myGjakova

Kosovo · the Dukagjin plain

Gjakova, a city kept by its craftspeople

Walk the longest old bazaar in the Balkans, trace centuries of stone and timber, and meet the living culture of one of Kosovo’s most storied cities.

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A long cobbled bazaar arcade of low timber-fronted craftsmen's shops receding into the distance, with a mosque dome and minaret at the far end.

Where to begin

Places to know

Guides to the landmarks that hold the city’s memory — from the Grand Bazaar to the kullas of the old quarters.

A long cobbled bazaar arcade of low timber-fronted craftsmen's shops receding into the distance, with a mosque dome and minaret at the far end.
bazaar

The Grand Bazaar

16th century

The beating heart of old Gjakova — a kilometre of cobbled lanes lined with craftsmen's shops, the oldest and longest bazaar in Kosovo, burned in 1999 and rebuilt shop by shop.

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A single-domed Ottoman mosque with a low lead-grey dome and a slim minaret, its three-arched porch painted with cypresses and flowers, at the head of the cobbled bazaar.
mosque

The Hadum Mosque

c. 1594

The late-Ottoman mosque at the head of the bazaar — its interior a painted garden of cypresses and flowers, and the endowment from which the whole old city grew.

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A warm Ottoman library interior — arched windows with wooden lattice grilles, shelves of bound manuscripts, and an open Qur'an on a carved reading-stand.
monument

The Hadum Library & Madrasa

founded 1595

The college and famed library beside the Hadum Mosque — for centuries the old city's house of learning, until its manuscripts burned in 1999. The building has risen again; the books are gone for good.

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A timeline of Gjakova

  1. 1485 A market on the plain
  2. 1594–95 The Hadum Mosque, and a city around it
  3. 1597 The clock tower marks the hours
  4. 1662 Evliya Çelebi counts the shops
  5. 1748 A city of learning
  6. 18th century A crossroads of caravans
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