Prior to the Slavic migrations and the establishment of the Serbian medieval state, there were many Albanian Byzantine Orthodox churches in modern day Kosovo.
Famous saints of Albanian Orthodox origin are Shmitri (Saint Mitrin or Saint Dhimitri) who was martyred in Simium of Northern Dardania or Moesia, where the seat of the Roman Empire was for around two hundred years. The Church of St. Dimitri in northern Dardania, which now bears the name Mitrovica, was probably destroyed by the invasion of the barbarian hordes around the 11th century.
The church of Mitrovica called “Shmitri” or “Kisha e Shen Mitrit”.
According to Dr Skender Gashi, citing Dr Constantin Jireček in “Das christliche element”, the city of Mitrovica was actually “Kisha e Shmitrit” and only later was it called Dimitrouç or Dimitrovc in 1446. It was named after Saint Mitri, in Albanian “Shen Mitri” or “Shmitri”.
A city that took its name from Shmitri is also in Pannonia, namely in the country of Srem whic is called (Sremska) Mitrovica. Regarding a church of “Shmitri”, namely in this city, C. Jireček announced that here, “in the ruins of a Roman city, (Sirmium) the flourishing new city itself was named after a late Roman church dedicated to St. Mitri: civitas Sancti Demetrii, hung. Szava-Szent-Demeter, while in Serbian sources of the 15th century, it was called Dimitrovci, Dmitrovica, now Mitrovica.”
There is reason to assume that even in the case of the Church of Shmitri, in the city of Mitrovica, we are dealing with a church of the Byzantine and later Catholic rite dedicated to that saint of undivided Christianity, just as it also happened in the part ruled by Stefan of Serbia (in Pannonia) with the church and the place today called Sremska Mitrovica in Serbian, with the difference that the church of Mitrovica will have been alienated, respectively appropriated by Serbian Orthodoxy.
The Church of Prokuplje, named after the Egyptian martyr Procopius.
This phenomenon, so often witnessed for the Serbian church and state located in the territories of the Byzantine Empire, is investigated, for example, also in the case of the church in the city of Prokuplje, whose city name is connected with the name of the Egyptian martyr Procopius, whose church, as K. Jireček teaches us, was in the city of Nis: “eclesia beati et glorisissimi magni martyris Procopii de Niso”, which is mentioned in 1203 in the correspondence between the Bulgarian Tsar Kalojan and Pope Innocent III. Our author teaches us that “This church no longer exists; before the occupation in 1877, the cathedral church of Nis was alienated to the church dedicated to Saints Michael and Gabriel”, according to C. Jireček. [Dr. Constantin Jireček, Das christliche Element, p. 37.]
The remains of St. Procopius were carried there more than once. Jireček tells us that “on the occasion of an attack by the Hungarians in 1072 on the lands of the Byzantine Empire, the latter took from Nis, the Roman Naissus, the remains of St. Procopius [an Egyptian martyr of the time of Diocletian, who in the middle ages was the patron of the capital of this three] and they were taken to the Church of Shmitri in the ruins of the city of Sirmium, but the Byzantine emperor Manuel Komnenos took them from there again in 1162. [Dr. Constantin Jireček, Das christliche Element p.4, 37.].
The second time, the remains of Saint Procopius were carried in the year 1386 to the Church of the saint in the town of Prokuplje in the region of Toplica. In this context the issue of Shmitri’s church in Mirtovica should also be seen. In the name and honor of the martyr and saint Demetrius, the church under the “judge”, the castle of Zvečani will have been at the head of the time the church of the still undivided Christian period, later the temple of the Byzantine Orthodox Christian term, appropriated church, and alienated in the Serbian Orthodox Church.
This knowledge is possible thanks to the state of medieval Serbia which consisted of provinces, known in Byzantine historiography as “Sclavinia”, private properties, occupied by Serbian feudal lords, be they occupiers of castles, cities, as is the case with the Vlach Hrebeljanovićs, respectively with Count Lazar and his sons who had it added and therefore they also owned the city of Novoberda.
They were perhaps direct descendants of the Nemanjidas dynasty, such as Stefan Uroš II Milutini (son of Stefan Uroš I and the French Helena from the door of the Anjou dynasty) who, conforming to the model of the expansion of Serbian power over the lands of the Byzantine Empire, inhabited Albanian citizens, was initially called “King of Banjska”, [eg. Lj. Stojanović, Stari srpski rodoslovi i ljetopisi, Zbornik za istoriju, jezik i književnost srpskog naroda, vol. XVI, SKA, Sremski Karlovci 1927, p. 195.]
Shinkolli Church of Pejë
During the rule of Emperor Komneni, many churches in Kosovo were rebuilt, and they still stand today, including Shinkolli in Pejë (the so-called patriarchate), Saint Meria in Prizren, this Albanian-Byzantine church with its decorations is the most original among the churches. In the main part of the church, among the most attractive decorations are two red double-headed eagles that dominate the altar with their majesty in the circular interior. It is understood that the double-headed eagle is a Pelazgo-Illyrian and Byzantine-Albanian symbol. Then the Church of Ulpiana near Pristina, the Church of Damiani. Some churches were built for saints, such as the Albanian saint Shën Kolli of Byzantine times (Shin Kolli). The church was built right at the foot of the high Albanian Alps of Dukagjin near Bistrica and at the entrance to the Rugova Gorge.
Albanian Byzantine Orthodox Churches
The feast of Shin Kolli has been celebrated for centuries among Albanians. And in Slavic literature, the church is called Patriarch of Pec, this designation was reached at the time of the Nemanja family. The Orthodox churches of Kosovo were established among the Albanians much earlier than the arrival of the Serbs, even thousands of years ago, because when the Slavs came they were seen as barbarians.
Here we should mention the orthodox church of Peja which is traditionally called Shinkolla or Kollashin, i.e. Saint Nicholas by the Albanians (according to the leading personality of the Albanian Christian tradition who is buried in the southern part of the church). In Albania, Saint Kolli was the most popular saint and there are more churches and religious institutions after the Blessed Virgin Mary, while in Kosovo there is only one church dedicated to this saint, in Janjevë, a settlement which was founded for the first time in 1303 by Pope Benedict XII as a Catholic center. However, many Catholic families throughout Kosovo (Selmani, Mrijaj, Gjinaj, Nikollaj, Përgjoka, Karrica, Paloka, Gojani, Curri, Spaqi, Gjonlleshaj) celebrate Shënkolli’s day as a family holiday. The number of Orthodox Albanians is not small, this number is around 4,000.
The interior of these Albanian Orthodox churches were decorated with the traditional Albanian Orthodox and imperial symbolism of the time, dominated by the double-headed eagle inherited by Justin Jani, and under the Ottoman rule after the Kosovo War, when the Serbs were in alliance with the Turks, as they are now aligned with Russian, the symbolism and writing were systematically changed.
Albanian Orthodox Church of Ohër
In the town of Ohrid, in 1295, there was the Albanian nobleman and general of the Byzantine army Progon Zguro, who built one of the most beautiful churches of Ohrid – the Church of Saint Clement, known as the Holy Mother of God – Perivleptos. Progon Zguro was the son-in-law of the Byzantine emperor Andremachus II Paleologus. Zguroja was consort with the Serbian king Millutin Nemanjic, who was also married to Simonida when she was still a child, at the age of eight, while Millutin was an old man and had been married three times before.
Millutinie had blinded his son Stefan “without any judicial investigation”, who rose up against his father to take the throne. Stefan was overthrown by his son Dushan, rising to the fortress of Zveçan, and so on. Even though this happened, the Orthodox Church declared all of them holy. However, in these times, many Albanian leaders, as seen above, had the support of the influential leaders of Constantinople. So in the year 319, the three Muzakaj brothers, Mentuli “count of Kilcyra”, Andrea “marshal of the kingdom of Arberia” and Teodori “protosebast” had joined in a broad coalition against the king of Serbia, Uroshi II.
This coalition led by Pope John XXII. In 1330, Adrea became the first of the Muzakai house. He had gained such fame and influence that the emperor of Byzantium, Andronicus II Paleologus, gave him the high title of despot. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, Andrea Muzaka defeated the forces of the Serbian king Vukash in the mountains of Peristeri and at the same time he captured the city of Kostur from Mark Kralevic.
The church of the city Kostur
In this city, the Muzakai built a church, Saint Athanasius of the Muzakai, decorated with high-quality frescoes, which is still preserved today. As it was said above, near Pristina, in the village of Graçanicë, there is the old monastery of the same name, which was the seat of the archbishop of Lipjan since the time of Byzantine rule in these places and was built in 930.
King Millutin Nemanjic renovated and rebuilt this monastery in the first half of the 14th century, but other architectural changes were made in this monastery over several centuries. For the painting of Graçanica’s frescoes, the Serbian ruler had engaged the same Albanian painter that had engaged the Albanian nobleman Progon Zguro for the decoration of the Ohrid-Mëhill church Astrapa and Eutihu.
King Milutin changing Albanian Byzantine churches
It is worth noting that Millutini also rebuilt several other churches, also of great architectural value, such as the Banjska monastery near Mitrovica and the church of the Blessed Virgin (Shna-Prenda) in Prizren (Sveta Peta, Levishka), which existed as such even before the arrival of the Nemanjiks in these places (as well as Graçanica). So Millutini, after having taken it for himself, fixed the peak of the church of (Shna-Prenda) in Prizren.
Fra Vita Kuçis inscriptions on the Monastery of Decan
The inscription of Fra Vita Kuçi on the doors of the Monastery of Deçan was first published by Jovan Rajić in his history (J. Rajić, Nav. delo, II, 581) and many other authors after him. In the later study of G. Subotiqi, who is taken as the main chronicler of the biographies of Deçan (the church of Deçan), he tells about the authenticity of the construction of the church building that was completed in the autumn season of 1334. (F. Mehmetaj, Decani through the centuries, Pristina,2020) With the same profile is the Church of Deçan, an old free-forest monastery that was later usurped by Dusan, like most of the old Albanian churches that were appropriated by the Serbs after settling in these spaces. The monastery of Deçan was also called the Church of Gashi, because the members of this tribe guarded this church for hundreds of years.
Reference
- Dr Constantin Jireček in “Das christliche element.
- https://fondacionihasanprishtina.com/sllavizimi-i-kishave-shqiptaro-bizantine-te-kosoves-projekte-te-hershme-te-serbise/
- https://www.zeriislam.com/artikulli.php?id=957
Balkan Academia 