Travel Guide Skenderaj (Srbica)

The town is called Skënderaji/Skënderaj in Albanian (pronounced "skenderai") and Србица/Srbica in Serbian ("sirbitsa"). It has about 9,300 inhabitants and 50,000 with the rest of the municipality (99% Albanians). It is located 22 km south of Mitrovica, 22 km southwest of Vushtrria/Vučitrn, 47 km northwest of Pristina and 56 km northeast of Peja/Peć.This small industrial town is located in the Drenica Valley, which was a major stronghold of Albanian nationalists throughout the 20th century. The surrounding villages were particularly battered during the last war. Most of the Serbian inhabitants were forced into exile from 1999 to 2004. Some villages are now symbols of the struggle for independence of Albanians. This is the case of Prekaz/Prekaze, where the two main founders of the KLA, the brothers Adem and Hamez Jashari, came from. They were killed in the bloody attack that marked the official start of the Kosovo war on 6 March 1998. Their hamlet has been set up as a memorial and the survivors of the Jashari family are highly respected by a majority of the Albanian inhabitants. One of them, Bekim Jashari (son of Hamëz Jashari), was mayor of Skënderaj/Srbica from 2017 to 2021. The city center is concentrated around the Adem Jashari promenade. It is in this area that we find most of the bars and restaurants as well as the market, on Monday.