Early development The area of Pristina has been inhabited since the Neolithic era by
Early European Farmers after 7,000 BCE in the Balkans:
Starčevo followed by its successors
Vinča,
Baden and lastly Bubanj-Hum. The earliest recognized references were discovered in
Gračanica,
Matiçan and
Ulpiana. During the 4th century BC, the
Kingdom of Dardania was established in the region.
Ulpiana was an important Roman city on the Balkan Peninsula and in the 2nd century BC it was declared a
municipium. In the middle of the 9th century, it was ceded to the
First Bulgarian Empire.
11th to 16th centuries In the early 11th century, Pristina fell under
Byzantine Empire rule and the area was included into a
theme (province) called
Bulgaria. Between the late 11th and middle of the 12th century it was ceded several times to the
Second Bulgarian Empire, before being annexed by the
Kingdom (later Empire) of Serbia, which held it under its rule throughout the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1315, the nearby
Gračanica monastery was founded by Serbian King
Stefan Milutin. King
Stefan Dušan used a location in the area of Pristina as his court before moving eventually to the vicinity of Skopje as he moved his rule southwards. The first historical record mentioning Pristina by its name dates back to 1315–1318, in a
chrysobull of Banjska near Mitrovica. A first brief description of it as a town was given a few years later by the Byzantine Emperor
John VI Kantakouzenos, on his visit to Stefan Dušan at his royal court, describing Pristina as a 'unfortified village'. Following the
Battle of Kosovo, Pristina fell within the realms of the
Serbian Despotate under Prince
Stefan Lazarević. A bitter feud between Lazarević and
Đurađ Branković developed and led to open conflict, with Pristina being the scene of heavy fighting in 1409 and 1410. At the turn of the 15th century, during the time of the Serbian Despotate, Pristina was a major trading post for
silver, with many traders hailing from the
Republic of Ragusa. Between the end of the 14th and the middle of the 15th century, Ottoman rule was gradually imposed in the town. In 1477 Pristina had a small Muslim population. The settlement at the time had about 300 households. About 3/4 were Christian and 1/4 Muslim. In 1477 and 1525, Prishtina also had a Christian Albanian population. The 1487 defter recorded 412 Christian and 94 Muslim households in Pristina, which at the time was administratively part of the
Sanjak of Viçitrina. was built by orders of Sultan
Mehmed the Conqueror in the 15th century.|left
17th to 19th centuries During the
Austro-Turkish War in the late 17th century, citizens of Pristina under the leadership of the Catholic Albanian priest
Pjetër Bogdani pledged loyalty to the Austrian army and supplied troops. He contributed a force of 6,000 Albanian soldiers to the Austrian army which had arrived in Pristina. According to
Noel Malcolm, the city in the 17th century was inhabited by a majority population of 15,000 Muslims, probably Albanian but very possibly including some Slavs. Sources from the 17th century mention the town as "situated in Albania". Austrian military archives from the years of 1689-90 mention "5,000 Muslim
Albanians in Prishtina who had risen against the Turks". Gjergj Bogdani, a nephew of
Pjeter Bogdani, wrote later: 'My uncle, being found already dead and buried, was dug up from his grave and put out as food for the dogs in the middle of Prishtina'. During the 18th century, the history of the city is less documented, though recent data show a regular life unfolding in the city after the
Great Turkish War. While in the first few decades the city was rebuilding its infrastructure, in the second part of the century it is better known for the governing of the local feudal family, the Gjinollis. After the
League of Prizren (1878), the Ottoman authorities moved the capital of the vilayet of Kosovo to Prishtina, likely to weaken the influence of the League of Prizren and to strengthen their control by placing the capital in a more central position of the vilayet. Prishtina remained the capital from 1879 to 1888. During this time, Prishtina saw major economic and cultural growth, recovering from decades of decline. The first registered state printing press was moved to the city, and key buildings like today’s
Kosovo Museum (completed in 1885) were built.
20th century In May 1901, Albanians pillaged and partially burned Pristina. However, The
Kingdom of Serbia opposed the plan for a
Greater Albania, preferring a partition of the European territory of the
Ottoman Empire among the four
Balkan allies. Albanian and Turkish households were looted and destroyed, and women and children were killed. A Danish journalist based in Skopje reported that the Serbian campaign in Pristina "had taken on the character of a horrific massacring of the Albanian population". The events have been interpreted as an early
attempt to change the region's demographics. Pristinans who wore a
plis were targeted by the Serbian army; those who wore the Turkish
fez were safe, and the price of a fez rose steeply. In late October 1918, the 11th French colonial division took over Pristina and returned Pristina back to what then became the 'First
Yugoslavia' on 1 December 1918. During the period between the two World Wars, Serb colonist families were settled both in the city itself and across many villages, newly established settlements or within existing villages. These Serb settlers originated from Montenegro, Serbia, the Serb-inhabited regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other regions where economic conditions were very difficult for them. In city of Prishtina, around 70 Serb families were settled across various neighborhoods. Then the Serb settlers were also to be found in the villages of Badofci, Ballabani,
Barilevë, Besia,
Çagllavicë, Dabisheci, Gllogovica,
Hajkobillë,
Hajvalia,
Keçekollë, Koliçi, Lebana, Makoci, Mareci,
Bardhosh, Nisheci, Orlloviqi,
Prapashticë, Slivova, Teneshdolli, Truda, and
Vranidolli, with the number of families in each area ranging from 2 to 70. These settlers contributed to the demographic composition of the municipality in the past. After the capitulation of Italy,
Nazi Germany took control of the city. In May 1944, 281 local Jews were arrested by units of the
21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian). The Jews were later deported to Germany, where many were killed. by
Miodrag Živković in the city center. "Brotherhood and unity" was a popular slogan of the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia.This ended a long period when the institution had been run as an outpost of
Belgrade University and gave a major boost to Albanian-language education and culture in Kosovo. The Albanians were also allowed to use the Albanian flag.
Kosovo War Following the reduction of Kosovo's autonomy by former
Serbian President Slobodan Milošević in 1989, a harshly repressive regime was imposed throughout Kosovo by the Yugoslav government with Albanians largely being purged from state industries and institutions. The majority Albanian population fled Pristina in large numbers to escape Serb policy and paramilitary units. The first NATO troops to enter the city in early June 1999 were Norwegian special forces from FSK
Forsvarets Spesialkommando and soldiers from the British
Special Air Service 22 S.A.S, although to NATO's diplomatic embarrassment Russian troops arrived first at the airport. Apartments were occupied illegally and the Roma quarters behind the city park was torched. Several strategic targets in Pristina were attacked by
NATO during the war, but serious physical damage appears to have largely been restricted to a few specific neighborhoods shelled by Yugoslav security forces. At the end of the war the Serbs became victims of violence committed by Kosovo Albanian extremists. On numerous occasions Serbs were killed by mobs of Kosovo Albanian extremists for merely speaking Serbian in public or being identified as a Serb. Violence reached its pinnacle in
2004 when Kosovo Albanian extremists were moving from apartment block to apartment block attacking and
ransacking the residences of remaining Serbs. A majority of the city's 45,000 Serb inhabitants fled from Kosovo and today only several dozen remain in the city. .
21st century Pristina International Airport's new terminal opened for operations in October 2013, which was built in response to a growing demand for air travel in Kosovo. In November of the same year, the
R7 motorway as part of the Albania-Kosovo motorway, linking Pristina and the Albanian city of
Durrës on the
Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast, was completed. Another extensive development for the city has been the completion of the
R6 motorway in 2019, connecting Pristina to North Macedonia's capital,
Skopje. Prishtina’s post-1999 urban growth has also been the subject of
academic study, including research that examines how university campuses interact with broader
city planning and
urban transformation within the frameworks of sustainable and resilient development. == Geography ==