by Xhemaledin Salihu

The Presheva Valley can also be called the Presheva Region, as many researchers who are participating in scientific conferences organized by the Presheva Association for Cultural Heritage and Creativity are calling it.

Justifications:

1. Presheva has been inhabited since the Neolithic period, continuing to be inhabited during later periods: the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and up to the present day, due to its favorable geographical position, favorable climatic and hydrographic conditions.

The Morava and Vardar valleys were mainly inhabited by the Illyrian-Dardan tribe, so Presheva lay in the central part of the Dardanian Kingdom. This is evidenced by archaeological, anthropological, cultural-historical, linguistic, ethnological, and other data.

Although many movements of populations and cultures were intertwined, the indigenous Albanian population of Presheva managed to preserve archaeological material, which proves its centuries-old autochthonousness and its antiquity.

Archaeological finds, localities, objects and archaeological values ​​in Presheva have been found from prehistoric times, ancient times, the Middle Ages, but also later.

Skender Anamali, in Kosovo and the ethnic territories in the areas of former Yugoslavia in the early Middle Ages, Kosovo, no. 4/1994, p. 9 writes: “Prokop of Caesarea, an author of the 6th century, in his work “On Constructions” writes that the Byzantine emperor, Justinian of Illyrian origin, built 8 castles in Dardania alone and rebuilt 61 others.”, which we conclude that the Presheva Castle was also built with the others, which we mentioned above.

The Presheva Castle dates back to the Illyrian-Dardanic period. “The Presheva Castle was first founded by the Dardanians in the 4th century BC. With the arrival of the Romans in this region, in the 1st century AD they built stone-paved roads according to their construction standards, rebuilt the castle on the foundations of the ancient Illyrian, or Dardanian, castle, and the Dardanian settlement below the castle,” writes Dr. Jahi Murati-Staneci and continues:

“The legendary castle and the ruins of the developed ancient settlement, which are located on the western edge of Presheva, at the foot of the Castle Hill, are synonymous with the antiquity and ancient civilization of this city. This ancient settlement has already descended to the plain, it has expanded… It is assumed that in this place, Presheva has existed even at the beginning of the Byzantine period.

From this time until near the end of the Middle Ages, a period of nearly ten centuries (1000 years) no trace of the existence of this settlement has been left. Civilization was absent… We have no data on the causes and time of the relocation of the ancient Presheva settlement”.

“The legendary castle and the ruins of the developed ancient settlement, which are located on the western edge of Presevo, at the foot of the castle hill, are synonymous with the antiquity and ancient civilization of this city. This ancient settlement has now descended into the plain, expanded…

It is assumed that Presheva existed in this place even at the beginning of the Byzantine period. From this time until the end of the Middle Ages, a period of nearly ten centuries (1000 years), no trace of the existence of this settlement has been left. Civilization was absent… We have no data on the causes and time of the relocation of the ancient settlement of Presheva”./dr Jahi Staneci, Presheva in pictures and words (monograph), Prishtina, 2010, p.42

The Presheva Castle is the most important object of intangible cultural heritage in the Presheva region, built in antiquity, rebuilt several times in the Middle Ages and later, it represents the ancient castle of the Illyrian-Dardan tribe and one of the most important cultural and historical monuments in the Presheva region.

“The ancient settlement of Presheva lies on the coastal part near the present-day Kurbalija River, namely the Presheva River. It is located at the foot of the present-day Karadak Mountain, somewhere around 1,500 m southwest of the beginning of the present-day settlement, in the place known by the locals as “THE CASTLE OF PRESHEV”, writes Burbuqe A. Agushi, Presheva with its surroundings in urban architectural development / monograph / Presheva, 2009, p. 33.

2. Presheva on a map from the 11th and 12th centuries is mentioned as follows: Vranja, Presheva and Inogoshta.

So no settlement of Presheva is mentioned.

3. In the 15th century /1402/ Presheva was the center and seat of the entire region Moravica. It was once considered that Presheva and Moravica were two regions, but later it was concluded that it was a region and that Presheva was the center of this region. In support of this we conclude that Presheva was a city and regional center, as Constantine the Philosopher argues, even though we don’t have enough written data and arguments for that time.

The table is taken from Stojanovski’s book: The Cadillac of Vranje

4. The Presevo Kazaja, from the Congress of Berlin, had the districts of Bujanovac and Tërgovishte, until the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, and even continued as the District of Presevo in the Vardar Banovina, with its center in Skopje.

5. Presheva lost the district in 1945, actually in 1947, in an arbitrary manner from Serbia and from then on it remained just a city, while the district passed to Bujanovac.

Reference

https://www.drini.us/presheva-emertimi-dhe-vjetersia-e-saj/?