NOVO BRDO FORTRESS

This "new hill" fortress (Tvrđava Novo Brdo, Kalaja e Novobërdës) is placed on top of an extinct volcano, at 946 m above sea level. It is one of the most important historical sites in Kosovo. Alas, since 2014, the medieval fortress has been the subject of a strange "revitalization" project launched by Unesco, which results in the addition of new elements and the gradual destruction of the original structure year after year. Built from 1295 by the Serbian king Milutin, the fortress had for function to protect the most precious silver mines of the Balkans for which was created the "mining colony of Novo Brdo", a big medieval city of 40 000 inhabitants. It became the last Serbian stronghold in Kosovo to fall to the Ottomans in 1555. As they were unable to restart the mines, the Ottomans turned the fortress into a simple garrison around which only 5,000 Christian and Muslim inhabitants lived.

Original plan. The fortress designed by Milutin is in the form of a fan unfolded towards the west with two distinct parts. The upper city (Gornji Grad) is a slightly flattened hexagon 50 m long and 45 m wide which is defended by six towers about 10 m high. It is this part that is the subject of the most important interventions of Unesco since 2014. The lower city (Donji Grad) includes three walls: two more or less rectilinear walls of 45 m in length start on each side of the upper city and join two corner towers which are themselves connected by the third wall of 180 m in length which extends to the west in an arc. The whole is pierced by three doors (one of which allows to pass from the upper city to the lower city) and surrounded by a ditch. The walls, alternating brick and cut stone, are up to 3 m thick. While the upper town had a military role, the lower town served as a residential area. But most of the population lived outside, around the hill, in Catholic and Orthodox "suburbs" which are today the villages of the municipality of Novo Brdo/Novobërda. The surroundings are studded with the remains of the medieval town. Nearby, to the east of the fortress, are the foundations of the Orthodox cathedral of St. Nicholas, which was converted into a mosque in 1466. The mining colony had up to nine churches before the arrival of the Ottomans, including two Catholic churches located near the present-day Church of the Mother of God of Javor.