Gnjilane

in Gnjilane

Gnjilane - located in the southeastern region of Kosovo and Metohija, this city is also the center of the municipality of the same name. In the Middle Ages, this settlement was known as Morava, and in those days it was considered an important center of trade and craftsmanship. Therefore, Serbian rulers often stayed in Gjilani, and thanks to this, relatively detailed records were preserved for many years. The earliest written mention of this place dates back to 1342 and is connected to the stay of King Stefan Dušan in that place. Under the current name of Gnjilane, the town first appears in the charter of Princess Milica, wife of Prince Lazar, from the end of the 14th century. Then in a notebook from 1455, the settlement of Gnjilan is mentioned, which according to their data had 41 Serbian households headed by local pop. Since the medieval days, several churches have been built in this place. One of them was dedicated to St. Petki - at least it is considered so due to the fact that long after the church disappeared, this area was still known as Petkovce. Then there was the monastery of St. John, who had a fairly large brotherhood of priests, judging by the extraordinary size of the monks' cemetery by the standards of the time. Around the middle of the 18th century, the monastery was destroyed by the Turks and the town that exists today arose in its place. Great church of St. Nikole was built in 1861 on top of the foundations of an older and smaller church that used to be located in the very center of today's settlement. This church has had bad luck with fires over the years, even burning to the ground in 1892. However, already in 1900, it was completely restored and consecrated again. The last restoration of this church was done in 1983 and today it houses valuable collections of books, icons and church vessels. 1878. After the Berlin Congress was held, Gnjilane became a border town thanks to the demarcation, but it ended up on the Turkish side. The Serbian population gathered around their Orthodox church municipality and founded everything that bothered the Turks there, including a cultural club, a singing society and a falconry society. Over the years, numerous crimes, attacks, violence and injustice against unprotected Serbs took place, the climax of which is considered to be the murder of Nikola Đorđević, the Serbian champion in 1903. Despite the entry into force of the new Turkish constitution, violence has continued in various forms over the years. In 1908, Hamdija, a local outlaw, killed the priest of Gnjilan, Pope Mihailo Katanić, in the village of Bostan. Outraged by this crime, the Serbs united just before some major events and joined the committee. The long-awaited freedom for the inhabitants of Gnjilan arrived in 1912 when the last Turkish forces finally withdrew from the settlement. The town of Gnjilan is also known for the fact that in 1913, despite its modest size, it provided the largest number of Serbian volunteers. The economic crisis that followed the war stifled the enthusiasm and post-war prosperity in this place, so the first-instance court that was located here was moved to Pristina. The former high school with five classes became a Civil School for which there was a lack of interest. Traffic connections remained poor, so trade did not progress, and not a single new public building or institution has been built since the day of liberation. Nevertheless. a couple of construction projects were carried out, such as the monument to King Peter and the Sokolski dom. When it comes to the composition of the population, it is predominantly of Albanian nationality, while the rest are made up of Serbs and a small number of minorities.