When we asked our new friend Jelena, a Serb, why Kosovo was so important to Serbia she alluded to the Serbian Orthodox Churches there that are so much a part of Serbian history and are threatened by the ethnic Albanian Muslims. We spent the past three days seeing these UNESCO World Heritage Sites for ourselves in an attempt to understand their importance.
The Patriachate of Pec is an easy day trip
from Pristina. Tuesday's cold, clear, sunny morning soon gave way to thick freezing
fog but we could see bits of the countryside and the
bombed out buildings that are a reminder of the NATO air strikes of ’99.
Pec
has been fogged in for four days, a cold fog that penetrated through my fleece right to my bones. It gave the Patriachate ghostly look but not as eery as the UN KFOR sentries who guard
the site. The Slovenian soldier on duty told us they are concerned
about ethnic Albanian Kosovars trying to destroy the 13th Century
Serbian Orthodox church. When we left our passports and walked through the fog, I felt like I was passing across a border during the Cold War.
You aren't supposed to take photos but when four KFOR soldiers whipped out their cameras I gladly joined in. This is one of the most interesting Orthodox sites we have visited and I think the Serbs are right to want it preserved. I believe they see Kosovo the
way Palestinians view the Holy City of Jerusalem; it was once theirs and they
don’t like losing it.
Yesterday was a carbon copy of Tuesday, but in a different direction. The music videos on the bus were just as annoying, hip-hop with a distinctly Turkish twang. We again drove into the fog through vineyards with naked frost-rimed vines. And it was unbearably cold when we reached Prizren.
The green-eyed girl explained to the taxi driver that we wanted to visit the Orthodox Church of the Holy Virgin of Ljevis. Something must have been lost in translation and he deposited us at the Church of St. George, which was destroyed during the war and rebuilt in 2004. The sextant who let us into the naked interior - they are awaiting funds to have frescoes painted - pointed us towards the Church of the Holy Virgin of Ljevis.
Prizren is in southern Kosovo,not far from Albania and it is just as liter-strewn as any Albanian town we visited. Asking directions to a Serbian Orthodox church from an ethnic Albanian Muslim, who may have taken part in its destruction in 2004, can be a challenge. We didn't bother the older folks who probably spoke no English anyway, nor the young men who might take offense from a couple of Americans. And the young women we asked didn't seem to know that it even existed.
When we finally found the Church of the Holy Virgin et. al. it was derelict and surrounded with barbed wire. A sing told us of the renovation projects that were to be "undertaken" - someday. This is the first time that a World Heritage site has disappointed us. It has the pedigree for a WHS but needs so much work! So we walked back to the bus station, retraced our route to Pristina and considered Kosovo. Grudges in this part of the world are held, not for generations, but for centuries. John Lennon may have had something when he sang "Imagine no religion..."
The Gracanica Monastery, only a taxi ride from Pristina, may well be our last Orthodox monastery. It is certainly one of the most interesting and well preserved. The church dates from the 13th Century and has 5 towers, each fully frescoed, something we haven't seen before. The frescoes may be dark and faded but they are obviously the work of a master. We were surprised that there was no KFOR presence; perhaps the dour-faced nuns are enough of a deterrent.
