Prizren

The hill above Prizren has been occupied since the Bronze Age, and the town has traditionally been identified with Theranda in Roman Dardania, although recent research suggests other locations. The fort was rebuilt under the emperor Justinian in the 6th century, when it appears in the writings of Procopius as Petrizen. Byzantine rule ended in 1219–20, when the Serbian Nemanjić dynasty took the fort and the town, and under Stefan Dušan in the 14th century Prizren served as a capital of the Serbian Empire and flourished as a centre of trade. Dušan founded the Monastery of the Holy Archangels in the gorge above the town and was buried there.

The Ottomans captured Prizren in 1455 and made it the seat of a sanjak almost at once. Mosques, baths and bridges followed, among them the stone bridge of the 16th century and the Sinan Pasha Mosque of 1615, and by 1857 more than 70 per cent of the people were Muslim. In 1878 the town gave its name to the League of Prizren, which sought the unity and autonomy of the Albanians within the Ottoman Empire and made the town a focus of the Albanian national awakening.

Serbian forces took Prizren in 1912 at heavy cost in Albanian lives. The town itself suffered little physical damage in the war of 1998–99, though most Albanians were forced or intimidated into leaving and returned in June 1999; the League of Prizren building was destroyed and later rebuilt. In the unrest of March 2004 Serbian Orthodox churches were damaged or burned and the Serb quarter near the fortress was destroyed, and all the remaining Serb population was evicted from the town.

Prizren is designated by Kosovo's constitution as the country's historical capital, and its old town of minarets, church towers and Ottoman houses grew up below the fortress along the left bank of the river. Its mix of peoples is also the most varied in the country. Albanians are the large majority, but Bosniaks, Turks and Roma remain, the Turkish community is socially prominent, and the Turkish language is heard well beyond it.

DokuFest, a documentary and short film festival started by a group of friends in 2002, is among the largest publicly attended film festivals in the Balkans and fills the town every year in early August, drawing support from the community and agencies within Kosovo. The town's public university, the University of Prizren, teaches in Albanian, Bosnian and Turkish.

Religion is visible everywhere. Most people are Muslim, and mosques dominate the skyline, but the Catholic cathedral and the Serbian Orthodox churches — including Our Lady of Ljeviš, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site — stand within a few streets of them. On summer evenings the old town turns out for the corso, a slow walk and talk around Shadërvan that runs until about midnight.

At the 2011 census Prizren municipality had about 178,000 people, making it the second city and municipality of Kosovo after Pristina, with about 94,500 in the urban area and the rest in the surrounding villages. It is among the most densely populated municipalities in the country.

Life in the centre revolves around the old town and the river, where cafés line the embankment and grill houses fill the old town, and the town's football club plays in Kosovo's First Football League. The streets above the centre climb steeply towards the fortress, and the Marash district upstream has a riverside park and a path into the valley.

Albanians form the large majority of the municipality, with Bosniaks and Turks the largest minorities, and besides Albanian and Serbian, Turkish and Bosnian are official languages of the municipality. Summer is the busiest time, when DokuFest and the evening crowds fill the old town, and the Sharr Mountains above the town draw hikers in summer and skiers to Prevalla in winter.

Prizren's best-known dish is tavë Prizreni, a traditional regional casserole from the town. Like the rest of Kosovo, the town eats a great deal of grilled meat: qebapa, small skinless sausages of mixed lamb and beef, served with onions, sour cream, ajvar and pitalka bread, and suxhuk, a dry, spicy fermented sausage. Grill houses (qebaptore) cluster along the river and in the old town.

Pastry is the other staple. Burek, filled with minced meat, white cheese or spinach, is often eaten with yoghurt or ayran, and pies (pite) and flija appear at home and in traditional restaurants. In winter meals come with pickled vegetables and ajvar, made in early autumn. Among the sweets are baklava, filo layered with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey, and tulluma.

Coffee is the daily ritual, drunk in the cafés around Shadërvan, and wine comes from around Rahovec. Rakia, the regional fruit brandy, and local beers are found everywhere.