City of Prizren

Dear passenger,
You set foot on the threshold of the eternal city of Prizren, opened the gates of the museum. In it, every stone has its own history, each sacred has its past and the murmur of the river Bistrica and shardivan sing the most beautiful song of bygone times. Prizren is located in southern Metohija in the Prizren basin. Te city is situated at an altitude of 412–500
m, and the area between the hill Cvilen (1381m), mountain Osljak (2212m), Pastrik (1978m) and Koritnik (2395m) and the mountain range of the Shar-mountain. At the time of the Roman Empire, in the wider area of Prizren was the Roman Teranda. For the frst time in written sources, Prizren is mentioned in 1019, in the charter od Byzantine emperor Basil II as Prizdrijana (Призрѣнь). In the Middle Ages, during the reign of Emperor Dusan, Prizren was the most powerful commercial city. During the Ottoman rule it was mentioned as one of the most beautiful and richest town in European Turkey, and from the nineteenth century grew into a cultural and commercial center of this part of the Balkan Peninsula.
As a rich trade center Prizren has always been attractive to invaders, travelers, masons, merchants and creators, rulers. In this region, the rulers of Serbian dynasty Nemanjic, tirelessly built their endowments.At the time of Serbian Emperor Dusan the Mighty, in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija were about 1,300 monasteries and churches of which over 100 in Prizren. Church architecture has suffered the greatest damage during the reign of the Ottoman Empire during the World Wars, but also at the beginning of this century… In the area of Prizren and the surrounding area,in whole or in part,a number of Orthodox shrines have been preserved over the centuries. Some of them were turned into mosques during the Turkish rule (church of St. Nicholas – Korac from the XIV. Terza-quarter, St. Athanasius in Kaljaja, St. Epiphany at Maras, St. Jelena on the right bank of the Bistrica), or overbuilt and plastered to mosques (Church of the Transfguration with the court of Emperor Dusan under Mehmed-pasha mosque, St. Anne in Pantelija below Mustafa Pasha mosque, while the deserted church of St. Demetrius, founded by King Dragutin from the XIII century, after the Crimean War, through France, was assigned and overbuilt and plastered to catholic Church St. Virgin Mary). Te remains of some churches are still visible (the church of St. Peter on the lef bank of the Bistrica near the Bogoslovija, Church of St. Tomas below Kaljaja, the church of St. Procopius in Pantelija) while many other churches remained somewhere underground (the church of St. Vlasi, St. Elias monastery St. Barbara), or in the foundations of other buildings (under the foundations of the hotel Teranda – church of St. Stefan, endowment of Serbian king Milutin) and knowing of their existence is preserved in historical documents. In the Prizren are preserved about 10 churches. All have perished during the attacks by Albanian extremists on the Serb population and the Serbian Orthodox Churches during the March 2004 pogrom. Their restoration is in progress.

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How to get here

Prizren is situated 75 km southwest from Pristina. The best way to get to Prizren from Belgrade is by driving down the Ibar Highway (State Road 22): Belgrade- Cacak- Kraljevo- Raška-Kosovska Mitrovica- Pristina- Prizren, crossing a total of 400 km . If you are coming from Niš, you can drive the road Niš- Prokuplje- Kuršumlija- Podujevo- Pristina- Prizren, which is almost 170 km long. Prizren can be reached from Montenegro via Rožaj, Peć and Orahovac. From the Belgrade bus station you can take four buses which travel to Prizren every day.

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