Photograph from 1968. It shows the Ahmet Delia house (a kulla or fortfified tower), the most famous tower in Drenica for a long time. Burned down three times during its history. In 1903, after the siege of Mitrovica, for which Ahmet Delia was held responsible. As is known, during that siege, the Russian consul was killed, who with his binoculars was helping the Ottoman artillery to hit the Albanian highlanders who had entered Mitrovica to expel them from there.

The ringed tower was burned down again in 1907 by the expedition of Shemsi Pasha, and in 1912 by the Serbs, after the last battle of Ahmet Delija. In May 1912, Hasan Prishtina launched the general anti-Ottoman uprising from this tower, which culminated in the liberation of Shkup (Skopje) in August of that year.

Rebuilt for the fourth time by Ahmet Delija’s sons, it collapsed after seventy years under the weight of time. Today, in its place stands a new tower, erected after the last war, to perpetuate the memory of a great man of Kosovo, whom his enemies feared even in death, and therefore left him without a grave.

Photo taken by Gani Hamiti