Monuments to visit Prizren

This bridge (Ura e vjetër e gurit, Stari kameni most) is not so old, but it is the symbol of the city. Spanning the Prizrenska Bistrica (Lumbardhi i Prizrenit) which crosses Prizren from east to west, it was built in 1982 to replace the old Ottoman "old stone bridge" (late 15th-early 16th century) which was washed away by a flood in 1979. Still made of ashlar, the current version is shorter in order to be more resistant with a 17 m long deck compared to 30 m before. However, the general appearance has been preserved with a main arch (10 m long and 5 m high), two secondary arches (4 m long and 3 m high each) and a slightly curved deck 4.20 m wide. The two asymmetrical cavities placed at the level of the piers make it possible to lighten the structure and to let water pass through in the event of a major flood. The structure connects the Shatërvan/Šadrvan district on the left bank (south) with the Saraçhana/Saračana district on the right bank (north). In this it played an important role in the development of the city by allowing the transit of merchants and their caravans. Today, Prizren has twenty bridges and footbridges. The Old Stone Bridge is thus framed, upstream, by the Arasta Bridge (Ura e Arastës, Arasta most), first built in wood in the 15th century and now a concrete road bridge, and, downstream, by the Blue Bridge (Ura e kalter, Plavi most), a modern footbridge with blue railings where "love padlocks" are hung.

Located at 510 m above sea level, this fortress of Byzantine origin (Kalaja e Prizrenit, Prizrenski Grad) has been the subject of an unfortunate reconstruction of a rough "medieval" style during the years 2012-2016. Nevertheless, it offers a beautiful view of the city and Mount Paštrik (1,986 m above sea level) located on the border between Kosovo and Albania. It is here that the settlement of Prizren began, around 2000 BC. By its strategic position to control the passage between the Adriatic and the Danube, the hill was powerfully fortified by the Byzantines under the reign of Justinian in the 6th century. It passed to the Nemamjić dynasty around 1220 and became the first capital of the short-lived but powerful Serbian Empire (1346-1371), before Stefan Dušan established his court in the fortress of Skopje (Northern Macedonia). Conquered by the Ottomans in 1455 (or 1459), the fortress was remodeled to accommodate a garrison with two compounds and a mosque (1808). Occasionally occupied, it served for a long time as a gathering place for the Serbs of the region who organized here the kolo, the traditional circle dance of the Slavs of the Balkans. The fortress was abandoned after the First Balkan War (1912-1913), but its tunnels served for a long time as water reservoirs for the city. The municipality plans to install an archaeological museum there. In the meantime, one can walk around the ramparts, discover some of the underground tunnels and ruins or simply contemplate the view.

This large building of the Ottoman period (Hamami i Gazi Mehmet pashës, Hamam Gazi Mehmed paše) is one of the two hammams which still remain in Prizren with the one which shelters the Archaeological Museum today. Created around 1563-1574, it is dominated in the north by the minaret of the Emin-Pasha mosque which was built in 1831. But it belonged then to the sharia (religious and commercial complex) of the Gazi-Mehmed-Pasha mosque located 150 m to the north-east. Used until the end of the nineteenth century as a public bath and place of socialization, the hammam is built according to the Byzantine technique of the partitioned apparatus, alternating stone and brick for better resistance. It is distinguished by its eleven openwork domes covered with lead, which let the daylight into the hot rooms of the baths, and by its two large domes mounted on drums covered with tiles, which are above the cold rooms. It is an çifte hamam, a "double hammam" in Turkish, with two parts separated by a partition, one for men and the other, here slightly smaller, for women. As part of the modernization of the city, all the stores and workshops that surrounded the building were destroyed in 1964. The hammam underwent two major renovations in the 1970s and 2000s, but unfortunately its interior walls have lost much of their plaster and paint. It now hosts temporary exhibitions or ephemeral markets.