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Peja

Peja is the fourth most populous city in Kosovo and serves as the seat of the Peja Municipality and the District of Peja. It is located in the Rugova region on the eastern section of the Accursed Mountains along the Lumbardhi i Pejës River in the western part of Kosovo.

In medieval times the city was under Byzantine and Bulgarian rule. When it was captured by Serbians, it became the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1346. The Patriarchal monastery of Peć is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Medieval Monuments in Kosovo. Under Ottoman rule the city, then commonly known under the Turkish name İpek, became a district capital with mosques and civil architecture. From the end of the nineteenth century until today, the city has been the site of nationalist aspirations and claims for both ethnic Albanians and Serbs, often resulting in tense inter-ethnic relations and conflict.

According to the 2011 census, the city of Peja has 48,962 inhabitants, while the municipality has 96,450 inhabitants. The municipality covers an area of 602 km2, including the city of Peja and 95 villages; it is divided into 28 territorial communities.

Name
The city was first mentioned as Siparantum by Ptolemy in his work Geography. The etymology of the Serbian name for the city, Peć is derived from the Serbian word for cave, Pećina. The connection is in reference to nearby caves to the city. During the period of Ottoman rule, it was known as Ottoman Turkish İpek (ايپك). The Albanian name's definite form is Peja and the indefinite Pejë. Other names of the city include Latin Pescium and Greek Episkion (Επισκιον).

Early development

The city is located in a strategic position on Peja's Lumbardh, a tributary of the White Drin to the east of the Accursed Mountains. The medieval city was possibly built on the ruins of Siparant(um), a Roman municipium (town or city). The area has the most unearthed stelae in all of Kosovo.

Slavs (Sclaveni and Antes) settled the Balkans, heavily depopulated by "Barbarians", in the 6th century. The Byzantine Empire and the First Bulgarian Empire fought for control of the area until it finally fell under full Serbian control. Between 1180 and 1190, Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja annexed Peja with its surrounding župa (district) of Hvosno from the Byzantine Empire, thus establishing Serbian rule over the city of Peja for next 300 years. In 1220, Serbian King Stefan Nemanjić donated Peja and several surrounding villages to his newly founded monastery of Žiča. As Žiča was the seat of a Serbian archbishop, Peja came under direct rule of Serbian archbishops and later patriarchs who built their residences and numerous churches in the city starting with the church of Holy Apostles built by archbishop Saint Arsenije I Sremac. After the Žiča monastery was burned by the Cumans in the 1290s, the seat of Serbian archbishop was transferred to a more secure location, the Patriarchal Monastery of Peć. The city became a major religious center of medieval Serbia under the Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan, who made it the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1346. It remained the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church until the abolition of the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć in 1766.

Ottoman Empire

Peja came under Ottoman rule after its capture in 1455. In Turkish, the town was known as İpek. The town became the center of the Sanjak of İpek (or Dukagjin), governed by the Albanian Mahmud Pasha Dukagjini as its first sanjakbey (lord). The Sanjak of Dukagjin had four kazas: Peja, Gjakova, Gusinje and Berane.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, Orthodox Albanians formed the majority of the region's population whereas Slavs formed a minority. The Slavs had arrived during the period of Serbian rule in Kosovo through the Middle Ages as colonists from Slavic regions north of Kosovo or as a stratum of the ruling class. In the Ottoman defters of the time, there existed a designation for new arrivals to the region; in the region of Peja and Suhogërla, new arrivals existed within about a third of the villages, with their anthroponomy indicating that only 4 of these new 180 arrivals had Albanian names, whereas the rest had characteristically Slavic names. This suggests that an arrival of a Slavic element to the northeast of the Sanjak of Shkodra occurred during the 15th-16th centuries, and the absence of this trend in the rest of the Sanjak of Shkodra indicates that these Slav populations hailed from Slavic-inhabited regions outside of Peja itself. In 1582, Ottoman cadastral records indicated that 23 villages in the Nahiya of Peja were inhabited by an Albanian majority due to the dominance of Albanian anthroponomy amongst its inhabitants; 85 villages had mixed Albanian-Slavic anthroponomy, and the rest contained almost exclusively Slavic anthroponomy. The villages with a certain Albanian majority were Osak (Usak), Kramor, Ljepovaç, Trakagjin, Strelec, Romaniça, Sredna Çirna Goi, Nivokas, Temshenica, Trepova pole, Novasel, Dobri Lipari, Boshanica, Brestovac, Baç (Beç), Tokina pole, Novasel (another Novasel), Dujak, Dobroshi i Madh, Vraniq, Mraç or Çirna Potok, Dolina Çirna Goi and Preloniça. The documentation of Albanians in Peja at the end of the 15th centuries - which coincides with the very beginning of Ottoman rule in Kosovo - presupposes that the Albanians of Peja were early inhabitants of the region. By the 1582 Defter, the city of Peja itself had been significantly Islamised - several cases exist where Muslim inhabitants have a blend of Islamic and Albanian anthroponomy (such as the widespread Deda family - Rizvan Deda, Haxhi Deda, Ali Deda...). The Muslim neighbourhoods include Xhamia Sherif, Sinan Vojvoda, Piri bej, Ahmed Bej, Hysein, Hasan Çelebi, Mustafa bej, Mahmud Kadi, Orman, Kapishniça, Mesxhidi Haxhi Mahmud, Bali bej and Çeribash. The Christian neighbourhoods include Gjura Papuxhi, Nikolla (abandoned), Nikolla Vukman (abandoned), Andrija (abandoned) and Olivir. The inhabitants of the two Christian neighbourhoods - Olivir and Gjura Papuxhi - had a blend of characteristically Albanian and Slavic/Orthodox anthroponomy.

Travelling Kosova in the 1660's, Evliya Celebi wrote that the town lay in 'Albania'. According to a report from 1681, the town had a majority of 1,000 Muslim Albanian households, and 100 Christian Serb households.

In 1835 the Albanian population supported by other Albanian rebels from Shkodra took over the town from the Ottomans.

The Albanian nationalist organization League of Peja established in 1899 was based in the city. The organization, led by Haxhi Zeka, adopted the character of the earlier League of Prizren to defend the rights of Ottoman Albanians and seek autonomous status within the empire. After an armed clash with Ottoman forces in 1900 the organization ended its operations.

Modern period
Ottoman rule came to an end in the First Balkan War of 1912–13, when Montenegro took control of the city on 28 October 1912. On 8 January 1916, during World War I, Austria-Hungary took the city. Peja was taken by Serbian forces under the command of Kosta Pećanac on 13 October 1918, taking approximately 2,000 Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war. After World War I, the city became part of Yugoslavia (at first officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes). Between 1931 and 1941 the city was part of Zeta Banovina. During World War II Peja was occupied by the Italian puppet state of Albania. Following Italy's capitulation in the last months of 1943, several hundred Serbs were massacred by Albanian paramilitaries in Peja and its vicinity. After the war, Peja again became part of Yugoslavia as part of the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija (1945–1963), an autonomous unit within the Socialist Republic of Serbia.

Relations between Serbs and Albanians, who were the majority population, were often tense during the 20th century. They came to a head in the Kosovo War of 1999, during which the city suffered heavy damage and mass killings. The Panda Bar massacre occurred in Peja, and the perpetrators of the massacre remained unknown until the Serbian government admitted that the massacre was a black operation carried out by Serbian intelligence operatives, although news agencies falsely reported that it was done by the KLA. More than 80 percent of the total 5280 houses in the city were heavily damaged (1590) or destroyed (2774). It suffered further damage in violent inter-ethnic unrest in 2004.

Geography
Peja is located in western Kosovo near the Rugova Canyon or Gorge. Rugova is a mountainous region entered through the north-west part of the city of Peja. It is the third region of Accursed Mountains. In 2013 it became a National Park. Rugova is known for its natural environment and access to the mountains. The city is located some 85 km west of Pristina, 250 km north of Tirana, Albania, 150 km north-west of Skopje, North Macedonia, and some 180 km east of Podgorica, Montenegro.

Hydrology
The region of Peja is rich in water resources. The White Drin and Lumbardhi i Pejës rivers pass through the municipality of Peja.

Climate
Peja has an Oceanic climate (Cfb) as of the Köppen climate classification with an average annual temperature of 9.0 C. The warmest month in Peja is August with an average temperature of 19.7 C, while the coldest month is January with an average temperature of -1.9 C.

Politics
The municipality covers an area of 602 km2, including the city of Peja and 95 villages; it is divided into 28 territorial communities. , the whole municipality has a population of approximately 95,723, of which ca. 48,962 live in the city of Peja.

Tourism
Peja is rapidly developing a significant tourist infrastructure. Information for the "Trail of Cultural Monuments" can be found at the Tourist Information Office as well as maps and attractions in the Rugova Canyon and surrounding mountains.

Skiing is available at the ski center in Bogë nearby. One of the most exciting new attractions is the Peak of the Balkans trail. The trail wanders through 3 countries with mountain views and can be supported by local guides and tour companies. Banja of Peja is a township located in the municipality of Istog, Kosovo. To many people it is known with the name Ilixhe. It is a touristic-health center with services in Istog and in the region, highly developed infrastructure and every service needed for healthy living. The cite has seen a bloom of tourism with a new Zip Line, and two Via Ferrata, built between 2013 and 2016. In the city there are a number of tour operators that function, with Balkan Natural Adventure, being the main one with a full palette of services.

In close proximity to the city of Peja lie the White Drin Waterfall and the Bukuroshja e Fjetur Cave. Both are located in the Accursed Mountains and are natural tourist attractions.

Education
Education in Peja is a system with no tuition or fees, mandatory for all children between the ages of 6–18. It consists of a nine-year basic comprehensive school (starting at age six and ending at the age of fifteen) secondary general and professional education commonly known as high school and higher education at Haxhi Zeka University. It also includes non-mandatory daycare programs for babies and toddlers and a one-year "preschool". The school year runs from early September to late June of the following year. Winter break runs from late December to early January, dividing the school year into two semesters. Peja is the only city in Kosovo that offers high school education in arts and there is also a school for the visually impaired.

Demography
The Agjencia e Statistikave të Kosovës (ASK) estimated the population of the municipality of Peja at 96,450 in 2011.

According to the 1981 census, the city urban area had a population of 54,497 inhabitants; according to the 1991 census it had grown to 68,163. According to the 2011 census, around 49,000 people live in the city of Peja.

The population is predominantly Albanian, comprising 91.21% of the residents. The largest minority group consists of Bosniaks, making up 3.9% of the population. Additionally, Egyptians account for 2.7%, Roma for 1%, and the remaining residents are Serbs, Ashkali and Gorani.

The ethnic composition of the municipality:

Architecture
The architecture in Peja show different architectural styles, from the medieval Serbian, Ottoman, Yugoslav, and contemporary architecture. Because of this there are many churches, mosques, buildings which are attraction points in the city and were built by the aforementioned influences.

Notable architectural traits of Peja include:
 * Home of Tahir Beg, dates back to the 18th century and is a monument of cultural heritage in Peja, Kosovo. The Ethnographic Museum of Peja is currently located in Tahir Beg's Mansion.
 * Bajrakli Mosque, Ottoman-built mosque in the Bazaar of Peja. It was destroyed during World War II and then rebuilt.
 * Hamam of Peja, Ottoman-era bath
 * Bazaar of Peja, Ottoman-era market in the center of the city. It was destroyed during World War II and the Kosovo War. It has been fully rebuilt.

Cinema
Peja has one local cinema, Kinema Jusuf Gërvalla, which also functions as a cultural center. It was built in 1955 with money of the Workers’ Union. Back then, the cinema was called 'Kino Rad' ('Workers' Cinema'). Its goals was to provide a cultural space in the city of Peja. During the period 1955-1998 it served as a central point of joint cultural activities for the residents of Peja. Activities included screenings of the latest films, public discussions, music concerts, theatrical performances and children's programs. The cinema was closed down when the war started in 1998 and was heavily damaged in the years after, just like the rest of Peja. In 2000, the building was renovated and partly reconstructed. In 2001, the cinema was reopened, with its name changed to ‘Kinema Jusuf Gërvalla’ in 2002. However, activities became more sporadic, due to technical difficulties and lack of public interest.

In 2016, by a municipal decision, the cinema with all its assets was given to the non-governmental organization Anibar, which since 2010 organized the Anibar International Animation Festival in the cinema. The goal was to revitalize Kinema Jusuf Gërvalla. But later that year the Privatization Agency of Kosovo put the building on the list of buildings for privatization, which meant it would lose its public function. However, backlash emerged against the idea of taking this important historic and cultural site from the local community. The protests secured Kinema Jusuf Gërvalla a spot on the temporary list of protected cultural heritage buildings in Kosovo. Currently, Kinema Jusuf Gërvalla is functioning as a cultural center which hosts movie screenings, musical performances, poetry nights, board game nights, and more. It also offers guided tours, which introduces you to the rich history of the cinema.

Festivals

 * Anibar International Animation Festival

Sport
Peja is one of the more successful cities in Kosovan sport. The city is home to the first Olympic Medal for Kosovo, won by Judoka Majlinda Kelmendi in Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. Her team also has won numerous other medals including gold and bronze in the World and European championships.

The main football team of the city is FC Besa Pejë and its basketball teams is KB Peja. Additionally the city is host to a handball team, KH Besa Famiglia, a volleyball team KV Besa, a judo team Ippon, an athletic team Besa, as well as a women's basketball team KB Penza. Since June 2008 Peja has also a Taekwondo Team: Tae Kwon Do Club Peja (Klubi i Tae Kwon Do-së Peja).

Peja has its aeroclub called "Aeroklub Peja", which was founded in 1948. Last years this club is part of competitions in several countries. In June 2013 it was the organizer of "second Paragliding event" which included paragliders from Kosovo and Albania. In 2014 it was the organizer of an international contest called "Peja open PARAGLIDING CUP 2014".

International relations
Peja is twinned with:

 * 🇹🇷 Afyonkarahisar, Turkey
 * 🇹🇷 Bağcılar, Turkey
 * 🇲🇪 Berane, Montenegro
 * 🇭🇺 Eger, Hungary
 * 🇦🇱 Fier, Albania
 * 🇲🇪 Gusinje, Montenegro
 * 🇸🇪 Hörby, Sweden
 * 🇺🇸 Johnston, United States
 * 🇹🇷 Nilüfer, Turkey
 * 🇧🇦 Stari Grad (Sarajevo), Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * 🇹🇷 Yalova, Turkey

title: Peja


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Pljevlja

Pljevlja is a town and the center of Pljevlja Municipality located in Montenegro in the northern region. The town lies at an altitude of 770 m. In the Middle Ages, Pljevlja had been a crossroad of the important commercial roads and cultural streams, with important roads connecting the littoral with the Balkan interior. In 2023, the municipality of Pljevlja had a population of 24,542, while the city itself had a population of 16,419. The municipality borders those of Žabljak, Bijelo Polje and Mojkovac in Montenegro, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west and Serbia to the northeast. With a total area of 1346 km2, it is the third largest municipality in Montenegro.

Prehistory and antiquity
The first traces of human life in the region date between 50,000 and 40,000 BC, while reliable findings show that the Ćehotina River valley was inhabited no later than 30,000 BC. The oldest traces of human presence in the town area, a flint tool, had been found in the cave under Gospić Peak. The traces of settlements in the later stages of the Stone Age were found in two large archaeological sites called Mališina Stijena and Medena Stijena (around 10,000 stone tools and arms), dating to 12,000–8,000 BC. During the Bronze and Iron Age, since around 2,000 BC up until the Roman conquests, a large number of necropolises with tumuli, as well as fortified settlements rose along the Ćehotina valley, especially around villages of Mataruge, Kakmuža, Hoćevina and Gotovuša. The tumuli found in Ljutići, Gotovuša and Borovica have been archeologically researched.

Roman era
The Romans had a town built on the ruins of their town, and it was called Municipium S ,located in the Komini neighbourhood. Several hundred artifacts from the Komini necropolis including a diatreta or cage cup, a glass vase trimmed with blue glass threads, are kept in the Heritage Museum Pljevlja.

Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, the region of Pljevlja was also a part of nucleus of the Serbsn state under the Nemanjić dynasty, until the end of the rule of the Emperor Stefan Dušan. After his death, Pljevlja was under the rule of Serbian autonomous rulers Vojislav Vojinović and Nikola Altomanović. After the defeat of Altomanović 1373 by the joint forces of Serbian lord Lazar Hrebeljanović and Bosnian Ban Tvrtko I, the region of Pljevlja became part of the eastern section of the Kingdom of Bosnia, subsequently part of Sandalj Hranić's province and later the Duchy of Saint Sava.

Ottoman Empire

In 1465, the Ottoman Empire conquered Pljevlja. During the Ottoman offensive, the fortress of Kukanj, the residence of Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, was destroyed. Fearing an onslaught, many merchants, almost all feudal land owners and wealthier population fled from Pljevlja, seeking refuge in the Republic of Venice, Republic of Ragusa, or further north into the Kingdom of Hungary or Austrian Empire. In Turkish, the town was known as Taslıca ("rocky").

In the Ottoman defter (census book) of 1475/76, the majority of local inhabitants were Eastern Orthodox Christian, numbering some 101 households. The town was expanded into a kasaba, a larger Ottoman city without a fortress. The 15th and 16th centuries were a period of much construction in the city: in 1465 the Holy Trinity Monastery was founded, in 1569 Husein-paša's mosque was built and during the 16th century the city got a sewage system. When the center of Sanjak of Herzegovina was moved to Pljevlja from Foča in 1572, the city started to change rapidly: urban housing increased: 72 houses in 1468, 150 in 1516, 300 in 1570; in the 17th century Pljevlja had around 650 houses in the city center and over 400 in the surrounding area. The first Muslim religious school (madrasa), was built in the 17th century; water-works were constructed in the 18th century. The Russian consul visited Pljevlja in the 19th century and wrote that Pljevlja was a very beautiful oriental city with gardens and fountains, mosques and churches and over 800 houses in the city center (7,000 citizens) which made Pljevlja the second largest city in the Herzegovina Sanjak besides Mostar. After two big fires that burned the city center to the ground, the city's economy was ruined. That was the reason for displacing the center of Herzegovina to Mostar in 1833. After 1833 the city stagnated in both an economic and cultural sense.

In 1875, after a failed uprising, mass emigration took place around Pljevlja in the direction of Užice, Valjevo and the Drina river basin.

Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman control after the Berlin Congress
As a result of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Pljevlja and the rest of the Sandžak region were given to Austria-Hungary, interrupting Ottoman rule in the area for the first time in four centuries. However, by 1879, a special convention between Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire transferred western parts of the Sanjak of Novi Pazar into dual jurisdiction between Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. In 1880, Pljevlja was named the capital of the newly formed Sanjak of Pljevlja (in Turkish: Taşlıca Sancağı). Administration remained in Turkish hands, with Austro-Hungarian military presence in the cities of Pljevlja, Prijepolje and Priboj. Some 5,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers and their families came to Pljevlja. As a result, Austro-Hungarian businesses expanded in Pljevlja; the first modern drug store was opened in 1879, a photo store in 1892, and a hospital in 1880. The Austro-Hungarian Army built the first brewery in Pljevlja in 1889. The Pljevlja brewery's annual production was limited to 2,000 hectoliters, and demand was greater than what the brewery could produce. As a result, the Austro-Hungarian garrison in Pljevlja consumed most of the beer produced there.

In 1901, the Pljevlja Gymnasium was built by the Serbian Orthodox Church, with the approval of the Ottoman administration. As a result of the Bosnian crisis, Austria-Hungary withdrew its forces from Pljevlja in 1908. From 1908 to 1912, Pljevlja remained under the control of Young Turks. In the first days of the First Balkan War Pljevlja was freed on October 26, 1912.

Incorporation into Montenegro and Yugoslavia
On October 8, 1912, Montenegro was the first of the Balkan states to declare war on the Ottoman Empire, starting the First Balkan War. As a result, territories with significant populations of Serbs and Montenegrins were subject to conflict between the Ottoman occupation and incoming armies of Serbia and Montenegro. This was particularly the case with Sandžak, in which Pljevlja had been wedged in an Ottoman Sanjak between Montenegro and Serbia. By October 28, 1912, Ottoman forces had been completely removed from Pljevlja when the Royal Serbian Army's Javorska brigade arrived, which was accompanied by 150 soldiers from Montenegro. With the departure of Ottoman forces, Montenegro and Serbia eliminated the Ottoman "wedge" in the Sandžak and now shared a border. On November 13, 1913, a formal border agreement between Serbia and Montenegro was signed by Serbian general Miloš Božanović and Montenegro's Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Mirko Mijušković. As a result of this agreement, Pljevlja was formally incorporated into the Kingdom of Montenegro.

From 1929 to 1941, Pljevlja was part of the Zeta Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. At the beginning of the Second World War Pljevlja, like the rest of Sandžak, was occupied by NDH Ustaše forces. Notable Muslims from Pljevlja, Bijelo Polje and Prijepolje wrote to Pavelić and expressed their loyalty to the Independent State of Croatia allegedly in the name of all Muslims of Sandjak. By September 1941 Ustaše left Sandžak which was occupied by Italian forces within Italian governorate of Montenegro. The Battle of Pljevlja, fought on 1 December 1941 between attacking Partisans and the Italian Pljevlja garrison, was the biggest battle of the Uprising in Montenegro. In April 1942 Italians established a battalion of Sandžak Muslim militia in Metaljka, near Čajniče, composed of about 500 Muslims from villages around Pljevlja and Čajniče. A little later a command post of Sandžak Muslim militia was established in Bukovica, near Pljevlja. In February 1943, over five hundred civilians were killed during the Bukovica massacre.

Since the end of 1943 Pljevlja belonged to the German occupied territory of Montenegro and after the war to Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Montenegro.

Breakup of Yugoslavia
During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Pljevlja was the site of intense tension, with its Muslim community subject to intimidation and violence. On August 6, 1992, a local warlord named Milika "Čeko" Dačević walked into Pljevlja's police headquarters to ask that a vehicle which was seized be returned to his personal envoy, threatening to "declare war" on Pljevlja. Over half of the police force turned themselves over to Dačević during his custody in what was essentially a coup d'état on a municipal level. In addition to the stand-off with Dačević, his militia included forces of the Kornjača brothers from Čajniče, who helped blocked off the town from a garrison of the Yugoslav People's Army. Duško Kornjača threatened to kill all of the Muslims in Pljevlja unless Dačević was released. The militia's control over Pljevlja was strong enough that the Yugoslav People's Army garrison in Pljevlja, composed of only 73 soldiers, refused to confront them. On August 7, 1992, Momir Bulatović and Yugoslav President Dobrica Ćosić came to Pljevlja to negotiate with all parties involved. As a result, Bulatović along with Ćosić promised the Islamic community in Pljevlja that they would attempt to disarm the paramilitaries and add reinforcements of the Yugoslav People's Army to patrol the town. To satisfy the militia, Bulatović and Ćosić asked the local Muslims not to seek autonomy, although they had not done so over the course of the meeting. In spite of the resolution, Pljevlja's Muslim community suffered various incidents up to 1995, particularly in the village of Bukovica where 6 Muslim inhabitants were killed from 1992 onwards.

Contemporary history
In 2008, some members of the municipal assembly of Pljevlja threatened a secession from Montenegro following the Montenegrin recognition of Kosovo. On 2 September 2020, glass was broken on the door of the Islamic Community of Pljevlja and a message was left saying "The black bird has taken off, Pljevlja will be Srebrenica."

Geography
The city lies at an altitude of 770 m. The municipality borders those of Žabljak, Bijelo Polje and Mojkovac in Montenegro, as well as the republics of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. With a total area of 1346 km2, it is the third largest municipality in Montenegro.

Demographics
Pljevlja is the administrative center of Pljevlja municipality, which has a population of 24,542. As of the last census data in 2023, town of Pljevlja itself has 16,419 citizens, and is the only town in the municipality with a population of over 1,000.

Ethnic groups
The town's population in 2011 census was 49.23% Serbs, 26.54% Montenegrins, 17.58% Bosniaks or ethnic Muslims, and 0.56% are other ethnic minorities. A total of 5.28% of the population have not declared their ethnicity.

Languages
Montenegrin, Serbian, Bosnian, and Croatian are mutually intelligible as standard varieties of the Serbo-Croatian language. Serbian language speaks 65.34% and it‘s the most spoken language in the town. The second most spoken is Montenegrin (28.49%), and Bosnian speaks 4.58% of population. A total of 4.52% of the population have not declared their language.

Religion
In the past, a total of 26 mosques were built in the area of the city and surrounding settlements. There were 9 of them in Pljevlja, and today four of them exist and serve their purpose, while one is being rebuilt.

There are two Orthodox Christian churches and Monastery of the Holy Trinity.

Economy
Pljevlja is also one of the main economic engines of Montenegro. The only thermal power plant in Montenegro, which provides 45% of the electric power supply for Montenegro, is situated outside Pljevlja as well as the biggest coal mine with 100% of the coal production in Montenegro. Zinc and lead can be found in Šuplja stijena mine. The richest municipality with forest in Montenegro is Pljevlja and its lumber industry. Agriculture is widespread in the whole municipality. Pljevaljski sir (Pljevlja's cheese, from Пљеваљски сир) is considered a delicacy.

Transport
The main transit road connections are: across a bridge over Tara
 * to Podgorica and the rest of Montenegro
 * to Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * to Belgrade in Serbia

Education

The first educational life began at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, as well as in Muslim schools madrasas and rushdiyes, and in the mosques themselves. The school in the monastery has been working continuously since the 16th century. Rushdiyes worked from the end of the 16th to the end of the 18th century. The first elementary school in Pljevlja started working in 1823.

A very important date in the history of education in Pljevlja is the opening of Tanasije Pejatović Gymnasium, on September 17, 1901. The first manager was Tanasije Pejatović (until then the substitute of Skopje Gymnasium) and the teacher - Stevan Samardžić (until then a teacher in Nova Varoš). Enrollment lasted until November 5, 1901. 44 male and 16 female students entered the first mixed high school class; within the gymnasium, an all-female Workers' School with 26 girls began its work. From November 22, other teachers also started to work for the department. The gymnasium, however, soon completely burned on the 30th October 1904 and with it all its archives. The gymnasium was rebuilt and is still working today.

There are three elementary and two highschools in Pljevlja.

Culture

Culture and education are all present throughout history of Pljevlja and its region. The first educational life, churches and monasteries, as well as in the mosques some time later. Monastery of the Holy Trinity is the richest treasury of cultural and spiritual life of the Orthodox Christians from the Middle Ages to the present times. The school in the Holy Trinity Monastery has been working continuously since the 16th century. In 1823, a primary school in Pljevlja started working. The school in Dovolja monastery worked since the 18th century. The very important date in the history of education in Pljevlja is the opening of the Pljevaljska Gymnasium in 1901. The Heritage Museum Pljevlja is a treasure trove of rich historical and cultural heritage of the city and region.

Main features of the town include:
 * Heritage museum Pljevlja
 * Husein-paša's Mosque and Sahat–kula
 * Hadži Zekerijah's Mosque
 * Rizvan Čauš Mosque
 * Hadži Alija's Mosque
 * Monastery of the Holy Trinity
 * Church of St. Paraskeva
 * Church of St. Elijah
 * Municipium S, archaeological site
 * Stećci (monoliths)
 * Monument December 1
 * Park Vodice
 * Pljevlja Gymnasium
 * Šećerović's House

Sport
The main football team is FK Rudar Pljevlja, which play in the country's top tier. They share their Gradski stadion with lower league side FK Pljevlja 1997. The town's basketball team is KK Rudar Pljevlja and the handball team is RK Rudar Pljevlja.

Twin towns – sister cities
Pljevlja Municipality is twinned with:

 * 🇷🇸 Babušnica, Serbia
 * 🇧🇦 Gračanica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * 🇺🇦 Marhanets, Ukraine
 * 🇷🇸 Paraćin, Serbia
 * 🇸🇮 Velenje, Slovenia
 * Virovitica, Croatia
 * 🇷🇸 Voždovac, Serbia

Symbols
The coat of arms of Pljevlja has three lines near the bottom that represents the three rivers that run through the cities: Breznica, Ćehotina, and Vezičnica. First layer is clock tower from the center of Pljevlja and in the back are town-hall and the largest arc of bridge over Tara river which connects municipality of Pljevlja with the rest of the Montenegro. Colours are blue, white and red which represent the pan-Slavic tricolour system.

Notable people

 * Sinan Bey Boljanić (died in 1582) was the sanjak-bey of Herzegovina and of Bosnia
 * Hüseyin Pasha Boljanić (died in 1594) was an Ottoman statesman and government official
 * Gavrilo Trojičanin (c.1600-after 1651) is historiographer, a gifted scribe and the monk of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity of Pljevlja.
 * Varnava Rosić (1880–1937), Serbian Patriarch
 * Slobodan Šiljak (1881–1943) was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church
 * Darinka Mirković Borović (18 January 1896 – 8 February 1979) was a Montenegrin nurse during World War I.
 * Bogdan Tanjević (born 13 February 1947) is a Montenegrin professional basketball coach and former player.
 * Derviš Hadžiosmanović (born 9 August 1958) is a Montenegrin football coach and former player.
 * Izudin Bajrović (born 9 February 1963) is a theater, film and television actor.
 * Vojo Ćalov (born 29 July 1963) is a Montenegrin football manager and former player.
 * Žarko Paspalj (born March 27, 1966) is a retired professional basketball player and sports administrator.
 * Nebojša Medojević (Born 13 June 1966) is a Montenegrin politician.
 * Sanja Đorđević (born 1969) is a turbo-folk singer
 * Predrag Bošković (born 12 March 1972) is a Montenegrin politician.
 * Damir Čakar (born 28 June 1973) is a Montenegrin former professional footballer.
 * Radosav Bulić (born 2 January 1977) is a Montenegrin former football midfielder.
 * Goga Sekulić (born 27 February 1977) is a turbo-folk singer.
 * Slavko Vraneš (born 30 January 1983) is a Montenegrin former professional basketball player.
 * Danijel Živković (born 15 August 1987) is a Montenegrin politician.
 * Milojko Spajić (born 24 September 1987) is a Montenegrin politician.
 * Mijuško Bojović (born 9 August 1988) is a Montenegrin footballer.
 * Žarko Tomašević (born 22 February 1990) is a Montenegrin footballer.
 * Nemanja Grbović (born 26 April 1990) is a Montenegrin handball player.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Pljevlja


text:
Variety store

A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, auto parts, dry goods, toys, hardware, furniture, and a selection of groceries. It usually sells them at discounted prices, sometimes at one or several fixed price points, such as one dollar, or historically, five and ten cents. Variety stores, as a category, are different from general merchandise superstores, hypermarkets (such as those operated by Target and Walmart), warehouse clubs (such as Costco), grocery stores, or department stores.

Pricing and margins
Some items are offered at a considerable discount over other retailers, whereas others are at the same price point. There are two ways variety stores make a profit:
 * Buying and selling vast amounts of goods at heavily discounted prices provides a small profit margin multiplied by the sales volume.
 * Pricing many items at prices that are higher than regular retailers. These goods are commonly bought by consumers who perceive them to be bargains based on the heavy discounts on other items in the store. In the case of fixed price-point retailers, this can be achieved by reducing the package size.

Variety stores with single price points buy products to fit those price points (while making a profit) that are:
 * generic brands or private labels, often specially manufactured using cheaper materials and processes than usual.
 * available through the grey market.
 * bought at a closeout sale, such as seasonal or promotional goods or bankruptcy stock.
 * sold in smaller unit sizes than elsewhere.

Not all variety stores are "single price-point" stores, even if their names imply it. For example, in the United States, Dollar General and Family Dollar sell items at more or less than a dollar. Some stores also sell goods priced at multiples of the named price and, conversely, multiple items for the price. The discrepancy with the nominal price is also compounded if sales tax is added at the point of sale.

Supply
In many countries, stock can be imported from others with lower variable costs, because of differences in wages, resource costs or taxation. Usually, goods are imported by a general importer and then sold to the stores wholesale.

Another source of stock is overruns, surplus items and out-of-date food products. Real Deals, a regional dollar store in the Syracuse, New York area, is stocked almost entirely with surplus goods such as these. The legality of selling out-of-date goods varies between jurisdictions: in general, most items (with a few exceptions, particularly certain perishable food items depending on the state) can be sold in the United States regardless of their sell-by date, but in the United Kingdom it is illegal to sell goods after their "Use By" date.

Demography
Although some people may link variety stores with low-income areas, this is not always true. For example, Atherton, California has a variety store within its city limits, even though it has a median household income of nearly $185,000 a year. Studies of food discounters in Great Britain show quite a varied demographic, and 99p Stores reported an increase in higher-income customers after the financial crisis of 2007–2008.

North America
According to IBISWorld, dollar stores have grown 43 percent since 1998 and have become a $56 billion industry. Colliers International claims there are more dollar stores than drug stores. With stores of other types closing in large numbers, dollar stores often replace other types of stores in shopping centers. They succeed partly because of impulse purchases. The common term in North America for a small general merchandise store is general store.

Five and dime stores
Frank Winfield Woolworth had seen the success in Michigan and western New York of so-called nickel stores, where everything cost five cents (the U.S. five cent coin is called a "nickel"). On February 22, 1879, Woolworth opened his Great Five Cent Store in Utica, New York, and it was his later success and expansion of that format as the F. W. Woolworth Company that would create the American institution of the "five and dime".

There were many names for this type of store:
 * five and ten cent store, five and ten, five and dime (a dime is the name of a US ten-cent coin).
 * dime store
 * 5, 10 & 25c stores
 * five cent to one dollar stores

Before Woolworth, the prevailing thought was an entire store could not maintain itself with all low-priced goods, but with Woolworth's success, many others followed their lead.

Well-known dime store companies included:

 * Ben Franklin Stores
 * Butler Brothers
 * Duckwall-ALCO
 * G. C. Murphy
 * H. L. Green
 * J. G. McCrory's
 * J. J. Newberry's
 * John's Bargain Store
 * McLellan Stores
 * Morgan and Lindsey
 * Neisner's
 * S. H. Kress & Co.
 * S. S. Kresge Co.
 * Sprouse-Reitz
 * TG&Y
 * Walton's Five and Dime
 * W. T. Grant
 * Woolworth's

Of these, only Ben Franklin continues to exist in this form, while Kresge and Walton's became mega-retailers Kmart and Walmart, respectively.

Beginning around the 1960s, others tried the larger "discount store" format, such as TG&Y Family Centers, W. T. Grant, and Woolworth's Woolco stores.

With suburbanization in the 1950s and 1960s, Americans shopped more and more in malls rather than downtown shopping districts and although Newberry's and Woolworth's stores did open in the malls, starting around the 1970s, variety stores lost business to other retail formats such as office stores, low-price shoe chains, fabric stores, toy stores and discount drug stores like Thrifty Drug Stores. Grocery stores and drug stores sold more and more candy. The last US Woolworth's closed in 1997. Newberry's was sold to McCrory (who maintained the brand) in 1972, McCrory itself went bankrupt in 1992 and all their brands disappeared in 2002.

Dollar stores
Starting in the late 1990s, dollar stores expanded enough to gain the attention of the national press. They were popular not only their value but because freestanding smaller stores were located in small towns, downtowns, and across the cities and suburbs, they were often more convenient than mall stores. They continued to grow and by 2019, for example, Dollar Tree had higher annual sales than Macy's. Dollar and variety store revenue reached $77 billion in 2018.

As of 2018, main dollar store chains in the U.S. were Dollar General, Dollar Tree (which owns Family Dollar), the 99 Cents Only Stores, and Five Below. Increasing revenue has led to growth for dollar store chains: by 2018, Dollar Tree had 14,000 locations in the U.S., and its expansion continued; in 2019, Dollar General had 15,000 locations in the US, and its expansion continued; and Five Below had 745 stores.

Variety store chains in North America

 * In Canada: A Buck or Two (163+), Dollarama (1,095), Dollar Tree Canada (226), Everything For a Dollar Store, Great Canadian Dollar Store (100+), Your Dollar Store With More (180+)
 * In Mexico: Prichos, Waldo's Dollar Mart, Miniso
 * In the United States: 99 Cents Only Stores (386), Daiso (68), Dollar Tree (6,134), Family Dollar (7,974), Five Below (522)

Names for variety stores in North America

 * Dollar store, $1.25 store, 99-cent store, etc. in the United States and Canada plus other names. Dollar store is used predominantly, even when the maximum price is higher than one dollar. Some chains emphasize that the price is an even amount: $2, $5, etc., instead of having odd, "uneven" prices.
 * Dólar y Algo Extra, La Reina, Almacenes Caravana in Puerto Rico
 * dime store
 * Five and Dime
 * Five and Ten
 * Nickel and Dime
 * Nickel and Ten
 * 5 y 10 in Puerto Rico, and in Mexico (5 and 10 pesos, or 5 and ten U.S. cents in border cities) - incidentally, Cinco y Diez, meaning "Five and Ten" in Spanish, became an inner-suburban shopping district in Tijuana

Oceania / Australia

 * In Australia the main variety stores now consist of The Reject Shop, Daiso, Shiploads (in Tasmania), and a variety of smaller chains and independent shops. Former chains include Crazy Clark's, Homeart, Sam's Warehouse, Clint's Crazy Bargains, Go-Lo and Chickenfeed.
 * In New Zealand: The $2 Shop, 1 2 3 Dollar Shop, and Coin Save

Names for variety stores in Oceania

 * The $2 shop in Australia and New Zealand
 * Cheap Shop in Australia only

Asia

In Japan, 100-yen shops (百円ショップ hyaku-en shoppu or 百均 hyakkin) have proliferated since around 2001. This is considered an after-effect of a decade-long recession of the Japanese economy. Despite the emphasis on value, however, some items, such as chocolate bars, may be priced higher than they are at other stores.

For a few years, 100-yen shops existed not as permanent stores, but as vendors under temporary, foldable tents. They were (and still are) typically found near the entrance areas of supermarkets.

A major player in 100-yen shops is the Daiso chain. The first store opened in 1991, and there are now around 2,400 stores in Japan. This number is increasing by around 40 stores per month. Daiso has also expanded into North America, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East.

In China, ¥2 (or ¥3, depending on the area's economic prosperity) shops have become a common sight in most cities. In Hong Kong, major department stores have opened their own $10 shops (US$1.28) to compete in the market, and there are now "$8 shops" (US$1.02) and even "$2 shops" (US$0.26) competing at lower prices, especially in poorer communities. Low prices are helped by Hong Kong's lack of a sales tax and its access to the mainland.

In Taiwan, fixed price stores can be found in many locations, including night markets, regular shopping streets, regular market stalls, and department stores. Two typical price points are NT$39 and NT$49. Given that the retail environment in Taiwan is already highly competitive, it is not unusual to see such stores fail.

In India, US Dollar Store, founded in 2003, is a pioneer of single price stores. The merchandise for pilot stores was sent from America. As sales grew over the years with more than 200 operational stores in India, the merchandise is now imported from China, Indonesia, Thailand, Spain, Portugal, UK and various other countries as well as the US. US Dollar stores were founded by entrepreneur Gaurav Sahni, owner of Nanson Overseas Private Limited. Nanson, operated by Gaurav Sahni and his brother Gautam Sahni, has had an established sourcing and consolidation network for over two decades, with supply bases worldwide. Direct sourcing without intermediaries and stocking a large variety of merchandise as and when needed has given the company an advantage.

Variety store chains in Asia

 * In China: Miniso
 * In India: US Dollar Store
 * In Japan: Daiso, Seria, Can Do
 * In Pakistan: Ghazali's HomeStore

Names for variety stores in Asia

 * 100 fils Shop in Kuwait
 * 2 riyal Shop in Saudi Arabia and other Arabian Gulf countries
 * 20 Qirsh (Piastres) Kuruş/ 50 Qirsh and 1 Dinar (US$ 1.4) shop in Jordan.
 * 25 Liras (Pounds)/ 50 Liras (US $ 0.5 - 1) in Syria - before 2011
 * 100-yen shop or one coin shop in Japan
 * 10-dollar shop (US$1.28), 8-dollar shop, etc. in Hong Kong
 * 1000 Won shop in South Korea
 * 88 or 99 Peso store in Philippines
 * 49 & 99 shop in India
 * Hakol Bedollar (everything for a Dollar) in Israel
 * Ghazali's HomeStore in Pakistan
 * Всё по 100 рублей (English: Everything at 100 rubles) in Russia
 * 10 or 20 Baht shop in Thailand
 * 2-ringgit stores in Malaysia

European Union

 * In Belgium, chains include Action, HEMA, and Zeeman.
 * In Denmark: Tiger, a pun on the word for the Danish ten-krone coin, opened in the mid-nineties in Copenhagen and has since spread to other countries
 * In France: Action, HEMA, Uniprix, M. 1-2-3. Zeeman
 * In Germany, there are ToBi (Total Billig, "Totally Inexpensive") stores where most items cost one or two Euro or less. Other chains include Action, EuroShop, HEMA, Mäc-Geiz (240 stores), Pfennigland, Pfennigpfeiffer (110 stores), TEDi (1400 stores across Europe), Thomas Philipps (200 stores), and Zeeman
 * In Greece: 300 (300 drachmas, €0.90)
 * In Hungary there are 100 forintos bolt ("100 forints store") stores, but they do not form a single chain, instead of being operated by small, independent companies.
 * In Ireland: EuroGiant, Dealz
 * In Italy: UPIM
 * In Luxembourg: HEMA, Zeeman
 * In Malta: Tal-Lira
 * In the Netherlands: HEMA chain started in the Netherlands, sold goods using standard prices of 10, 25 or 50 cents, and later also 75 and 100 cents. After World War II, this model could not be sustained and the standard pricing system was abandoned. HEMA is the abbreviation of Hollandish standardized prices company (Hollandse Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij). The HEMA had some 500 Dutch stores in 2011 and also operates in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and France. Since 2016 the chain is expanding in to other European countries such as Spain and the United Kingdom. Other chains include Action, Big Bazar, Euroland, and Zeeman.
 * In Portugal there were Trezentos shops (300 escudos, €1.50), but with the introduction of the Euro currency, this designation is not used nowadays and the terms 'bazar' or 'euro store' are preferred. Chains include Eupoupo - Tudo a €0,99 ou €1,49
 * In Spain there are Todo a 100 shops ("everything for 100 pesetas" (€0.60)), although due to the introduction of the euro and inflation, most products cost a multiple of €0.60 or €1. Most of these shops maintain their name in pesetas, and most of them have been renamed as Casi todo a 100 ("almost everything for 100 [pesetas]"), Todo a 100, 300, 500 y más ("everything for 100, 300, 500 or more") or Todo a un euro. Colloquially, the expression todo a 100 implies that something is either cheap, kitsch or low quality.
 * In Sweden: Bubbeltian, called by some Tian, a colloquialism for ten kronor, US$1.20. Another chain that has been spreading in Sweden during the last seven years is Dollarstore, a chain where everything costs either 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and steps of 50 up to 500 kr.

Russia
In Russia, Fix Price started selling all its items at 30 roubles and as the business grew, up to 55 roubles. It has now cancelled this practice and has become a typical discount store).

United Kingdom
Marks & Spencer opened a stall in Kirkgate Market Leeds in 1884, proclaiming “Don’t ask the price, it’s a ’Penny”. Woolworth's opened its first store in the United Kingdom in 1909, when they were also colloquially known as "threepenny and sixpenny" stores, "3d and 6d" being displayed on the shops' frontages. More modern counterparts include B&M, Boyes, Home Bargains, OneBeyond, Poundland and Poundstretcher.

Names for variety stores in Europe

 * 100 forintos bolt in Hungary
 * 3,8 RON shop in Romania
 * Всичко по 1 лев in Bulgaria
 * Euro store, €2 store, etc. in the Eurozone
 * Euroland (formerly known as knaakland) in the Netherlands
 * Euroshop or 1-Euro-Shop in Germany
 * Loja dos 300 in Portugal 300 escudos = 1.5 Eur
 * Magasin à prix unique (English: one price store) in France
 * Max20 (kroner) in Norway
 * Pound shop, 99p shop, etc. in the United Kingdom
 * Sve po 8/10/12 kuna in Croatia
 * Sve za 79/99/100 dinara (Everything for 79/99/100 dinars) in Serbia
 * Tal-Lira in Malta (Lira was Malta's old currency before transitioning to Euro)
 * Todo a 100, 20 duros and SuperCien in Spain (former cien = 100 pesetas = €0.60)
 * Wszystko za 5 złotych in Poland

South America
In Argentina, variety stores are called todo por dos pesos (everything for 2 pesos).

Brazilians sometimes use the expression um e noventa e nove (R$ 1,99) to refer to cheap, low quality things or even people.

In Chile, they are called todo a mil (referring to the one thousand Chilean pesos banknote). They are commonly located in middle-class neighbourhoods where big retail stores don't usually venture and in small commercial districts like the ones in Santiago.

Variety stores in Colombia include Dollar City (Colombia version of Dollarama), D1, Ara, Miniso

In South America, variety stores may be known as:
 * Dolarazo (US$1.00) and Cincuentazo (US$0.50) in Ecuador
 * Loja de 1,99 (R$ 1,99 = US$1.07) in Brazil
 * Todo por 23 pesos in Uruguay (23 pesos = US$1)
 * Todo por dos Pesos in Argentina (1 peso = US$0.32)

Africa
In Egypt, a variety store may be called a £E2.5 shop.

Global chains
Miniso is a Chinese variety store chain that specializes in household and consumer goods including cosmetics, stationery, toys, and kitchenware. In 2016, the company's sales revenue reached $1.5 billion. Miniso has expanded outside of the Chinese market and operates 1,800 stores in Asia, Europe, Oceania, Africa, North America, and South America.

title: Variety store


text:
Požarevac

Požarevac (Пожаревац, ) is a city and the administrative centre of the Braničevo District in eastern Serbia. It is located between three rivers: Danube, Great Morava and Mlava and below the hill Čačalica (208m). As of 2022, the city has a population of 51,271 while the city administrative area has 68,648 inhabitants.

Name
In Serbian, the city is known as Požarevac (Пожаревац), in Romanian as Pojarevăț or Podu Lung, in Turkish as Pasarofça, in German as Passarowitz, and in Hungarian as Pozsarevác.

The name means "fire-town" in Serbian (In this case, the word "fire" is used in the sense of a disaster).

Ancient times
In ancient times, the area was inhabited by Thracians, Dacians, and Celts. There was a city at this locality known as Margus in Latin after the Roman conquest in the first century BC.

In 435, the city of Margus, under the Eastern Roman Empire, was the site of a treaty between the Byzantine Empire and the Hun leaders Attila and Bleda.

One pretext for the Hun invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire in 442 was that the Bishop of Margus had crossed the Danube to ransack and desecrate the royal Hun graves on the north bank of the Danube. When the Romans discussed handing over the Bishop, he slipped away and betrayed the city to the Huns, who then sacked the city and went on to invade as far as the gates of Constantinople itself.

After the fall of the Hunnic Empire, the area was again controlled by the Eastern Roman Empire. In the 6th century, it was briefly controlled by the Kingdom of the Gepids. Since the 6th century, the area was populated by Slavs, but the Eastern Roman Empire held a nominal control over the region until the 8th century when Balkan Slavs achieved de facto independence from the Eastern Empire. It was also ruled by Avar Khaganate before their demolition by Charlemagne. The area was subsequently included into the Bulgarian Empire and was alternately ruled by the Bulgarian Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary until the 13th century.

In the 13th century, the area was ruled by independent local Slavic-Bulgarian rulers, Drman and Kudelin. It was subsequently included into the Kingdom of Syrmia, ruled by Serbian king Stefan Dragutin and into the Kingdom of Serbia and Serbian Empire ruled by Stefan Dušan.

Archaeology
A Bronze Age figurine "The Idol of Kličevac" was found in a grave in the village of Kličevac. It was destroyed during World War I.

The National Museum in Belgrade and Požarevac has some 40,000 items found in Viminacium, of which over 700 are of gold and silver. Among them are many invaluable rarities.

In June 2008, a Triballian (Thracian) grave was found with ceramics (urns). These date from the first millennium BC.

Modern city
The modern town of Požarevac was first mentioned in the 14th century under the name Puporače ; it first being mentioned under its present-day name in 1476. The town became part of Moravian Serbia and Serbian Despotate, until the Ottoman conquest in 1459. During Ottoman administration, it was part of the Sanjak of Smederevo. It was occupied by Austrian Empire between 1688 and 1690.

In 1718, Požarevac was the site of the signing of the Treaty of Požarevac, with the town then falling under Habsburg control and becoming part of the Habsburg Kingdom of Serbia (from 1718 to 1739). After 1739, the town reverted to Ottoman control except final Austrian occupation between 1789 and 1791. During the First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813), the town was part of the Karađorđe's Serbia. At the end of the uprising in 1813, the town came briefly once more under direct Ottoman control. However, following the Second Serbian Uprising from 1815, the town then became part of the autonomous Ottoman Principality of Serbia. Požarevac was the second capital of the Serbian prince, Miloš Obrenović with the first regular state court in Serbia being established here in 1821. Since 1878, Požarevac became part of the independent Principality of Serbia and since 1882 as part of the Kingdom of Serbia.

Following the end of the First World War in 1918, the town was part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929). From 1929 to 1941, Požarevac was part of the Danube Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, from 1941 to 1944, it was part of the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia. From 1944, Požarevac became part of the new socialist Serbia within socialist Yugoslavia. And from 1992, the town became part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (renamed as Serbia and Montenegro in 2003). Since 2006 it has been part of the Republic of Serbia.

Municipalities and settlements
The City of Požarevac includes two city municipalities:
 * Požarevac
 * Kostolac

These include the following settlements:

In the 2008 reform of Serbian local government, Požarevac received the status of a city and the town of Kostolac became the seat of the second city municipality. Požarevac is the smallest Serbian city consisting of two municipalities.

Demographics
As of 2011, the city of Požarevac has a total population of 75,334 inhabitants.

Ethnic groups
The ethnic composition of the municipal area of the city of Požarevac:

Economy
The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018):

Politics
Seats in the municipality parliament won in the 2020 local elections:
 * Serbian Progressive Party (49)
 * Socialist Party of Serbia (13)
 * The Souverainists (4)
 * Vlach Party Bridge (2)

Education

 * Požarevac Gymnasium (Požarevačka gimnazija), a college-preparatory high school
 * Technical College (Visoka tehnička škola strukovnih studija u Požarevcu)
 * Polytechnic school (Politehnička Škola Požarevac), a collage-preparatory high school

People associated with Požarevac

 * Filip Soskić, railroad expert and a candidate for president of geographers
 * Milena Pavlović-Barili, painter and poet
 * Dimitrije, Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church
 * Dragana Mirković, singer
 * Novica Urošević, singer and composer
 * Saša Ilić, footballer
 * Velibor Vasović, footballer and manager
 * Milivoje Živanović, film and stage actor
 * Bata Paskaljević, stage, film and television actor
 * Slaviša Žungul, footballer
 * Prvoslav Vujčić, writer
 * Đorđe Jovanović, sculptor
 * Petar Dobrnjac, army commander
 * Milenko Stojković, army commander
 * Radmila Manojlović, singer
 * Slobodan Milošević, politician and war criminal
 * Milivoje Stojanović, army commander
 * Svetozar Andrejević, merchant and philanthropist

Twin towns – sister cities
Požarevac is twinned with:

title: Požarevac


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Priboj

Priboj (Прибој, ) is a town and municipality located in the Zlatibor District of southwestern Serbia. The population of the town is 13,172, while the population of the municipality is 23,514.

Geography
The municipality of Priboj is located between municipality of Čajetina in the north, municipality of Nova Varoš in the east, municipality of Prijepolje in the south-east, border with Montenegro in the south-west, and border with Bosnia and Herzegovina in the north-west. A Bosnian-Herzegovinian exclave (Međurječje village) is surrounded by the Priboj municipality.

The town of Priboj lies on the river Lim. It is 5 km away from Uvac, a smaller river that is the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

Climate
Priboj has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfb).

History
The hamlet of Jarmovac south of Priboj is the site of a prehistoric copper mine shaft which is one of the first evidences of human metallurgy, first identified in 1937, now dated to the 4th millennium BCE in the late Vinča culture.

During the medieval times, the region around modern city of Priboj in the lower valley of the Lim river was called "Dabar" and it belonged to the medieval Serbia until the Turkish invasion in the middle of 15th century. Between 1459 and 1463, the town of Priboj was first mentioned in written documents of the Ottoman Empire.

Settlements
Aside from the town of Priboj, the municipality includes the following settlements:

 * Banja
 * Batkovići
 * Brezna
 * Bučje
 * Dobrilovići
 * Živinice
 * Zabrđe
 * Zabrnjica
 * Zagradina
 * Zaostro
 * Jelača
 * Kalafati
 * Kaluđerovići
 * Kasidoli
 * Kratovo
 * Krnjača
 * Kukurovići
 * Mažići
 * Miliješ
 * Plašće
 * Požegrmac
 * Pribojska Goleša
 * Pribojske Čelice
 * Rača
 * Ritošići
 * Sjeverin
 * Sočice
 * Strmac
 * Hercegovačka Goleša
 * Crnugovići
 * Crnuzi
 * Čitluk
 * Akmačići

Demographics
According to 2022 census, the municipality of Priboj has 23,514 inhabitants.

Ethnic groups
In 1991, the population of the Priboj municipality numbered 35,951 people, and was composed of Serbs (67.26%), Muslims (30.39%) and others. Most of those who in 1991 census declared themselves as ethnic Muslims, in the next census in 2002 declared themselves as Bosniaks, while the smaller number of them still declare themselves as Muslims by ethnicity.

In 2022, the population of the town was 13,172, and was composed of Serbs (9,155), Bosniaks (2,153), ethnic Muslims (687) and others. As of 2022, most of Priboj's population is of Serbian ethnicity (71.9%), with nearly 21.5% being Bosniaks and Muslims.

The ethnic composition of the municipality:

Economy
Today, most of Priboj's economy is based on agriculture, services and partly industry. Priboj is home to the FAP Corporation, which pushed Priboj's development during the 1970s and 1980s, when it was one of the biggest producers of trucks and buses in the former Yugoslavia. Since the 1990s, FAP has been working in limited capacity and since the 2010s its only remaining production is military-oriented.

As of September 2017, Priboj has one of 14 free economic zones established in Serbia.

The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018):

Notable people

 * Mustafa Hasanagić (b. 1941), footballer
 * Slavenko Kuzeljević (b. 1958), football manager and former player
 * Ana Bekuta (b. 1959), folk singer
 * Alem Toskić (b. 1982), handball player
 * Mirsad Terzić (b. 1983), handball player
 * Ahmet Delić (b. 1986), footballer
 * Aleksandar Prijović (b. 1990), footballer
 * Željka Nikolić (b. 1991), handball player
 * Amela Terzić (b. 1993), middle-distance runner
 * Marko Gudurić (b. 1995), Professional basketball player, playing for Fenerbahçe S.K. (basketball) in the Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi

title: Priboj


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Prizren

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 took control of the fort and the town. Prizren served as the capital of the Serbian Empire under the reign of Stefan Dušan, as it bloomed to become an important center of trade and commerce during Dušan's reign. From 1371, a series of regional feudal rulers came to control Prizren, that includes Mrnjavčević, Balšić and the Branković dynasty. Ottomans captured Prizren from Serbian Despotate in 1455 and would almost immediately serve as the capital of Sanjak of Prizren in the Ottoman Empire. While standing as an important administrative city for the Ottomans, Prizren would also become an important political center for Albanians during the late 19th century.

Prizren is often recognized for its predominantly Islamic influence, with approximately 96% of the population identifying as Muslim (2011 census). Mosques, such as the Sinan Pasha Mosque, are a dominant feature in the town.

Name
The name of the city has been linked with that of Petrizen, a fort in Dardania mentioned by Procopius in the 6th century.

Hamp has suggested that the name of the city roughly meant "ford-horned animal" with the IE root *ḱrn "horn, horned-thing" (cf. Oxford). According to Curtis, Prizren follows Albanian phonetic sound rules.

Early period

Prizren has been traditionally identified with Theranda, a town of the Roman era. However, recent research suggests that Therand may have been located at present-day Suva Reka. 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.

Konstantin Jireček concluded, from the correspondence of archbishop Demetrios of Ohrid (1216–36), that Prizren was the northeasternmost area of Albanian settlement prior to the Slavic expansion that began in the 6th century. Other historians and linguists have concluded that the northernmost and easternmost expansion of the predecessors of the Albanians prior to Slavic expansion was rather Lipjan, Vushtrri, Shkup, Nish, Shtip in Dardania and Macedonia and included the area of Montenegro and the town of Ulqin.

Middle Ages
Present-day Prizren is first mentioned in 1019 at the time of Basil II (r. 976–1025) in the form of Prisdriana. In 1072, the leaders of the Bulgarian Uprising of Georgi Voiteh traveled from their center in Skopje to the area of Prizren and held a meeting in which they invited Mihailo Vojislavljević of Duklja to send them assistance. Mihailo sent his son, Constantine Bodin, and 300 of his soldiers. Dalassenos Doukas, dux of Bulgaria was sent against the combined forces, but was defeated near Prizren, which was then extensively plundered by the Serbian army. The Bulgarian magnates proclaimed Bodin "Emperor of the Bulgarians" after this initial victory. They were defeated by Nikephoros Bryennios in the area of northern Macedonia by the end of 1072. The area was raided by Serbian ruler Vukan in the 1090s. Demetrios Chomatenos is the last Byzantine archbishop of Ohrid to include Prizren in his jurisdiction until 1219. Stefan Nemanja had seized the surrounding area along the White Drin between the 1180s and 1190s, but this may refer to the areas Prizren diocese rather than the fort and the settlement itself and he may have lost control of them later. The ecclesiastical split of Prizren from the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1219 was the final act of establishing Serbian 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). The old town of Prizren developed below the fortress along the left bank of the Bistrica/Lumbardhi. 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. In this period, Stefan Dušan founded and was buried in the Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Prizren. Prizen briefly served as the capital of the Serbian Empire and was a crossroad of important trade goods between Dubrovnik and Constantinople. Under Dušan's reign, a 25km long wine pipe was built between his vineyard and Prizren to transport wine to the capital.

In 1330, Serbian king Stefan Dečanski explicitly mentioned the presence of Albanians and the Albanian names of villages in Kosovo, in particular in the districts of Prizren and that of Skopje. A chrisobull of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan that was given to the Monastery of Saint Mihail and Gavril in Prizren between the years of 1348-1353 states the presence of Albanians in the vicinity of Prizren, the Dukagjin Plain and in the villages of Drenica. Within this chrisobull, nine Albanian stock-breeding villages within the vicinity of Prizren are mentioned explicitly - these villages are known with the names Gjinovci (Gjinajt), Magjerci, Bjellogllavci (Kryebardhët), Flokovci (Flokajt), Crnça, Caparci (Çaparajt), Gjonovci (Gjonajt), Shpinadinci (Shpinajt) and Novaci. Entire Albanian villages were gifted by Serbian kings, particularly Stefan Dušan, as presents to Serb monasteries within Prizren, Deçan and Tetova. Additionally, people with Albanian anthroponomy are repeatedly mentioned in a 1348 chrysobull of Stefan Dušan that lists those who pray at the monastery of St. Michael and Gabriel in Prizren as well as some of the inhabitants of the city itself and the surrounding villages. In one of Stefan Dušan's documents in 1355, a soldier with Albanian anthroponomy is exclusively mentioned as one of the people who must continuously pay the Monastery of St. Nicholas in the village of Billushë near Prizren. In the area of Prizren, Albanian toponyms are further recorded in the 14th and 15th century such as Rudina e Leshit, Truallishta e Gjon Bardhit, Llazi i Tanushit, Truallishta e Komanit, Shpija e Bushatit, Zhur, and Mazrek.

With the death of Stefan Uroš V in 1371, a series of competing regional nobles sieged, counter-sieged and held control of Prizren – increasingly with Ottoman support and intervention. The first who tried to gain control of Prizren and the trade that passed through the town was Prince Marko, but after his defeat in the Battle of Maritsa, the Balšići of Zeta quickly moved to take Prizren soon after the battle in the fall and winter of 1371. In the spring of 1372, Nikola Altomanović besieged Prizren and tried to expand his rule, but was defeated. The death of George Balšić in 1377 created another power vacuum – Đurađ Branković took over Prizren for the first time at that time.

The Catholic church retained some influence in the area; 14th-century documents refer to a catholic church in Prizren, which was the seat of a bishopric between the 1330s and 1380s. Catholic parishes served Ragusan merchants and Saxon miners.

Ottoman Period

After several years of attack and counterattack, the Ottomans made a major invasion of Kosovo in 1454; Attempts of liberating the Prizren area earlier by Skanderbeg and thereafter by John Hunyadi failed, as Đurađ Branković was an Ottoman vassal at this time and did not grant passage into Kosovo for the Crusaders to fight the Ottomans. On 21 June 1455, Prizren surrendered to the Ottoman army. Prizren was the capital of the Sanjak of Prizren, and under new administrative organization of Ottoman Empire it became capital of the Vilayet. Later it became part of the larger Rumelia Eyalet. It was a prosperous trade city, benefiting from its position on the north-south and east-west trade routes across the Empire. Prizren became one of the larger cities of the Ottomans' Kosovo Province (vilayet).

The Ottoman registers from the 15th-16th century indicate that the villages in the Prizren-Has region in Kosovo had a significant Albanian population. In the Ottoman Defter of 1591, the city of Prizren itself was recorded under the Sanjak of Prizren - this includes the household heads of the city. By this time, Prizren had been significantly Islamised, as reflected by the anthroponomy of the inhabitants; several cases of Muslim inhabitants with mixtures of Muslim and Albanian anthroponomy exist (i.e. Ali Gjoci, Hasan Gjinaj, Ferhad Reçi, Hasan Bardi...). The Muslim neighbourhoods (Mahalla/Mëhalla) consisted of Xhamia e Vjetër (Old Mosque, 53 homes), Levisha (50 homes), Ajas beu (15 homes), Haxhi Kasem (48 homes), Jazixhi Sinani (71 homes), Çarshia (also called Jakub beu, 18 homes), Kurila (31 homes) and Mëhalla e lëkurëpunuesve (neighbourhood of the leatherworkers, 34 homes). The Christian neighbourhoods (Mahalla/Mëhalla) consisted of Pazari i Vjetër (Old Market, 8 homes), Madhiq (37 homes), Vasil (27 homes), Kodha (13 homes), Çarshia/Pjetri Nikolla (14 homes), Bogoi Riber (11 homes), Radmir (51 homes), Jazixhi Sinani (mentioned beforehand, 24 homes), Pandelja (29 homes), Prend Vriça (9 homes) and Ajas (13 homes). The neighbourhoods of Pandelja, Jazixhi Sinani and Kodha were dominated by inhabitants with characteristically Albanian anthroponomy; the other neighbourhoods saw a blend between predominantly Slavic/Slavic-Albanian (or rather, Orthodox) anthroponomy.

Lazaro Soranzo, writing in the 16th century, noted the town was inhabited "more by Albanians then by Serbs". In 1624 Pjeter Mazrreku reported the town was inhabited by 12,000 Muslims, almost all of them Albanians (‘Turchi, quasi tutti Albanesi’), 200 Catholics and 600 'Serviani'. Gjergj Bardhi, during his visit in Prizren, wrote in 1638 that the area was inhabited by Albanians and that the Albanian language was spoken there. In the 1630's, the Ottoman Turkish traveller Hajji Khalifa wrote that the town of Prizren was inhabited by Albanians. In 1651, the Albanian Catholic priest of Prizren Gregor Mazrreku reported that many men within Prizen converted to Islam to avoid the Jizya tax, and that they would ask Gregor to give them confession and Holy Communion in secrecy, which he had refused to do.

During the Austrian-Ottoman wars, the local Albanian population in the Prizren region rallied to support the Austrians against the Ottomans under the leadership of the Albanian priest Pjeter Bogdani. Documents and dispatches refer to the Austrians marching to "Prizren, the capital of Albania" where they were welcomed by Bogdani and 5,000-6,000 Albanian soldiers. The Albanian Catholic priest Toma Raspasani wrote that, once the Austrians had been expelled and Prizren was firmly in the hands of the Ottomans yet again, nobody was able to leave Prizren. In 1693, Toma also wrote that many of the Catholics in Kosovo had gone to Hungary where most of them died of hunger or disease.

Albanian Renaissance
Prizren was the cultural and intellectual centre of Ottoman Kosovo. It was dominated by its Muslim population, who composed over 70% of its population in 1857. The city became a major Albanian cultural centre and the coordination political and cultural capital of the Kosovar Albanians. In 1871, a long Serbian seminary was opened in Prizren, discussing the possible joining of the old Serbia's territories with the Principality of Serbia. It was an important part of Kosovo Vilayet between 1877 and 1912.

During the late 19th century, the city became a focal point for Albanian nationalism and saw the creation in 1878 of the League of Prizren, a movement formed to seek the national unification and autonomy of Albanians within the Ottoman Empire. The Young Turk Revolution was a step in the dissolving of the Ottoman empire that led to the Balkan Wars. The Third Army (Ottoman Empire) had a division in Prizren, the 30th Reserve Infantry Division (Otuzuncu Pirzerin Redif Fırkası).

Modern
The Prizren attachment was part of the İpek Detachment in the First Balkan War. During the First Balkan War, the city was invaded by the Serbian army and incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbia. Although the troops met little resistance, the takeover was bloody, with 400 people dead in the first few days; the local population would call the city "The Kingdom of Death." The Daily Chronicle reported on 12 November 1912 that 5,000 Albanians had been slaughtered in Prizren. Serbian general Božidar Janković forced the local Albanian leaders to sign a declaration of gratitude to King Peter of Serbia for their "liberation by the Serbian army". Following the capture of Prizren, most foreigners were barred from entering the city as the Montenegrin forces temporarily closed the city before full control was restored. A few visitors did make it through, including Leon Trotsky, then working as a journalist for a Ukrainian newspaper, and reports eventually emerged of widespread killings of Albanians. In a 1912 news report on the Serbian Army and the Paramilitary Chetniks in Prizren, Trotsky stated "Among them were intellectuals, men of ideas, nationalist zealots, but these were isolated individuals. The rest were just thugs, robbers who had joined the army for the sake of loot... The Serbs in Old Serbia, in their national endeavour to correct data in the ethnographical statistics that are not quite favourable to them, are engaged quite simply in systematic extermination of the Muslim population". British traveller Edith Durham and a British military attaché were supposed to visit Prizren in October 1912, however the trip was prevented by the authorities. Durham stated: "I asked wounded Montengrins [Soldiers] why I was not allowed to go and they laughed and said 'We have not left a nose on an Albanian up there!' Not a pretty sight for a British officer." Eventually Durham visited a northern Albanian outpost in Kosovo where she met captured Ottoman soldiers whose upper lips and noses had been cut off.

After the First Balkan War of 1912, the Conference of Ambassadors in London allowed the creation of the state of Albania and handed Kosovo to the Kingdom of Serbia, even though the population of Kosovo remained mostly Albanian.

In 1913, an official Austro-Hungarian report recorded that 30,000 people had fled to Prizren from Bosnia. In January 1914 the Austro-Hungarian consul based in Prizren conducted a detailed report on living conditions in the city. The report stated that Kingdom of Serbia didn't keep its promise for equal treatment of Albanians and Muslims. Thirty of the thirty-two mosques in Prizren had been turned into hay barns, ammunition stores and military barracks. The people of the city were heavily taxed, with Muslims and Catholic Christians having to pay more tax than Orthodox Christians. The local government was predominately made up of former Serb Chetniks. The report also noted that the Serbs were also dissatisfied with the living conditions in Prizren.

World War I and World War II

With the outbreak of the First World War, the Kingdom of Serbia was invaded by Austro-Hungarian forces and later by Bulgarian forces. By 29 November 1915, Prizren fell to Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian forces. In April 1916, Austria-Hungary allowed the Kingdom of Bulgaria to occupy the city with the understanding that a significant amount of the city's population were ethnic Bulgarians. During this period, there was a process of forced Bulgarisation with many Serbs being interned; Serbs suffered worse in Bulgarian occupied regions of Kosovo compared to Austrian occupied regions due to the Bulgarian defeat in the Second Balkan War and due to the long-standing rivalry between the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church. According to Catholic Archbishop of Skopje, Lazër Mjeda who was taking refuge in Prizren at the time, roughly 1,000 people had died of hunger in 1917. In October 1918 following the fall of Macedonia to Allied Forces, the Serbian Army along with the French 11th colonial division and the Italian 35th Division pushed the Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces out of the city. By the end of 1918, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed. The Kingdom was renamed in 1929 to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Prizren became a part of its Vardar Banovina.

In World War II Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941 and by 9 April the Germans who had invaded Yugoslavia from the East with neighbouring Bulgaria as base were on the outskirts of Prizren and by 14 April Prizren had fallen to the Italians who had invaded Yugoslavia from the West in neighbouring Albania; there was however notable resistance in Prizren before Yugoslavia unconditionally surrendered on 19 April 1941. Prizren along with most of Kosovo was annexed to the Italian puppet state of Albania. Soon after the Italian occupation, the Albanian Fascist Party established a blackshirt battalion in Prizren, but plans to establish two more battalions were dropped due to the lack of public support.

In 1943 Bedri Pejani of the German Wehrmacht helped create the Second League of Prizren.

Federal Yugoslavia
In 1944, German forces were driven out of Kosovo by a combined Russian-Bulgarian force, and then the Communist government of Yugoslavia took control. In 1946, the town was formulated as a part of Kosovo and Metohija which the Constitution defined the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija within the People's Republic of Serbia, a constituent state of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia.

The Province was renamed to Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo in 1974, remaining part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, but having attributions similar to a Socialist Republic within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The former status was restored in 1989, and officially in 1990.

For many years after the restoration of Serbian rule, Prizren and the region of Dečani to the west remained centres of Albanian nationalism. In 1956 the Yugoslav secret police put on trial in Prizren nine Kosovo Albanians accused of having been infiltrated into the country by the (hostile) Communist Albanian regime of Enver Hoxha. The "Prizren trial" became something of a cause célèbre after it emerged that a number of leading Yugoslav Communists had allegedly had contacts with the accused. The nine accused were all convicted and sentenced to long prison sentences, but were released and declared innocent in 1968 with Kosovo's assembly declaring that the trial had been "staged and mendacious."

Kosovo War

The town of Prizren did not suffer much during the Kosovo War but its surrounding municipality was badly affected during 1998–1999. Before the war, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe estimated that the municipality's population was about 78% Kosovo Albanian, 5% Serb and 17% from other national communities. During the war most of the Albanian population were either forced or intimidated into leaving the town. Tusus Neighborhood suffered the most. Some twenty-seven to thirty-four people were killed and over one hundred houses were burned.

At the end of the war in June 1999, most of the Albanian population returned to Prizren. Serbian and Roma minorities fled, with the OSCE estimating that 97% of Serbs and 60% of Romani had left Prizren by October. The community is now predominantly ethnically Albanian, but other minorities such as Turkish, Ashkali (a minority declaring itself as Albanian Roma) and Bosniak (including Torbesh community) live there as well, be that in the city itself, or in villages around. Such locations include Sredska, Mamushë, the region of Gora, etc.

Much of Potkaljaja, the old Serb neighbourhood along the hillside in the centre of town, was looted and burned to the ground following the Yugoslav Army withdrawal. Since 2010 most of the neighbourhood has been rebuilt.

The war and its aftermath caused only a moderate amount of damage to the city compared to other cities in Kosovo. Serbian forces destroyed an important Albanian cultural monument in Prizren, the League of Prizren building, but the complex was rebuilt later on and now constitutes the Albanian League of Prizren Museum.

On 17 March 2004, during the Unrest in Kosovo some Serb cultural monuments in Prizren were damaged, burned or destroyed, including Orthodox Serb churches, such as Our Lady of Ljeviš from 1307 (UNESCO World Heritage Site), the Church of Holy Salvation, Church of St. George (the city's largest church), Church of St. George (Runjevac), Church of St. Kyriaki, Church of St. Nicolas (Tutić Church), the Monastery of The Holy Archangels, as well as Prizren's Orthodox seminary of Saint Cyrillus and Methodius.

Also, during that riot, the entire Serb quarter of Prizren, near the Prizren Fortress, was completely destroyed, as a revenge for the crimes committed during the war from the serbian army and all remaining Serb population was evicted from Prizren. Simultaneously Islamic cultural heritage and mosques were destroyed and damaged.

21st century
The municipality of Prizren is still the most culturally and ethnically heterogeneous city of Kosovo, retaining communities of Bosniaks, Turks, and Romani in addition to the majority Kosovo Albanian population. Only a small number of Kosovo Serbs remain in Prizren and its surrounds; residing mainly in small villages. 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 (Malet e Sharrit) in southern Kosovo on the banks of Prizren River. Prizren Municipality borders Albania to the southwest and North Macedonia to the southeast.

Climate
Prizren has a subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa) bordering a continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfa) in the 0°c isotherm and an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) in the -3°c isotherm. with an average annual temperature of 11.8 C. The warmest month in Prizren is August with an average temperature of 22.2 C, while the coldest month is January with an average temperature of 0.0 C.

Governance
Prizren is a municipality governed by a mayor–council system. The mayor of Prizren with the members of the Prizren Municipal Council are responsible for the administration of Prizren Municipality. The municipality is encompassed in Prizren District and consists of 76 adjacent settlements with Prizren as its seat.

International relations
Prizren is twinned with:

 * 🇹🇷 Amasya, Turkey
 * 🇹🇷 Balıkesir, Turkey
 * 🇦🇱 Berat, Albania
 * 🇹🇷 Beykoz, Turkey
 * 🇩🇪 Bingen am Rhein, Germany
 * 🇺🇸 Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA
 * 🇲🇪 Herceg Novi, Montenegro
 * 🇹🇷 Karşıyaka, Turkey
 * 🇧🇬 Kavarna, Bulgaria
 * 🇨🇿 Kyjov, Czech Republic
 * 🇭🇷 Osijek, Croatia

Turkey and Hungary have also a general consulate in Prizren.

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 female and 211 male. 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.

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.

Sports
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.

title: Prizren