In the extreme South of Kosmet, Prizren has been situated in a region of little churches in the mountain. A picturesque town situated at the exit from a gorge made of green hills where there are numerous mosques and low houses of an oriental type. Joined to the medieval era in the Kingdom of Nemanjics, Prizren has preserved some monuments of Serbian Middle Ages, the most valuable has been the church of Notre Dame of Ljeviska. Unfortunately the violence of March 2004 have interrupted the fragile equilibration between Serbs and Albanians and the town had got empty of its Serbian inhabitants. The common life between Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Bosnians, Gypsies and Goranci had made the urban tradition of Prizren before.
In the ancient part of the town over holding the commercial quarter there is the hammam with the bathing sections for the men and for wives. Constructed by Gazi Mehmed Pasha in the XVII the hammam had been partitioned into two parts depending upon the sex which had been partitioned by a wall. In each of the parts the space had been organised depending on different : the entrance with a nook for the wardrobe, then the halls dedicated to the rest both in the bathing and in the masage spaces. Finally,the water reservoir and the heating.
Tourist sites
SINAN PASHA MOSQUE - A very nice classical mosque in the centre of the town. Constructed 1615, the Sinan Pasha mosque is a square edifice with an impressive façade overhung by a dome reposed on an octagonal capital. The constructors had used the stones from the monastery of Saint Archangels already destroyed in those ages. In addition the height under the dome is consequent enough: 14.5 m are illustrated by the inscription in one of the inside walls: "Djenet misali" meaning "like Paradise".
Two spaces have been distinguished in this mosque: a place of stone and the joining hall of mihrab. Made of stone of massive enough size the Sinan Pasha mosque has been dominating the quarter and a part of the town. Its very nice and slander minaret is of an impressive beauty. On the inside walls paintings with oriental motives among which there is the decoration under the dome realized 1628.
TURKISH HAMMAM -
NOTRE DAME OF LJEVISKA -
Here could be observed, thanks to the talent of the painter Astrape coming here between 1310 and 1313 from Salonika to produced the frescos of the motives known by the Christian religious wall paintings. The portraits of the patron Milutin, as well as a gallery of portraits if Nemanjics represented in the narthex.: Stevan Nemanja, St. Sava in vestment holding Christ represented in the form of a little boy.
In the heart of the town, an orthodox church having much suffered in the violence of March 2004 an which is under the high surveillance of KFOR. King Milutin had constructed it 1307 in the place where the already had been a little chapel from XII century, and still before a basilica from IX century. The architect Nikola coming from Epirus had succeeded to erect that what you could see partially i.e. a cross like holy edifice with five dome to which a belfry should be added. Ottomans had transformed this church into a mosque in XVIII century and had white washed the frescos to cover them. Unfortunately, the work on restoration have revived in 1950s had been reduced to nothing by the fire 2004.By its external outlook hammam has got also many interesting particularities. Its facades of stone and its roof of red bricks has given it an outlook of a medieval residence. In addition, a great number of pieces each of them overhung by a roof in the form of a dome or octagonal, some of them of the grey slate and others of red brick are giving the ensemble a original and harmonious architecture. These characteristics in advance enough of their ages in the Muslim art relieve the extreme habits of the architect who was able to alternate different materials as well as the curved or straight lines to realize his work.
