UNMIK ON AIR

April 2004

Devastations of Historical Sacral Monuments

(Valon A. Syla)

After surviving the changes in civilization and cultures for centuries, some 30 Orthodox churches and Monasteries were damaged or destroyed during the unrest last March in Kosovo. In this edition of UNMIK on Air we round out our series on monuments and cultural heritage sights and look at the Byzantine Orthodox Church of the Holy Virgin Bogorodica Levushka, located in Prizren.

Hello and welcome, this is UNMIK on Air.

During the Byzatine Era, Albanians and Serbs had once prayed in the same space, in the Byzantine Orthodox Church of the Holy Virgin Levush—today’s Bogorodica Levushka.

The Church of the Holy Virgin of Levush is first mentioned during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Basil II in 1018. The original church was destroyed at the end of the 12th century, when then Serbian ruler, Stefan Nemanja, occupied Prizren. But by the early 14^th century the church was rebuilt and restored by the order of the Serb King Milutin.

Centuries later on March 18^th of 2004 the Church of the Holy Virgin of Levush was again in jeopardy when demonstrators torched the structure, destroying various icons housed in the building and damaging the interior, exterior walls.

In the history of Bogorodica Levushka, the structure didn’t always serve the Orthodox community solely.

When the Ottoman empire conquered the Balkans and occupied Kosovo in the 14^th century, for the next five centuries the Holy Virgin of Levush was a place of worship for Islam and re-named “Xhuma Xhami” meaning, Friday Praying Mosque according to Ylber Hysa, a Kosovo Albanian medieval historian:

Ylber Hysa: “At the time when Levushka was prepared to become a mosque Islamic Codes call for the orthodox icons to be removed. One of the ottoman restaurateurs fascinated by the beauty he saw inside, he left an ottoman inscription inside which said: “the pupil of my eye is the witness of your beauty”. After 1912 this inscription was discovered, which in the best way shows that during the history no matter the faith, there was a discerning sense for fine arts no matter to whom they belonged. ”

At the end of Balkan war in 1912, Bogorodica Levushka was restored to its former Orthodox function. Aside from its important historical heritage and artistic value, Levushka is illustrative of Kosovo’s history says Hysa. According to Hysa: attacking holy sites is also an attack against Albanian and Serbian identity:

Ylber Hysa: “As much as these churches had architectonical, historical value for Serbs, that much they were beautiful and important for Albanians which experienced and cultivated a sense of tolerance. Which means while respecting the churches, Albanians respected a part of Serbian identity.”

Hysa condemned this destruction saying the acts were committed by a small group of people, who he calls “adventurers in history”.

Ylber Hysa: “This is another episode of historical adventurers, and I think that after 1999 some of these adventurers which think that history has began with them, and that they can erase easily the heritage of Kosovo. I consider that this is a big attack against Kosovo’s heritage.”

Nearly 30 churches were attacked and damaged when ethnically motivated clashes erupted throughout Kosovo in March. As the Kosovo Government has already dispatched teams to assess the overall damage, Ylber Hysa says there is hope that reconstruction efforts for churches built after the medieval period will go smoothly, but those built earlier are different stories:

Ylber Hysa: “Some of churches that were damaged are from the new century and they can be rebuild and restaored but the damage is much bigger in political field for Kosovo. Some of the churches, especially those in Prizren as Levushka which a part of its Icons were destroyed and the church of Saint Salvatore (Spase) are those that suffered mostly. These are medieval churches of great value and its damages are irreparable.”

Hysa stresses that Kosovans of all ethnicities should understand that cultural and historical monuments are Kosovo’s heritage. Hysa says everyone should learn from the earlier examples of generation after generation of people in Kosovo who saved and protected these churches for centuries:

Ylber Hysa: “Kosovars in absolute majority should understand the importance that cultural heritage has, as a debt to younger generation that come to save the heritage. In short the saving of the heritage for Kosovars means the saving of their own identity.”

UN resolution 1244 indicates that there are at least 1000 churches in Kosovo which are under the protection of UNMIK. The Ministry Of Culture has undertaken the assessment of damages to holy sites in region. Even so, Minister of Culture Behxhet Brajshori says the Ministry has to juggle many priorities:

Behxhet Brajshori: ”Currently we are ending the evaluation of the damages done to the inhabiting objects. It is important to say that the dynamic of work has been set, and we evaluated that the inhabiting objects will be finished by late August or September of this year, the religious objects will be left for a later phase”

The rebuilding of churches is expected to start early next year. According to Cultural Minister Brajshori, plans are in the making to cooperate with the Serbian Orthodox church when implementing restoration efforts of the holy sites.

And that was all from UNMIK on Air for today. Thanks for listening.