Travel Guide Viti (Vitina)

The town is called Vitia/Viti in Albanian and Витина/Vitina in Serbian. It has just under 5,000 inhabitants, 99% of whom are Albanians, and 47,000 inhabitants with the rest of the municipality. It is located 20 km southwest of Gjilan/Gnjilane, 22 km east of Ferizaj/Uroševac, 22 km northeast of Kaçanik/Kačanik.Crossed by the Binačka Morava river, this small agricultural town is not a priori of particular interest. Most of the Serbian medieval monuments in the area have been destroyed since 1999, among them the precious Binač monastery dating from the 14th century. Nevertheless, the region has an interesting history. It was in the village of Stublla/Stubla (11 km east) that a Catholic priest founded the first Albanian language school in 1584. Viti/Vitina and its surroundings attracted many Catholics from northern Albania in the 18th century. Most of them eventually converted officially to Islam to escape taxes on non-Muslims, but they continued to practice the Catholic religion in secret. Some of these cryptocatholics, called laramanë ("variegated") in Albanian, publicly revealed their faith in 1839 and were expelled to Turkey by the Ottomans in 1846. A story told in images by the amazing contemporary paintings of the church of St. Anthony in Binça/Binač. Also worth noting is the village of Klokot/Kllokot (6 km north), which is mostly populated by Serbs and has a mineral water factory and an important spa.