Gračanica, Kosovo

Pope Benedict IX mentioned the village as Grazaniza in a letter from 1303.^[6] It was mentioned in King Stefan Milutin's founding charter of the Gračanica Monastery (1321).^[7] The name is derived from Slavic Gradac, a toponym of fortified cities^[8] In the 15th century the settlement was a notable commercial centre.^[9] Until the 17th century it had a notable Ragusan community.^[9] It seems that the settlement was abandoned in 1689 during the Austrian penetration into Kosovo in the Great Turkish War.^[10] In 1901, it had 60 houses, all Serb, with 400 inhabitants.^[11]

2000–present

On 6 June 2000, a grenade was thrown into a crowd of ethnic Serbs gathered at the town square while waiting for a bus, resulting in injuries to three individuals and triggering subsequent civil unrest.^[12] On 15 March 2004, a Serb teenager was killed in a drive-by shooting in the village of Čaglavica (partially in Gračanica).^[13] This incident was among several contributing factors to the inter-ethnic unrest that occurred in Kosovo in 2004. Following the unrest, another Serb teenager, Dimitrije Popović, was fatally shot in a drive-by attack carried out by ethnic Albanian assailants on 5 June 2004.^[14][15][16]

A votive altar was found in Gračanica. Dedicated to the well-being of two unnamed emperors, it was erected by priests of Jupiter Dolichenus, possibly between 208 and 211 AD.^[17]

The first municipal elections were held on 15 November 2009.^[18] Although the Serbian government urged Serbs to abstain from participating in the elections, which it did not recognise, a significant number chose to vote.^[18] As a result, Bojan Stojanović, an ethnic Serb, was elected Mayor.^[19]

The town of Gračanica is also temporary seat of the administration of Serbia-claimed Municipality of Pristina. The Serbia-sponsored local elections were held on 11 May 2008. The elections were boycotted by ethnic Albanians, who regard Kosovo as independent from Serbia, resulting in participation predominantly by ethnic Serbs.^{[citation needed]}

Aside from the town of Gračanica, the municipality has the following villages:

The municipality of Gračanica has 18,486 inhabitants according to the 2024 census. In 2011, the town had 11,931, of which the majority were Serbs, also true for the municipality as a whole; by 2024, however, Serbs and Albanians made up roughly equal parts of the population.

The settlement is situated in the spacious valley of the Gračanka river, by the river, on the exit of the gorge between the hill of Veletina (874m) and sloping hill of Glasnovik on the south, and hill of Steževac (794m) on the northeast.^[10]

Infrastructure

Gračanica has been a Serb enclave since the end of the 1999 Kosovo War, and is the largest Serbian enclave in central Kosovo. It runs along the Skopje-Pristina road, and unites several neighboring Serbian villages. The enclave, which contains rich farmland and is strategically located in the center of Kosovo, on major roads and near Pristina, has been seen as a potential threat by some Albanian nationalists, who view it as "a den of Serbian intrigue".^[23]

Gračanica has an elementary school, several small stores, an open-air market and a police station. The health care center is located in the central part of the town, next to the UNMIK headquarters. An elementary school was reconstructed after the 1999 war.^[23]

• Municipalities of Kosovo
• Cities and towns in Kosovo
• Community of Serb Municipalities