maraš area where a river side walk leads to recrational area at the Bistrica River following a line of bars and coffee shops.

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September 21, 2009

Monastery Tvrdos near Trebinje

On the way between Trebinje and Mostar (around 5km from Trebinje) lays an old monastery surrounded by wineyards. The monastery was built on the foundation of an old church, and the 4th-century foundations of the first Roman church on the site are still visible today (inside the curch, below the glassbottom). This shows also how long there is christian religion in Hercegovina.


In the first half of the 6th century the monastery was the biggest scriptorium of the Slavic south, and at the same time cultural and spiritual center of a broader area.
The Orthodox monastery was established there in the 15th century, with a cathedral constructed about 1508 and painted with murals by Vicko Lavrov from Dubrovnik (1517) and from monk Marko Stefanov Trebinjac (on the same period).

This was also the period when Viasilije Ostroski (the holy monk from Ostrog Moanstery in Montenegro) arrived to Tvrdos to become a monk. His modesty forbidding him to push himself forward to occupy the high positions his piety and capabilities recommended him for, he was elected as Bishop of Zahumlje and Skenderia against his will.

He had the capacity to help the orthodox population of the area not to succomb to islamisation by the turks or to catholization by catholic missionars.


The monastery remained a seat of the Metropolitans of Herzegovina until the Ottoman Turks destroyed it in 1694 (in the fights between Venetians and Turks). That was also when Vasilije Ostroski fled to Montenegro.


Actually Tvrdos had been frequently destroyed and reconstructed before.
The current building of the monastery was constructed in 1924. Today the monastery is temporarily the seat of the Eparchy of Zahumlje and Herzegovina (otherways the seat is in Mostar).


Tvrdos was built to give protection from attacks, a massive wall is built around the monastery.
The monastery is also known for the good wine the monks are making and also for the honey. Because of that it's on the wineroute of Hercegovina (here the site) and here is the website of the monastery (in serbian).