Prizren Fortress

Prizren Fortress
Prizren Fortress
Principality of Zeta; Principality of Dukagjini; Lazarević dynasty; Branković dynasty; Republic of Venice; Ottoman Empire; Yugoslavia; Kosovo
Open to; the public	yes
Site history
Built	6th century
Built by	Byzantine Empire (first attested in the 6th century CE); Serbian Empire (further expanded during the 14th century); Ottoman Empire (further expanded between the 15th and 20th century);
Events	Dokufest

Prizren Fortress (

Justinian. Byzantine rule in the region ended definitively in 1219–20 as the Serbian Nemanjić dynasty

controlled the fort until 1371.

Since 1371, a series of regional feudal rulers came to control Prizren and its fort: the

Eyalet of Rumelia

. Much of the modern fortress dates to the 18th century reconstruction phase.

The fortress is situated on a dominant hill at the eastern part of the town of Prizren, set on a strategic position, contoured with lines that follow distinguished features of the terrain's natural morphology. Archaeological excavations were carried out in 1969 and then again in 2004 and 2009–2011. They resulted in the discovery of the infrastructure, which incorporates rampart walls enforced with towers,

Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1948.^[1]

Name

The Prizren fortress is named Kalaja e Prizrenit in Albanian and Prizrenska Kaljaja in Serbian. The historical neighbourhood which formed around the lower part of the fortress is named Nënkalaja (literally "below the fortress"). The name of the city has been linked with that of Petrizen, a fort in Dardania mentioned by Procopius in the 6th century.^[2]^[3]^[4]

History

Justinian
Right: Stefan Dušan, Serbian Emperor

Forts and settlements in late antiquity and medieval Kosovo

Prizren has been traditionally identified with Theranda, a town of the Roman era.

Justinian commissioned to be reconstructed in Dardania.^[7]

Present-day Prizren is first mentioned in 1019 at the time of

Mihailo Vojislavljević of Duklja to send them assistance. Mihailo sent his son, Constantine Bodin with 300 of his soldiers. Dalassenos Doukas, dux of Bulgaria was sent against the combined forced but was defeated near Prizren, which was extensively plundered by the Serbian army after the battle.^[8] The Bulgarian magnates proclaimed Bodin "Emperor of the Bulgarians" after this initial victory.^[9] They were defeated by Nikephoros Bryennios in the area of northern Macedonia by the end of 1072. Demetrios Chomatenos is the last Byzantine archbishop of Ohrid to include Prizren in his jurisdiction until 1219.^[10] Stefan Nemanja had seized the surrounding area along the White Drin in 1185–95 and the ecclesiastical split from the Patriarchate in 1219 was the final act of establishing Nemanjić rule in the town. Prizren and its fort were the administrative and economic center of the župa

of Podrimlje (in Albanian, Podrima or Anadrini).

In the Middle Ages, the Prizren fortress was part of the fortifications of the Via de Zenta trade route which passed through the Drin valley and connected the Adriatic coastline with the central Balkans. In a nearby location, roughly 3 km to the southeast of the Prizren fortress, Stefan Dušan commissioned the building of the Monastery of the Holy Archangels and the Višegrad fort, which is also known as Dušanov grad.^[11] For a time, they were the fortifications of his court in Prizren before he moved it to Skopje. The város (nënkalaja - old town) of Prizren developed around the fortress. Ragusan traders were stationed in the old town. Prizren over time became a trading hub and gateway for Ragusan trade towards eastern Kosovo and beyond.^[12]

Prizren became part of the Ottoman Empire after 1450 until the First Balkan War (1912). The present-day fortress is largely the product of Ottoman expansion and reconstruction in the 18th century.

During the Ottoman occupation of Serbia, Serbs held social gatherings at several monumental places, such as Kaljaja, where they danced the Kolo in the evening.^[13]

Gallery

Main Gate
The remains of one of the towers
Part of the - now reconstructed - upper part of the fortress

References

^ Monuments of Culture in Serbia: ПРИЗРЕНСКА ТВРЂАВА, ДУШАНОВ ГРАД-КАЉАЈА (SANU) (in Serbian and English)
^ Gold, J. (2019). Multiethnizität in Alltag und Konflikt: Schein und Realität von Identitätskonstruktionen in der Balkanstadt Prizren. Springer. p. 85.
^ Recepoğlu, A.S. (2001). Kosova'da Türk kültürü veya Türkçe düşünmek. T.C. Kültür Bakanlığı. p. 405.
^ Gjurmime albanologjike: Seria e shkencave filologjike. Albanian Institute of Pristina. 1988. p. 254.
^ Galaty 2013, p. 68.
^ Hoxha 2007, p. 271.
^ Hoxha 2007, p. 270.
^ Stojkovski 2020, p. 147.
^ McGeer 2019, p. 149.
^ Prinzing 2008, p. 30.
^ Perica 1998, p. 211.
^ Rrezja 2011, p. 267.
^ Serbian Folk Dance Tradition in Prizren Ethnomusicology, Vol. 6, No. 2 (May, 1962)