Kosovo – Pristina

Where does Pristina get its name from?

Two theories exist as to where the city’s name derives from, so take your pick.

Most allude to one that says it is from an old Slavic language from 2000 BC, and means a spring of water. Where this spring is today is uncertain as Pristina city currently has no river or springs. It did have two small rivers in the past but these were filled in and the nearest spring as such is in parkland area well outside the city.

Funnily enough, the city is supplied by two big reservoirs but both are proving to be insufficient for current needs.

The other theory is that it was named after land owned by a person called Prisek and thus means Prisek’s land. This name dates from the Middle Ages.

A little history on Pristina

If you want to be precise, then there is evidence of human habitation around Pristina since the Stone Age but let’s start with a date with more evidence.

King Bardylliis in the 4th Century BC brought tribes together and the area became his Dardanian Kingdom. It encompassed Kosovo and the small bordering areas of present-day Northern Macedonia and Serbia.

Along came the Romans in 168 BC and, you guessed it, they conquered the area but kept the name for it as Dardania. About 5 km to the south of Pristina lies Ulpiana, one of the most important Roman cities in the Balkans. It sat here from then until the 6th Century AD (despite being almost flattened by an earthquake in 518AD) until the conquering Slavs took it over in the 6th Century.

The area was fought over and taken by Byzantines in the 6th Century, then Bulgarians and Byzantines retook it at various times in constant struggles till the 11th Century,

Serbs came onto the scene in 1245 and established a capital 3 km east of the city and built the now famous monastery at nearby Gracanica.

Still no mention of Pristina itself though!. Well, that all changed in 1348 when its first reference comes to light when the Byzantine Emperor John VI refers to it as “a village”.

Let’s jump to the 14th Century when Ottomans took over as Pristina itself prospered – it was actually famous for goats hides and goats’ products such as belts and dying processes. Damn, I forgot to buy myself a new belt while I was here!

By 1485, gunpowder, armouries, saddle-making etc (i.e. military influences), made the town even more famous. They were actually exported using mainly Dubrovnik as its maritime exporting base. The first mosque was built here at this period in 1461, even though the city was majorly Christian. It’s still here today and known as Fatih, Sultan Mehmet, Grand or Imperial Mosque.

Ok, I need to explain this Mosque and associations quickly a bit more here. There is a section on it when I visit but Pjeter Bogdani and the Mosque link is an interesting one historically.

Pjeter Bogdani, 1630-1689, is revered in Kosovo and neighbouring Albania highly. He was born in Kosovo and educated in the Catholic tradition. He travelled and studied widely in Bulgaria, Italy, N. Macedonia  and Albania, often in religious appointments. He became a Professor of Theology and Philosophy, Priest, Bishop, Archbishop, writer and Poet (not necessarily in that order!). He is even printed on a note of the Albanian currency, such is his fame.

He rebelled against Ottoman rule of Pristina during the 1600’s and joined/lead an army with the Austrians to retake the city and Prizren in 1688. He died a year later in 1689 in Pristina. That year the Grand Mosque had been converted to a Christian church and he was buried here. Check out the picture above

The Turks regained the city in 1690 however and removed his remains from the church, emptied his grave, threw his bones out in the street, and reconverted the church back to a Mosque. Quite an end to such an important figure of the time.

1874 saw Pristina flourish as an Ottoman regional capital and the railways even reached it, aiding its expansion further.

1912 saw the end of Ottoman rule in the city and an ensuing power struggle between Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria and lastly Yugoslavia took place. It was retaken, lost, etc etc until the invasion in 1941 of the Axis forces. First Italy then Germany savagely controlled the area and ordered mass murders of Patriots and Jews. The population shrunk and never recovered till 1947 under Tito when it was proclaimed the capital of the republic of Kosovo within  Federal Yugoslavia.

The city now lost a lot of its ancient buildings. Mosques, churches, the Bazaar, much of the old town and beautiful old wooden Ottoman houses were demolished. Tito’s programme of “destroy the old, build the new” turned the city into a concrete jungle of a mish-mash of blocks and avenues. Their unkept and monotonous designs still plague the city today and is one of the reasons the the city did not overly impress me.

However the city rose out of the unpaved streets, and cholera stricken areas in the 1960’s to become a mass of housing tower blocks, new paved avenues and institutional buildings right into the 1970’s. Like it or not most are still here. Education, culture, population and its own language grew hugely.

From the 1980’s and into the 90’s however huge social, political and economic unrest made worse by the Serbian cancelling of autonomy and rise of Serbian nationalism hit the city and country hard.

I think most of us now know the rest – the civil war in 1999. Ethnic Albanians were expelled, marginalised and the city was looted, shelled and Serbs ran amok. NATO intervened eventually in 1999 but the tables were viciously turned when Ethnic Albanians turned on the Serbs in 2004 and performed similar attacks and atrocities that had been performed on them previously.

Since Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008,  98 of the 193 states in the UN have recognised its nationhood.  Serbia, however, still does not recognise that independence.

Today peace has been restored, cafe society grows, and a young population seeks opportunities. There is still much to do – I saw the dilapidated houses, blocks and unkept civic areas. People were reserved and the city needs a lot of infrastructure replaced and maintenance adopted.

I feel this is why I felt Pristina to be a place I was in no rush to return as it seemed too depressed and glum for me. It had clearly seen better days and a refocus on the civic was needed. Perhaps I need to come back as time had passed and I have heard bright new stories about the city and a growing sense of opportunity.

Where to stay in Pristina

This question is probably quite easy to answer.

Being such a small capital city, most of the hotels are all in the central area or within a 20 mins max walk of it. Yes there are a couple of 5 and 4 star hotels way out but they are more spa and pool based. If you really want to use these then a taxi will be needed. Whilst the hotel can arrange a taxi, they are less easy to spot and use once on the street. You may want to come to some arrangement for an advance pick up back to the hotel.

The well-known hotels – Sirius, Swiss Diamond and City Inn are almost slap-bang in the middle of the city. There will be plenty of choice for centralish hotels and even hostels. As a extra benefit you may well find that Pristina hotels are much less expensive then you may have expected for the grade of hotel. That 5 star hotel may have 4 or even 3 star prices that you are more used to paying!

Where I stayed in Pristina

As usual I did plenty of research for my stay. I looked at many hotels, noticing that those in the higher grade 4 and 5 stars were actually a lot less expensive than I was used to paying. The stay could actually be performed within my budget at some of the highest grade hotels … wow.

One thing that concerned me however about the central hotels, is that I am such a light sleeper, that any street/bar noise would keep me awake.  I have stayed in many city centre hotels only to regret it due to the street noise at night (drunken revellers, bar music, garbage trunks collecting early morning etc). One hotel I liked in Pristina even boasted of its big disco-club ….. that scared me off entirely.

I eventually chose an apartment rather than a hotel. It was only 15 mins walk away from the start of the centre of town and looked so good in the pics. It is located north of centre in what was the Old Town area (not much of old town is left as it was mainly bulldozed in the 1970-90’s)

It ended up being a perfect choice for me …. its name? …. Apartments Bentley, Pristina

Click here for their page on booking.com

The price I paid for the excellent, dare I say it, outstanding quality of the fixtures and apartment, was amazing.

The block is modern and has several different sized apartments from 1 to 3 bedrooms and has a roof terrace and balconies on each level.

I had one of the two bedroom apartments as the one bedroom one was taken already and it was sumptuous. The owners kept in contact with me and made sure someone was there for when I arrived. I was arriving by coach from Skopje in Northern Macedonia so although I had an arrival time nothing was guaranteed on that.

The owners gave me a tip to tell the taxi driver of a building next door to them that any taxi driver would know and it worked. They were there ready to let me into the building and the young lad host was very helpful, especially as he spoke good English. He even gave me his WhatsApp name so I could call him if there was any problem. I used it a couple of times for recommendations and to say I was ready to check-out and they had booked me a cheap but good taxi to the airport. The hosts were super friendly and efficient.

The lounge was so modern and comfy, big sofa and chair with a huge wall mounted TV. Artwork on the walls and I even had a full large table and chairs for dining with floor to ceiling massive windows overlooking the rooftops. Wifi worked perfectly, it was warm and quiet and so stylish.

Both bedrooms were spacious and well decorated out. Wardrobe space was enormous and it really felt like a home from home. It had everything I needed to basically move in and live here if I wanted to and the quality of furniture was very high.

I did come to the conclusion that the apartment was so spacious that my whole UK apartment would have fitted into the open-plan lounge-kitchen-diner area alone.

I did have a giggle to myself as the apartment’s black and white very modern kitchen was identical to mine at home …. so I felt at home already!

Bathroom was modern with hot water as needed and clean. I was expecting old plumbing etc but not here, all was great. The balcony even had under rail lights that could be turned on at night if needed, There was balcony furniture for use but as it was winter, it was unfortunately too cold to sit out at night and enjoy the views over the roof tops and this part of the city.

If you need a high quality. stylish, clean and superbly comfortable apartment setting in Pristina I would definitely recommend this place. It a short walk to the centre along safe streets and there are several small supermarkets literally on the corner. I even noticed a few decent looking restaurants nearby too and even a few takeaway places.

The small block is located in a side street off the main road so there is zilch outside noise which I loved.

What to see in Pristina

Remember that Pristina is quite a small city by European standards. Statistics vary according to the number of people here, but from those I have seen it equates to a large town in the UK. It certainly feels small for a capital and is quite low rise – with a few exceptions that stand out however. Around half of the population is under 25 and that is also apparent as you walk the city.

The recent civil war did damage many buildings and the 1970-90’s “modernisation” by the authorities did massively break up the city into a somewhat mish-mash of old and new that jar against each other.

There is a notable lack of grand, palace like buildings, a few Museums would take in that category and the Government buildings tend to be modern.

What was notable is that the general upkeep and maintenance of older buildings was poor (again a few exceptions). The lack of civil funds due to the somewhat impoverished state coffers after wars and conflict is noticeable.

The city sights can be all seen within a day as they are all so close to one another but I took my time and saw them in 2 days. I was also taking it slowly as I sustained a small foot injury a few weeks previously and needed to bear it in mind to prevent aggravating it.

Grand Mosque

This Mosque is also called the Royal Mosque, Imperial Mosque and Fatih Mosque and it was named after the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet II Fatih in 1461. It was reputed to be the first Mosque built in the city and reputedly the largest Mosque in the region at the time.

In 1689 it was temporarily converted to a Christian Church and Pjeter Bogdani was buried here.  See my introduction on him and the events surrounding him and his association with this Mosque in my introduction section on the city earlier.

There had been overnight snow on the day I visited which made the sight even more magical for me.

I have seen many, many Mosques, usually in hotter climates of Asia and the Middle East, so to see one surrounded and capped with snow was a first ever. It certainly gave the pics a different air for me and I loved the visual contrast.

The exterior, triple domed, canopy-like entrance area was decorated in geometric designs. It was definitely a welcome sight to entice me in, although I was unsure if, as a non-Muslim, I would be allowed in.

To enter a Mosque, shoes must be taken off and left in a dedicated area or shelves. I did notice there was only a couple of pairs of shoes in the shoe stand area so even if I could go in there was virtually no-one already in there.

I saw two tourists (possibly the only other tourists I saw in the whole of my stay in Pristina) arrive and enter with their guide – shoes were taken off obviously. Ok, tourists can go in I assumed and followed them in.

We were definitely the only people visible inside and we had it all to ourselves!

The interior was decorated in pretty brown and white geometric and scrolling flower-like patterns. It all looked newly refurbished inside – I later found out that my assumption was true.

It was definitely the first time I had seen small arched windows in three layers going up the walls of a Mosque. It was almost as if there should be three floors but they had been taken out.

It also struck me as strange, the shapes of the windows. They appeared to have leaded glass and were in a rectangle with a an arch at the top. Was this a result of the Mosque’s conversion for around a year into a church in 1689 and these windows were placed here.  I never did find out if this was the cases – can anyone out there confirm my theory on the windows?

The Mosque’s doorways with their painted portals and outer edges were exquisite and again, had a type of decoration I had not seen in other Mosques. The stone Minbar stood out and light was generally flooding in through the higher windows

I could see a higher mezzanine floor at the back and wondered if we were allowed up there. The view down from there must be great so after circulating and taking as many pics as I wanted at ground level, I decided to find the stairs.

I looked around the hall but could not find them. Going into a side room, I saw what appeared to be high steps rising upwards. At fist I didn’t think these could be the way up as each step was about 35 cms tall and it was so narrow the walls almost touched my shoulders. I looked around again and reckoned it must be, as there was no other way up.

I started to climb the high steps and eventually arrived at the top. That was some climb given the narrowness and height of each step. The view from up on high was indeed glorious. I was now looking into the windows rather than up at them and could see some of the details of the small areas of stained glass.

From here the dome’s painted ceiling was revealed in closer detail and I could finally see the hanging chandelier in close-up.

This was such a find and my first building to visit in Pristina.

I also wandered the small gardens outside and noticed the tall Minaret (apparently the tallest in Pristina). The Minaret was restored in 1955 after the earthquake of that year damaged it.

Across the road is the Hammam, (heated Turkish baths) that were currently being restored and not open to visit yet.

Monuments on Adem Jashari Square

Crossing the road from the Carshi Mosque you enter onto a small square with small areas of grass and raised beds. I believe it is called Adem Jashari Square

It sits directly in front of the Parliament buildings area. Apparently this large, empty somewhat boring square was once the thriving Ottoman bazaar, holding hundreds of shops and buildings. It was flattened in Tito’s reign.

In the centre stands a slender three pronged 21 metre tall column often called the Triangle. It forms part of the public display entitled Brotherhood and Unity.

It is supposed to represent the three main ethnicities in Kosovo – Albanians, Serbs and Montenegrins, that came together and united to defeat the Nazi’s in WW2. The monument is officially named ‘Monument to Heroes of the National Liberation Movement’ There was an attempt in 1998 to blow up the tower as it was seen by Albanian Kosovars as representing Serb dominance of the area – it was clearly unsuccessful!

The final element in this memorial is a long bronze sculpture next to the triple pillar tower. This set of bronze figures (with angular cubist-like bodies and small heads with minimized features) is meant to be a stylized depiction of eight Partisan fighters.

The entire square on which it lays, is falling apart, from the tiles to the stairways. Grass is overgrown and poking up through cracks across the entire plaza as well. Pavement slabs are missing and smashed. Both monuments have extensive graffiti on them and the area looks a mess. The bronze statues were sprayed in the designs of the flags of the countries that helped Kosovo during the Kosovo civil war.

I saw this in 2018 but I’ve heard that since the square has been renovated and restored, I certainly hope so as the lack of civic pride was shocking. Interestingly I heard that the flag graffiti on the bronze statues was left in place!

The sight of this vandalism and lack of any repairs or attempt to maintain it made my heart drop. It remained etched on my memory as one of the bad sights of Pristina. It was also one of the reasons why I left having no real feeling of wanting to return to this city. Maybe I should to see if it is better nowadays.

Kosovo Parliament Building

Beside this square is the complex of the Kosovo Parliament buildings.

I am still unsure which building is which as there are several different ones grouped together. One is a 15 something storey blue glass and concrete building that rather sticks out among the low rise surrounding buildings. Others are what could be the parliament chamber, others are more akin to modern office blocks. One seems from the 1950’s. All seem to be flying the Kosovo flag so who knows.

The complex did seem overly large for a small country, it certainly dwarfs the Parliament buildings of neighbouring much larger countries.

It was here that I encountered an event that has only happened to me once before in the world. As I stood some distance from the main building (it is fenced off so you can’t get too near the front). I raised my camera for a photo of it. A guard nearby shouted at me and I looked at him bewildered. He shouted again in Albanian and I made a gesture that I don’t understand what he is saying. He shouted back ” no photo”.

I looked back surprised and showed him my camera as if to say “it’s not a gun”. He got agitated and shouted “no photo” again. I lowered my camera and walked away, annoyed that I couldn’t take a pic. I was already some 50 metres away on the other side of a protective railing system and the road, so far from the building. I walked away and stood far back in a building’s doorway where he couldn’t see me and took my shot.

Unfortunately, due to the distance, the shot was bad, so its not included here.

It was so strange that a country, wanting acceptance round the world as a fledgling democracy, would strictly deny anyone the opportunity to take a pic of its most democratic institution. I was shocked – was the guy a relic of the secretive communist past just overreacting? Is no-one allowed to photograph such an important public building?

Astonishing, as I said, only the second country out of the 72 I’ve visited that has done that. (Amman in Jordan was the other one by the way).

The weird thing is you can walk along the road next to the railings, at the back of the building, and take pics, as there are no guards and you are in a big square and road. Seems I’m not allowed to take a pic from a certain angle.

The buildings are modern and as I said somewhat office looking and whilst of a pleasant design are uninspiring.

You can apply to go in the Parliament building by filling in an online form well in advance and watch a session . Click here for their website 

The photo above is the back of the building that faces the main road. Seems to be a planning design error to have a boring side of the building in such a prominent place.

The tower block looked quite new and was more attractive, although yet again I assumed it was an office block of a big insurance company.

In all I’d say it was one of the least attractive or inspiring Parliament buildings I’ve seen in the world.

 A long walk down Mother Teresa Boulevard

Mother Teresa Boulevard is a pedestrianised street that runs from the Parliament all the way eventually down to the  Mother Teresa Catholic Cathedral.

It’s a grand mixture of somewhat dilapidated multi-storey 1950s style apartment blocks with satellite dishes and infilled balconies that are quite a jar on the eye. At the top is the renovated old Union Building (now a Benetton shop).

There is a wider part to the Boulevard that forms a square with several statues on it. Firstly, there was a huge unfolded poster protesting, I assume, at people who had disappeared or been killed in the recent war. It was in Albanian so I’m not sure. It had loads of face pics of people.

Then there is the somewhat regal bronze statue of Ibrahim Rugova, the first Kosovan President from 1992 until his death in 2006. He advocated a peaceful struggle for independence and is known as the “Father of the nation”. He was revered by the people and a popular leader with an estimated 1.5 million people attending his funeral. He died from cancer.

Around the area are further statues, one of which I recognised.

The statue of Skanderbeg, the Albanian leader who led a 25 year rebellion against the Ottomans from 1443 to 1468, stands here. The bronze sculpture on a stone pedestal sits alone to one side of the centre. He is revered here as well as in Albania for his defence of the various Albanian associated groups of the region.  There is an even bigger statue of him in Tirana Albania.

Yet more memorials stand nearby, written in Albanian, so I was unable to understand what they refer to. Judging by the sculptures I assume it refers to recent wars and the ensuing deaths and tyranny during that time.

Nearby are various Govt dept buildings, all a bit sombre and past their best. It was interesting to see that the building housing the dept of Infrastructure had boards outside that were damaged and battered, somewhat falling down and a general lack of maintenance to its structure – a telling theme throughout the city. Funds are clearly not available for many public renovations or there is not the will to do them,

The National Theatre building sits in this area on the street also.

It’s a plain concrete affair with steps that lead up to its very wide and flat shaped building. Again, a sombre, and uninspiring building from the 1960’s. Ornate and majestic buildings are not a big feature in Pristina. It can feel and look somewhat plain and undecorated as a city, with a definite throwback feel (with the still-standing buildings), to a more well maintained era in the past.

New Born monument

Carry on walking down the road and you pass the small statue of Mother Teresa near a residential building in a grassed area to the right. Further down, the street opens onto what was clearly, in the past, a road crossroads and is now an open air plaza. There are several ugly 1960’s tall buildings here including what was a grand hotel, now looking very run down and uninviting despite its high star rating.

Take the right and walk to the end of the street then immediately left at the major road.

On the other side of the road you will see a semi-sloping two roofed building concrete building on an ugly concrete shopping mall. This is the now unused sports complex but standing in front of it is what you need to see.

The Newborn Monument was unveiled on 17 February 2008, the day that Kosovo formally declared its independence from Serbia. It is simply the letters spelling that expression. It represents the rebirth of the nation and despite its simplistic style, is quite intuitive as a statement.

What, however, is not impressive is the overwhelming graffiti on it. I have read that the graffiti is actually encouraged or at least not dealt with. It is supposed to portray the expression of freedom of the people to voice themselves. However, the “voices” are mostly vandalistic tagging and scribble.

I get the idea of allowing people to portray their feelings in public as an art form but this is abused by the gangs and vandals to desecrate. Maybe that is the expression that the authorities want here.

I heard that every year, on the anniversary of its installation in February, it is repainted in different designs. The latest one was so creative that it was an attempt to deter vandalism …. we shall see. The present graffiti was just ugly in my view and on my visit two of the letters had been toppled over.

My first day here was now at an end. The afternoon was becoming foggy and decidedly cold. The apartment was still only a 25 mins max walk away and I retraced my steps back along the route I had come along.

Near the apartment were several small supermarkets that I noticed on the way down. I nipped in for a few things for breakfast tomorrow and for today’s and tomorrow’s evening meal. I was looking forward to relaxing in real comfort and style back at the apartment.  I already had a feeling that I was going to enjoy my stay at my new two-day apartment-home.

Day two in Pristina

I had seen a lot already, but there were a couple of places still to see on my list. As these were the farthest from my apartment, I left them to the second day. The hope was that by now I would know the lay of the land and getting there would be easy.

I however woke to what was a quite foggy and misty day. Temperatures had dropped overnight and now the condensation in the air was producing a misty day. I knew some pics would not come out so well today, so apologies in advance for those.

I walked along the same route as yesterday and turned left after I met the wide open second square on Mother Teresa Boulevard just after it joins with a traffic strewn road.

National Library of Kosovo

Strangely, a library building seems to have taken on an iconic image for the city, as its most recognisable feature.

This has come about from its controversial design and appearance. Whilst I appreciate the design it did jar with me at first.

It was constructed in 1982 and held tens of thousands of historical manuscripts and books.

The design of cubes in dark coloured exterior, enmeshed in an almost fishing net-like metal framework and surmounted by 99 light-giving domes is certainly different. At first, I thought it looked almost prison-like as the mesh covers the windows. Then I felt it had Islamic features due to the roofline domes. Then it just felt alien as I had never seen such a design on a building.

I gradually warmed to it but in the foggy, low light of the day it still looked eerie and threatening

However, the civil war of 1989 meant the Yugoslav army took it over and burned thousands of its ancient and priceless contents. They ransacked it, used it as a refugee centre and ultimately as a command post. Historical documents were lost forever in an attempt by Serbs to eradicate Albanian Muslim history.

After the civil war ended, the library was renovated and reopened to the public and it now holds over 2 million articles.

As a library, its books are reference only and works can be read in one of the four massive reading rooms. It also functions as a civic meeting places as it incorporates an amphitheatre and meeting rooms.

The lobby, with its colourful mosaic floor, is used for cultural events and the largest light-giving dome is centred above it.

Whilst the library, for once, was a well maintained building it was set in a somewhat shabby park like area. I say a park but it looked more like a large open ground area of unkept grass. I thought it was wasteland at first and they were leaving it like this as they were about to build something on it. I then noticed the overgrown pathway and worn out turf and realised it was like many public areas in Pristina, simply not maintained.

Across the way stands another small plain building. This is the National Gallery of Kosovo. It’s so small you can walk round it entirely in 20 mins. I gave it a miss as I read that there is little major works there and much is on temporary loan from other galleries anyhow.

The weirdest building is right across the grassed area. Standing on its own was what looked like a bombed out church. It was totally derelict and even grass and weeds growing around its structure. This was the attempt by Serbs to build a new Cathedral in the city. As the civil war progressed the construction was abandoned, leaving it now derelict.

Orthodox Christian Serbs now make up such a small percentage of the population of Pristina (around 2%), and indeed Kosovo, that it assumed it will never be finished, However, no-one dares intervene to demolish it either.

From the library, I went back to the main road I had turned off and continued down the street.

It’s hard to miss the next site as its tall belfry tower lies straight ahead, looming over the end of the street

Mother Teresa Cathedral Pristina

The construction of the Cathedral was somewhat controversial. Catholics make up a very small percentage of Pristina and indeed Kosovo (around 4%). The vast size of the building seems at odds with the small number of Catholics who actually live in the city.

It was conceived in 2005 with the founding stone being laid by the then President Rugova (we talked about him earlier) in 2007. He was a Muslim but it was seen as an act of solidarity and brotherhood of all faiths. In fact, at Christmas Muslims often join in the celebrations with their catholic neighbours as an emblem of unity as Kosovans.

The building was finally finished in 2010 officially. However, on my visit in 2018 there were still areas under construction and the outside area had yet to be finished.

The Cathedral is dedicated to Saint Teresa of Calcutta. She was born in Skopje, Northern Macedonia, of Albanian heritage. As Albanians are closely associated with Kosovo and she is a revered figurehead in the Balkan region, this was to be her Cathedral.

The belfry is now one of the tallest constructions in Pristina and you can go up for a small fee in a lift or via the stairs. The views from the top are outstanding as there is not many other buildings in the centre as tall as the belfry.

The interior is rather plain.

The high ceilings give the inside a huge lift and the aisle is flooded with light from the high placed windows. There are only smaller windows lower down and these are still over head height.

The highly polished white marble floor shines magnificently and the white vaulted ceiling of the side apses are a grand feature in themselves.

A wooden beamed roof seems out of place given the amount of white stonework and marble used. However, it does take away what would otherwise be a quite bland whiteness throughout and gives it a contrasting colour.

The few decorative features are the ceiling designs in the forms of crosses and the hanging Christian wooden crosses. The aisle does have some colour in the stained glass at the lower level windows. The altar piece is predominantly a sculpture as a bas relief on the altarpiece.

Colour is achieved also by use of stained glass in a uniform pattern across the high roofline windows under the beams.

The high side windows have various representations of saints and biblical scenes in more muted colourways. They are always surrounded by plain non-coloured glass, representing what I would easily recognise as Catholic stained-glass windows.

Pjeter Bogdani is depicted here on one of the walls as a tiled fresco. We talked about him earlier in reference to the Grand Mosque at the other end of the city centre. To recap, he lead a long rebellion against Ottoman (Muslim) rule and was buried in the Mosque when it was converted to a church. His remains were thrown out of his grave when that Church was reconverted back to a Mosque.

The big highway that runs beside the Cathedral at its altar walls is where we next head. The street is named Bill Clinton Boulevard …. I kid you not!

Facing the street, take the right and walk along the pavement on the opposite side of the road to reach our next destination.

.

Bill Clinton Statue

Ok, believe it or not, there is a Statue, Square and road named after Bill Clinton, a prevoius President of the USA, in Pristina.

This was arranged in honour of his actions, when he persuaded NATO to engage in the bombing of Serbia. This was as a reaction to the atrocities that Serbia was committing against the Kosovan population. His actions forced the Serbs to halt attacks and led to the successful Kosovan counter struggle against them.

He also encouraged NATO to send in ground troops to Kosovo as a peacekeeping force to ensure the safety of the Albanian Muslims. They have been ever grateful to him since and erected this statue to him on a street and square named after him.

The area is regularly updated and cleaned and an American flag flies next to the statue. Crazy as it may seem there is a store on this square called Hillarys that sells female clothing ….. it’s true!

Pristina Airport

I have never done this before but I just have to comment on Pristina’s airport.

It is small but the cutest most modern and comfy airport that I been in, in a long time.

Weird that one of the best things I loved about a city is its airport, but there you have it.

It’s modern, perfectly efficient and organised, clean and so well designed. Its small enough that you can walk easily from the terminal to the planes but the duty-free area/shops, restaurants and cafes, seating area etc were all so nicely arranged and spacious.

walls are huge glass panels so from most areas you can look directly out to the runway and the superb mountain scenery around the grounds. Today there were only four flights out the whole day so you can imagine how quiet the airport was.

I sat and gazed out at the snow filled mountains nearby and enjoyed the views. As the light, dimmed the small spotlights dotted around the perimeter of the airport gave the snowscape a magical scenario. I actually enjoyed being here and spent a while in its cafe, which is unusual for me. It must have one of the best views from the seats of any world airport.

Final thoughts on Pristina

I definitely have mixed feelings on Pristina.

There are few places in the world where I have felt that I would not want to come back here again. Pristina is one of them.

I may be doing it an injustice and I did enjoy much of what I saw and am glad I have finally been here.

However, the overwhelming ugliness of much of its dilapidated and unkept 1950-70’s apartment blocks, haphazardly placed everywhere was a real eyesore for me. The city has clearly seen better days. Seeing historical and cultural monuments grafittied and broken in smashed-up paving settings was really off-putting. There seemed a real lack of civic pride by the local authorities.

I understand funds may not be there to do these works but (apart from my apartment hosts) I also found the people somewhat quiet and unsmiling.  I never experienced any violence or bad actions but then I rarely saw great warmth from the public either.

Maybe recent wars and hardships have taken their toll on their good nature, which is understandable.

I would come back if I hear that the city has been cleaned up, renovated and some pride shown in restorations. A strong Police presence was very evident in most places.

Let me know your experiences …. was I wrong?

Jan 2018

Below are some related posts on nearby places to visit. Click on the pic to view.