Travel Guide Novi Pazar (Нови Пазар)

In the 9th century, under the Nemanjid dynasty, the city was called Ras and its fortress was the capital of the Serbian Empire, which extended its authority to Kotor on the Adriatic. When in the early 14th century King Milutin expanded his empire to the south, Ras was no longer the capital and was known as Pazaršite, i.e. "trading city". The advance of the Ottomans in the Balkans will change its fate. The city was taken in 1456 and became the capital of a sandjak (an administrative unit); the region has kept this nickname ever since. In the middle of the 15th century, Isa Beg Isaković founded the Turkish fortress of Novi Pazar, which became an important caravan city, located at a crossroads of trade routes. In the 17th century, Novi Pazar was equipped with mosques, madrasas, hammams and other bazaars. In the nineteenth century, the city declined, before finally being attached in 1920 to the kingdom of Serbia.