A city in southern Меtоhiјa, at the foot of the Šаra Mountain, at 500 m above the sea level. It was built on the place where an ancient city of Teranda had been, near a 11th century Byzantine fortress of Kaljaja. In the Byzantine time, Prizrеn was ban important regional centre and an archbishopric seat. It remained the commercial and spiritual centre under the Serbian rule, being an occasional Dušаn’s and Urоš’s imperial capital. At that time, new fortifications were built not far from the town, the well-known being the Višеgrаd Fortress. The travellers in those times called Prizrеn the imperial capital, and the folk poetry mentions it as the Serbian Imperial City
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The Prizren churches and monasteries: The Virgin of Ljеviš Church, the Holy Archangels monasterial complex (3km from Prizrеn), the Holy Salvation Church (on a nearby hill), St Nicholas’ Church (in the town centre), the St Kyriake Church (below the Kаlјајa Fortress) – all dating from the 14th century.
The Virgin of Ljеviš Church was built in 1307 on a place of an earlier, early-Christian one. It was an historic seat of the Prizren bishop. It has a cruciform ground plan and five domes. Its oldest frescoes date from the 1230’s.
HISTORY
Prizrеn was the most significant commercial place in Serbia, with quarters of trades from Dubrovnik and Kоtоr and quite a diverse population. After the fall of the empire, the Мrnjаvčеvić and the Bаlšić families kept the town, but in the 15th century it lost its erstwhile significance. In the Ottoman period, the town got a new urban structure through the destruction of Serbian temples, while erecting the monumental Muslim ones: the Bаyrаkli Меhmеt Pasha mosque, the Sinаn Pasha mosque, a stone bridge and the great hammam. Through undertakings of a great humanitarian, Sima Igumаnоv and a Russian Consul, Yаstrеbоv, in 1971 a theological school was built in Prizrеnu, and the town became an education seminary for all the Serbs under the Turkish rule. At the times of the Turkish wars, here was the centre of the Albanian political resistance (the League of Prizren).
After the Balkan Wars, Prizrеn is once again a part of Serbia. The WWI decision about the retreat through Albania was made in Prizren. After the liberation in the WWII, it was a centre of Kоsоvo and Меtоhiјa for a short while. However, in the socialist Yugoslavia, the population greatly increased, due to natural increase and an increase in the Albanian immigration rate, but at the same time, the Serbian and the Turkish population started to leave the place. In the late 19th century, the Serbs posed a slight majority in relation to the Albanians. A century later, all the Serbs were expelled from Prizrеn.