Historiography of Prizren

Prizren originated on an important trade route traversed by caravans from Shkodra and the Adriatic coast to the interior of the Balkans. The earliest written records mention it as a “place with a Bishopric seat.”

In Roman times, it was known as Theranda. The Greeks called it Prizdrian and Prizdrijana, and in the Byzantine era, it was referred to as Prizdrijan. It is also mentioned in records about the uprising of the Macedonian Slavs and the severe wars of Bodin with Byzantium.

From the 12th century, it became known as the “Serbian Constantinople,” described in Serbian folk songs as a “white, beautiful, and tame place, the Serbian Constantinople,” ever since Stefan the First-Crowned annexed it to his state: “Early rises Serbian Tsar Stefan in Prizren, his Constantinople.” The significance of remembering Prizren as the capital of the Serbian state during its rise is also illustrated by its mention by Serbian poets even at the end of the 19th century, among others by Aleksa Šantić: “Prizrene stari, kapije otvaraj…” (Old Prizren, open your gates).

Prizren advanced during the reigns of King Milutin, Emperor Dušan, and Emperor Uroš as a free city, trade center, state capital, the seat of a bishopric, and a cradle of culture and arts.

The prosperity of Prizren is evidenced by many monasteries built at the time, now cultural monuments and testament to the era in which they were created. Among these are the Church of the Holy Virgin of Ljeviš, founded by King Milutin in 1306–1307, the noble Church of the Holy Savior, then the Church of St. Nicholas in the city center, and the Cathedral Church of St. George, housing a rich collection of icons from the 14th to the 19th century. Upstream from Prizren are the remains of Dušan's Monastery of the Holy Archangels, built around 1350, and near the village of Koriša is the Monastery of St. Mark. The abundance of churches led a folk poet to say that "in Prizren, there were as many churches as there are days in a year."

Strong fortresses, Prizren City and Višegrad, safeguarded the security of kings, nobility, traders, and craftsmen. A well-organized Serbian medieval state guaranteed safety, as evidenced by a Prizren copy of Dušan's Code, one of the oldest, now in the National Museum in Belgrade. In such conditions, crafts flourished, and Prizren craftsmen, since the early feudal economy, were organized into guilds. The existence of a mint also confirms the economic strength of the city. With the settlement of traders from Dubrovnik and Kotor, fairs called panazuri-panagyrs began to be organized on religious holidays.

The 15th century marked the decline of Prizren's brilliance. In 1455, it was captured by the Turks, beginning a new era in the history of this witness to our past. For the first hundred years after the arrival of the Turks, Prizren is hardly mentioned. After the Ottoman conquest of other parts of the Balkans, especially those on the Adriatic coast, the Skadar-Kosovo trade route again became a major artery between the East and the Adriatic coast. Caravan traffic through Prizren revived trade and craftsmanship. In the same period, Serbian medieval churches were either destroyed or converted into mosques. The Church of the Holy Virgin of Ljeviš was converted into a mosque, and on the ruins of the Monastery of the Holy Archangels, the Sinan-Pasha Mosque was built.

During the period of intensified Islamization in the early 19th century, many Serbian families from Gora and Opolje, especially from Brda, began to leave their homes and come to Prizren, where they could remain in their faith, while most of those who stayed in their places were forced to convert to Islam.

A bright spot in this period was the establishment of the famous Prizren Seminary in 1871, made possible by the help of the great benefactor Sima Andrejević Igumanov, a native of Prizren.

After the end of the Second Balkan War, according to the provisions of the Bucharest Treaty of 1913, Kosovo and part of Metohija with Prizren were annexed to the Kingdom of Serbia. Soon after liberation, new authorities and relations were established. A municipal administration was also established, and the area of the city municipality was divided into four quarters and 24 mahalas.

This city-monument, as architects call it, is the most significant and valuable old urban settlement in Kosovo and Metohija.