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Pristina or Prishtina ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and district.
In antiquity, the area of Pristina was part of the Dardanian Kingdom. The heritage of the classical era is represented by the settlement of Ulpiana. After the Roman Empire was divided into a western and an eastern half, the area remained within the Byzantine Empire between the 5th and 9th centuries. In the middle of the 9th century, it was ceded to the First Bulgarian Empire, before falling again under Byzantine occupation in the early 11th century and then in the late 11th century to the Second Bulgarian Empire. The growing Kingdom of Serbia annexed the area in the 13th century and it remained under the Serbian Empire in the 14th century up to the start of the Ottoman era (1389–1455). The next centuries would be characterized by Ottoman Empire rule. During this period, Pristina developed from a village to a major urban center of the region. Following the end of the First Balkan War in 1914, it became a part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbia. In 1948, it was chosen as the capital of the province SAP Kosovo under the statehood of Yugoslavia. Furthermore, Pristina would continue to serve as the capital of Kosovo after its 2008 independence from Serbia.
Pristina seems to have been a small village before the late 15th century. It is first recorded in 1342 as a village during the reign of Stefan Dušan, and about a century later in 1455 at the beginning of the Ottoman Empire it had a small population of 300 households. In the following century, Pristina became an important mining and trading center due to its strategic position near the rich mining town of Novo Brdo. The city was known for its trade fairs and items, such as goatskin and goat hair as well as gunpowder.
Pristina is the capital and the economic, financial, political and trade center of Kosovo, due to its location in the center of the country. It is the seat of power of the Government of Kosovo, the residences for work of the President and Prime Minister of Kosovo, and the Parliament of Kosovo. Pristina is also the most important transportation junction of Kosovo for Air transport, Rail transport, and Road transport. Pristina International Airport is the largest airport of the country and among the largest in the region. A range of expressways and motorways, such as the R 6 and R 7, radiate out the city and connect it to Albania and North Macedonia. Pristina will host the 2030 Mediterranean Games.
Prišt in Serbian language means "boil" and this may be a reference to the seething waters of the nearby river Gračanka. Marko Snoj proposes the derivation from a Slavic languages form * Prišьčь, a possessive adjective from the personal name * Prišьkъ, and the derivational suffix -ina 'belonging to X and his kin'. The name is most likely a patronymic of the personal name * Prišь.SNOJ, Marko. 2007. Origjina e emrit të vendit Prishtinë. In: BOKSHI, Besim (ed.). Studime filologjike shqiptare: konferencë shkencore, 21–22 nëntor 2007. Prishtinë: Akademia e Shkencave dhe e Arteve e Kosovës, 2008, pp. 277–281. According to Aleksandar Loma, Snoj's etymology would presuppose a rare and relatively late word formation process. According to Loma, the name of the city could be derived from the Proto-Slavic dialectal word * pryščina, meaning "spring (of water)".
The inhabitants of this city, which most of them are Albanians, call themselves Prishtinali in the local Gheg Albanian.
By the early Iron Age, the distinctly local variant of the Illyrians Glasinac-Mati culture appears in Kosovo with a particular spread in hilltop settlements. In the area of Pristina, a hilltop settlement appears since the 8th century BCE at an elevation of 685 metres near the village Teneshdoll, around 16 kilometres north of the Pristina city center. Pottery finds suggests that the area may have been in use since the Bronze Age. The settlement seems to have maintained long-distance trade contacts as the finding of a skyphos vessel from Aegean Greece suggests. During the 4th century BC, the Kingdom of Dardania was established in the region. The Cambridge Ancient History: The fourth century B.C. Volume 6 of The Cambridge Ancient History, Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, , , Authors: D. M. Lewis, John Boardman, Editors: D. M. Lewis, John Boardman, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, 1994 , .
Ulpiana was an important Roman city on the Balkan Peninsula and in the 2nd century BC it was declared a municipium. In the middle of the 9th century, it was ceded to the First Bulgarian Empire.
In 1315, the nearby Gračanica monastery was founded by King Stefan Milutin. Stefan Dušan used a location in the area of Pristina as his court before moving eventually to the vicinity of Skopje as he moved his rule southwards. The first historical record mentioning Pristina by its name dates back to 1315–1318, in a chrysobull of Banjska near Mitrovica.Prishtina në Histori (2024), 1315–1318, Anonymous of Banjska, in Y. Rugova (red.) Prishtina në Histori (I) A first brief description of it as a town was given a few years later by the Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, on his visit to Stefan Dušan at his royal court, describing Pristina as a 'unfortified village'. During the time of the Kingdom of Serbia in the early 14th century, the main route between the Western Balkans and Constantinople ran through Pristina. Following the Battle of Kosovo, Pristina fell within the realms of the Serbian Despotate under Prince Stefan Lazarević. A bitter feud between Lazarević and Đurađ Branković developed and led to open conflict, with Pristina being the scene of heavy fighting in 1409 and 1410. At the turn of the 15th century during the time of the Serbian Despotate, Pristina was a major trading post for silver, with many traders hailing from the Republic of Ragusa.
Between the end of the 14th and the middle of the 15th century, Ottoman rule was gradually imposed in the town. In 1477 Pristina had a small Muslim population.Agron Islami (2024), Prishtina during the Ottoman period (1455-1912), in Y. Rugova (red.) Prishtina in History (I). The settlement at the time had about 300 households. About 3/4 were Christian and 1/4 Muslim. In the 15th century the toponym Arnaut was recorded in the town, which indicates an Albanian presence. The 1487 defter recorded 412 Christian and 94 Muslim households in Pristina, which at the time was administratively part of the Sanjak of Viçitrina. According to Ottoman defters from the 16th century, Prishtina had been significantly Islamised, with more than half of the population having Muslim names. Islamised Albanian names appear among the inhabitants while the Christian neighborhoods had Orthodox Slavic, Christian and Albanian names.
During the 18th century, the history of the city is less documented, though recent data show a regular life unfolding in the city after the Great Turkish War.Agron Islami (2024), Prishtina during the Ottoman period (1455-1912), in Y. Rugova (red.) Prishtina in History (I). While in the first few decades the city was rebuilding its infrastructure, in the second part of the century it is better known for the governing of the local feudal family, the Gjinollis.Yll Rugova (2024), Gjinolli family and the Pashallek of Prishtina, in Y. Rugova (red.) Prishtina in History (I).
In May 1901, Albanians pillaged and partially burned Pristina.
However, The Kingdom of Serbia opposed the plan for a Greater Albania, preferring a partition of the European territory of the Ottoman Empire among the four Balkan League. On 22 October 1912, Serb forces took Pristina. However, Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the first Balkan War, occupied Kosovo in 1915 and took Pristina under Bulgarian occupation.
During the Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars, Pristina suffered many atrocities; the Serbian army entered Pristina on 22 October. Albanian and Turkish households were looted and destroyed, and women and children were killed. A Danish journalist based in Skopje reported that the Serbian campaign in Pristina "had taken on the character of a horrific massacring of the Albanian population". An estimated 5,000 people in Pristina were murdered in the early days of the Serbian occupation. The events have been interpreted as an early Ethnic cleansing. Serbian settlers were brought into the city, and Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić bought of land. Pristinans who wore a Qeleshe were targeted by the Serbian army; those who wore the Turkish fez were safe, and the price of a fez rose steeply. In late October 1918, the 11th French colonial division took over Pristina and returned Pristina back to what then became the 'First Yugoslavia' on 1 December 1918. In September 1920, the decree of the colonization of the new southern lands' facilitated the takeover by Serb colonists of large Ottoman estates in Pristina and land seized from Albanians. From 1929 to 1941, Pristina was part of the Vardar Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
On 17 April 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered unconditionally to axis forces. On 29 June, Benito Mussolini proclaimed a greater Albania, with most of Kosovo under Italian occupation united with Albania. There ensued mass killings of Serbs, in particular colonists, and an exodus of tens of thousands of Serbs.Sabrina P. Ramet The three Yugoslavias: state-building and legitimation, 1918–2005 After the capitulation of Italy, Nazi Germany took control of the city. In May 1944, 281 local Jews were arrested by units of the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian), which was made up mostly of Muslim Albanians. The Jews were later deported to Germany, where many were killed.
after World War II ]]This ended a long period when the institution had been run as an outpost of Belgrade University and gave a major boost to Albanian-language education and culture in Kosovo. The Albanians were also allowed to use the Albanian flag.
Widespread violence broke out in Pristina. Serbian and Yugoslav forces shelled several districts and, in conjunction with paramilitaries, conducted large-scale expulsions of ethnic Albanians accompanied by widespread looting and destruction of Albanian properties. Many of those expelled were directed onto trains apparently brought to Pristina's main station for the express purpose of deporting them to the border of the North Macedonia, where they were forced into exile.
The majority Albanian population fled Pristina in large numbers to escape Serb policy and paramilitary units. The first NATO troops to enter the city in early June 1999 were Norwegian special forces from FSK Forsvarets Spesialkommando and soldiers from the British Special Air Service 22 S.A.S, although to NATO's diplomatic embarrassment Russian troops arrived first at the airport. Apartments were occupied illegally and the Roma quarters behind the city park was torched. Several strategic targets in Pristina were attacked by NATO during the war, but serious physical damage appears to have largely been restricted to a few specific neighborhoods shelled by Yugoslav security forces. At the end of the war the Serbs became victims of violence committed by Kosovo Albanian extremists. On numerous occasions Serbs were killed by mobs of Kosovo Albanian extremists for merely speaking Serbian in public or being identified as a Serb. Violence reached its pinnacle in 2004 when Kosovo Albanian extremists were moving from apartment block to apartment block attacking and looting the residences of remaining Serbs. A majority of the city's 45,000 Serb inhabitants fled from Kosovo and today only several dozen remain in the city.
Pristina is one of the urban areas with the most severe water shortages in Kosovo. Its population have to cope with daily water curbs due to the lack of rain and snowfall, which has left Pristina's water supplies in a dreadful condition. The water supply comes from the two main reservoirs of Batllava Lake and Badovc Lake. However, there are many problems with the water supply that comes from these two reservoirs which supply 92% of Pristina's population. As such, the authorities have increased their efforts to remedy the situation and to make sure that such crises do not hit the city again.
The Albanians of Prishtina are Ghegs, an ethnic subgroup of Albanians, and they speak Gheg Albanian, a distinct dialect of the Albanian language.
Pristina is a municipality governed by a mayor–council system with the mayor of Pristina and the members of the Pristina municipal council responsible for the administration of Pristina municipality. The municipality is encompassed in Pristina district and consists of 43 adjacent settlements with Pristina as its seat. The mayor of Pristina is elected by the people to act as the chief executive officer of Pristina municipality. The Pristina municipal council is the legislative arm of the municipality and is also a democratically elected institution, comprising 51 councilors since the latest municipal election.
Pristina is the primary tourist destination in Kosovo as well as the main air gateway to the country. It is known as a university center of students from neighboring countries as Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. In 2012, tourism in Pristina attracted around 100,000 foreign visitors. which represents 74.2%. Most foreign tourists come from Albania, Turkey, Germany, United States, Slovenia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, with the number of visitors from elsewhere growing every year.
The city has a large number of luxury hotels, modern restaurants, bars, pubs and very large nightclubs. Coffee bars are a representative icon of Pristina and they can be found almost everywhere. The largest hotels of the city are the Swiss Diamond and the Grand Hotel Prishtina situated in the heart of the city. Other major hotels present in Pristina include the Emerald Hotel, Sirius Hotel and Hotel Garden. Some of the most visited sights near the city include Batllava Lake and Marble Cave, which are also among the most visited places in country. Pristina has played a very important role during the World War II, being a shelter for Jews, whose cemeteries now can be visited.Material Culture and the history of the city of Prishtina (Alb. Kultura materiale dhe historia e qytetit të Prishtinës), [9] There is also a bear sanctuary located around away from Pristina in the direction of Gjilan that is a tourist destination for local and foreign tourists.
Finance, arts, journalism, medicine, dentistry, pharmaceuticals, veterinary programs, and engineering are among the most popular fields for foreigners to undertake in the city. This brings a many of young students from other cities and countries to Pristina. It is known for its many educational institutions such as University of Pristina, University of Pristina Faculty of Arts and the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo.
Among the first schools known in the city were those opened during the Ottoman period. "The History, Culture and Identity of Albanians in Kosovo", Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, The History, Culture and Identity of Albanians in Kosovo, 1 May 1997, accessed 23 February 2014. Albanians were allowed to attend these schools, most of which were religious, with only few of them being secular.
The city has numerous libraries, many of which contain vast collections of historic and cultural documents. The most important library in terms of historic document collections is the National Library of Kosovo.
There are many foreign cultural institutions in Pristina, including the Albanian Albanological Institute, the French Alliance Française, the British Council, and the German Goethe-Institut and Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The Information Office of the Council of Europe was also established in Pristina.
Of 426 protected historical monuments in Kosovo, 21 are in Pristina. A large number of these monuments date back to the Byzantine and Ottoman Empire periods.
Starting in 1945, the Yugoslavia authorities began constructing a modern Pristina with the idea of "destroy the old, build the new". This modernization led to major changes in the structure of the buildings, their function and their surrounding environment.
However, numerous types of monuments have been preserved, including four mosques, a restored orthodox church, an Turkish bath, a public fountain, a clock tower, several traditional houses as well as European-influenced architecture buildings such as the Kosovo Museum. These symbolize the historical and cultural character of Pristina as it was developed throughout centuries in the spirit of conquering empires (Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire and Austro-Hungarian).
The Hivzi Sylejmani Library was founded in 1945 and it is one of the largest libraries regarding the number of books in its inventory which is nearly 100.000. All of those books are in service for the library's registered readers. Letërnjoftim i shkurtër për kulturën e kryeqytetit Short notice of capital culture. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
The Mbretëresha e Dardanisë (Queen of Dardania) or Hyjnesha ne Fron (The Goddess on the Throne) is an artifact that was found during some excavations in 1955 'Tjerrtorja' Archaeological Site (listed since 1955). Retrieved 1 March 2014 in the area of Ulpiana, (1997). 9781887829342, Journal of Roman Archaeology. ISBN 9781887829342 Retrieved 2 March 2014. a suburb of Pristina. It dates back to 3500 BC in the Neolithic and it is made of clay. Idhulli i Dardanisë apo Hyjnesha në fron Dardanian idol or Goddess on the Throne. Retrieved 22 February 2014. In Pristina there is also "Hamami i Qytetit" (The City Bath) and the house of Emin Gjika which has been transformed to the Ethnographic Museum. Pristina also has its municipal archive which was established in the 1950s and holds all the records of the city, municipality and the region.
When highlighting the music creativity and its starts in Kosovo and the relation between it and the music creativity in Albania even though they have had their development in different circumstances, it is proved that they share some characteristics in a very natural way. This fact shows that they belong to one "Cultural Tree".
Some of few international music artists of Albanian heritage that were born or their families were from Pristina are Rita Ora, Dua Lipa and Era Istrefi.
The Prishtina International Film Festival screens prominent international cinema productions in the Balkans and beyond, and draws attention to the Kosovar film industry. It was created after the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence. After its independence in 2008, Kosovo looked for ways to promote its cultural and artistic image.
One of major festivals include the Chopin Piano Fest Pristina that was established for the first time on the occasion of the 200th birth anniversary of Frédéric Chopin in 2010 by the Kosovo Chopin Association. The festival is becoming a traditional piano festival held in spring every year. It is considered to be a national treasure. In its 5 years of formation it has offered interpretations by both world-famous pianists such as Peter Donohoe, Janina Fialkowska, Kosovo-Albanian musicians of international renown like Ardita Statovci, Alberta Troni and local talents. The Festival strives to promote the art of interpretation, the proper value of music and the technicalities that accompany it. The Festival has served as inspiration for the formation of other music festivals like Remusica and Kamerfest.
The DAM Festival Pristina is one of the most prominent cultural events taking place in the capital. It is an annual music festival which gathers young and talented national and international musicians from all over the world. This festival works on enriching the Kosovar cultural scene with the collision of the traditional and the contemporary. The festival was founded by musician Dardan Selimaj.
Streetball is a traditionally organized sport and cultural event at the Germia Park since 2000. Apart from indoor basketball success, Che Bar team has been crowned the champion of the national championship in 2013. This victory coincided with Streetball Kosovo's acceptance in FIBA. Team handball is also very popular. Pristina's representatives are recognized internationally and play international matches.
In September 2023, Pristina was named host city for the 2030 Mediterranean Games.
Analysis from the Traffic Police have shown that, of 240,000 cars registered in Kosovo, around 100,000 (41%) are from the region of Pristina. The Pristina railway station is located near the city center.
Pristina is twinned with:
Pristina also has a partnership agreement with Zagreb.
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