Priština

Priština lies in the Kosovo basin, close to roads leading towards the rich silver mines of Novo Brdo. First recorded as a village in 1342, it grew into a centre of trade and government under the Serbian rulers of the region. Nearby stands the monastery of Gračanica, founded by King Stefan Milutin and adorned with fine Byzantine frescoes.

Under Ottoman rule Priština expanded as a market town, trading goods that included leather, goat hair and gunpowder. In 1689, during the war between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans, the Catholic archbishop Pjetër Bogdani supported the Austrian advance and rallied Albanian forces. The war and its aftermath disrupted the town, which rebuilt in the eighteenth century under the influence of the local Gjinolli family.