ÉGLISE NOTRE-DAME-DU-BON-CONSEIL

This monumental church (Kisha Zoja e Këshillit të Mirë, Crkva Gospe od Dobrog Savjeta) dominates the small town of Klina. Completed in 2011, it is the third largest Catholic place of worship in the country after the cathedral in Pristina and the church in Gjakova/Đakovica. This impressive red brick, double-belfry building is 39 m high and reminds us that Klina is sometimes called "Little Rome". Indeed, the highest proportion of Catholics in the country can be found here: about 25 per cent of the population in the town and 30 per cent for the municipality as a whole, or some 11,000 faithful. The numbers are increasing, since many Muslim Albanians in the region have been converting to Catholicism every year since 1999.

Twelve years of work. While there are older Catholic churches in nearby villages, the Serbian authorities refused to build a new place of worship in Klina in the 1990s. Therefore, as soon as the Kosovo war ended in August 1999, the Catholic bishop of Prizren Mark Sopi (1938-2006) started the construction of the present church. A leading figure in the "Catholic renaissance" in Kosovo, he died long before the construction was completed. Despite the support of the Italian KFOR contingent, the work was financed almost entirely by meagre donations from the local Albanian Catholic community, so that the church was only consecrated in May 2011. Located in the Romëva district, near the R104 in the direction of Istog/Istok, but a little away from the seven recent mosques in the city centre, the church is preceded by a small square where a bronze statue of Mother Teresa is installed, surrounded by plaster statues of Saint Joseph and Saint Anthony of Padua. You must then climb the twenty steps of a wide staircase to reach the foot of the monumental brick façade. This is pierced by a large rose window, topped by a clock and framed by the two symmetrical bell towers. The interior is sober and white with a central nave and two side aisles, minimalist stained glass windows and the statues of St. Anthony of Padua and a Virgin and Child. Behind the altar, the choir is dominated by a large carved wooden crucifix which was donated in 2007 by the German General Roland Kather (born in 1949) who was then Lieutenant General and Commander of KFOR in Kosovo. A recent convert to Catholicism himself, Kather mobilized significant military resources (including an airplane) to transport the carved wooden cross to Baden-Württemberg and have it installed by his soldiers in the still unfinished church.

An Italian-Albanian miracle. The church in Klina is dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel, one of the Catholic Church's names for Mary. Her cult is particularly widespread among the Albanians since the "miracle" of April 25, 1467. On that day, two events were reported by the faithful in two different places: while a fresco depicting a Madonna and Child appeared on the wall of the church of Genazzano, near Rome, Italy, a chapel disappeared at the foot of the fortress of Rozafa, in Shkodra, northern Albania. Legend also has it that this image of the Virgin and Child appeared that same day to the leader of the anti-Ottoman rebellion in Albania, Skenderbeg, a few months before his death. The city of Shkodra was captured by the Ottomans in 1479. Thousands of Albanian Catholics fled to Italy and some of them said they recognized the fresco of their lost chapel in Shkodra in the church of Genazzano. For the Albanian faithful, this "translation" of the image of the Virgin was interpreted as a "divine advice" to migrate en masse to the other side of the Adriatic and thus avoid the Ottoman yoke. Subsequently, several "miracles" were attributed to this Virgin of "Good Counsel", who is more often called "Our Lady of Shkodra" in Albania. In 1895, she was officially designated as the patroness of Albania by the Catholic Church. She is celebrated every March 25 by all Catholic Albanians, resulting in a major festival in Klina on that day. The rest of the year, masses are held here daily at 6pm (4pm in winter) and on Sundays at 9am, 11am and 6pm (3pm in winter).

Church of Reconciliation. Not far from Klina, the village of Zllakuqan/Zlokućane (5 km north on the R104 towards Istog/Istok) has about 650 inhabitants, 99% of them Catholic, and is home to the Catholic Church of St John the Baptist (Kisha e Shën Gjon Pagëzorit, Crkva svetog Ivana Krstitelja). It was built at the end of the 19th century and has been constantly remodelled since then, and now also has two large bell towers. It has played an important role in the recent history of Kosovo. It was here that Catholic priests established the first Albanian language school in 1895. It is also known as the "church of reconciliation", since it served as a place of mediation in the 1920s between the Albanian families of the region who were killing each other because of the gjakmarrja ("blood resumption") planned by the Kanun. Finally, in 1999, the church of St John the Baptist welcomed the Muslim Albanians driven out of Mitrovica by Yugoslav troops who fled to Albania at the end of the Kosovo war.