Travels in Dardanian Albania

Pristina

From Manastir, in an hour and a half we arrived in the city of Pristina, which is located in the north-northwest direction. To get here we crossed a stretch of road, several valleys and mountain ranges. The city is neither in the plain nor on its edge, but in a side valley at the point where it splits in two. Where a stream flows down from the two upper valleys and joins there. According to my calculations, the city has an elevation of 1,776 feet above sea level. There are twelve minarets and a clock tower rising above the mass of houses.

Prishtina (from Slavic prišt 'boil, boil') is the main place of military exercises, after Manastir, for the entire western half of the peninsula. It was chosen no doubt for its strategic military location, being between the staunch Dardanian and Gege Albanians and close to the Novi Pazar basin which forms the only link between Bosnia and the rest of the empire, a region where the Serbs often penetrate to "shake hands" with the Montenegrins. For this reason, the city is filled with soldiers carrying all kinds of weapons; although it is not an administrative center, it belongs to the Pasha of Prizren and is the seat of a simple mudiri. The present official holding this office is a small, elderly man, who paid us much attention, but we did not come into contact with the military authorities.

The next morning (November 1), everything was covered in white after a handful of snow had fallen overnight. Winter had arrived on this high plateau and, as the locals informed me, was usually severe after its initial appearance. Therefore more bad weather was expected. I was forced to change my original plan to continue up to the Dardanelles and thought it best to get back to southern and lower climes as soon as possible. I stayed two days in the house of the mayor [mudir]. The gloomy rooms were not at all in my mood. It was an interesting stay anyway, because the mudir's mother told me that European travelers rarely got there. The last she could remember were two young Frenchmen who had stayed there eighteen years before, when her husband, the leader of the town, was still alive. When I mentioned the names Boué and Viquesnel to her, she could only remember the former, but their description was accurate. This was the only trace we found of the men to whom history owes the first detailed description of these places. To what extent these lands were unknown before them, and indeed still are, may be seen in the works which they left behind. How insignificant they are, nothing to preserve for posterity!

Source: Hahn, Johann Georg von (1868). Reise von Belgrad nach Salonik, nebst vier Abhandlungen zur alten Geschichte des Morawagebietes. Denkschrift der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Class. 1, II. Abteilung. Vienna: Tendler, p. 112–128. Printed material. (Translation from German by Robert Elsie; In Albanian: Yll Rugova).