Prizren Fortress

Prizren Fortress
Albanian: Kalaja e Prizrenit Serbian: Призренски град; Prizrenski grad
Prizren in Kosovo
Site information
Owner	Kosovo
Controlled by	Byzantine Empire Serbian Empire Principality of Zeta Principality of Dukagjini Lazarević dynasty Branković dynasty  Republic of Venice  Ottoman Empire  Yugoslavia  Kosovo
Open to the public	yes
Site history
Built	6th century (6th century)
Built by	Byzantine Empire (first attested in the 6th century CE) Serbian Empire (further expanded during the 14th century) Ottoman Empire (further expanded between the 15th and 20th century)
Events	Dokufest

Prizren Fortress (Albanian: Kalaja e Prizrenit; Serbian: Призренски град, Prizrenski grad) is a hilltop fortification in Prizren in Kosovo. It overlooks the Prizren River which flows through Prizren, which developed around the fortress. The site of the fortress of Prizren has seen habitation and use since the Bronze Age (ca. 2000 BC). In late antiquity it was part of the defensive fortification system in western Dardania and was reconstructed in the era of eastern Roman Emperor Justinian. Byzantine rule in the region ended definitively in 1219–20 as the Serbian Nemanjić dynasty controlled the fort until 1371.

Since 1371, a series of regional feudal rulers came to control Prizren and its fort: the Balšić, the Dukagjini, the Hrebeljanović and finally the Branković, often with Ottoman support. The Ottoman Empire assumed direct control after 1450 and over time turned the fort into a central stronghold in the Eyalet of Rumelia. Much of the modern fortress dates to the 18th century reconstruction phase.

The fortress is situated on a dominant hill at the eastern part of the town of Prizren, set on a strategic position, contoured with lines that follow distinguished features of the terrain's natural morphology. Archaeological excavations were carried out in 1969 and then again in 2004 and 2009–2011. They resulted in the discovery of the infrastructure, which incorporates rampart walls enforced with towers, casemates, labyrinth corridors, depots, and other accompanying inner rooms and dwellings. It was declared a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1948.^[1]