Travel Guide Brezovica

The hamlet is called the same in Serbian and Albanian: Брезовица/Brezovica or Brezovicë/Brezovica (pronounced "bré-zo-vi-tsa). It has about 70 inhabitants (64% Serbs, 34% Albanians) and is located 3 km southwest of Štrpce/Shtërpca.This hamlet is located at an altitude of 1,050 m and is not very interesting in itself. But it has the largest ski resort in Kosovo, 9 km further south, which is located in a beautiful setting in the heart of the Šar Mountains, between 1,740 and 2,500 m above sea level. Created in 1954, it has experienced a meteoric development by becoming the plan B of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. However, a large part of the equipment created in 1983 and 2008 (five chairlifts and five ski lifts, 16 km of slopes) is no longer operational due to lack of maintenance. Today, Brezovica is more for free-riders than for families: most of the slopes are closed or covered with powder and several off-piste corridors are accessible by snow scooter or groomer. However, the resort's parking lot is full every winter weekend when the weather is good. Once approached to take over the business, the French company Compagnie des Alpes threw in the towel in 2016. A new modernization plan to make Brezovica "the largest ski resort in the Balkans" has been launched in 2021. While waiting for an angelic investor, the inhabitants are uniting to save their resort. Brezovica is one of the few places in the country where Serbs and Albanians really work together