Novo Brdo is a town and municipality in the Pristina district of eastern Kosovo

admin ♦ August 5, 2010 ♦ 1 Comment

Novo Brdo is a town and municipality in the Pristina district of eastern Kosovo[a]. The population of the municipality is estimated at 3,900 people (2008).

The name of the town means “New Hill” in the Serbian language.
Novo Brdo (in Latin documents written as Novaberd, Novus Mons or Novamonte; and in Saxon miners’ documents as Nyeuberghe) was mentioned in the historical documents as early as 1326. Previously it was included, together with the other parts of Kosovo, within the First Bulgarian Empire . The famous Bulgarian Mediaeval writer Vladislav the Grammarian was born there between 1410 and 1415 .

Novo Brdo was a metropolis at the time, with a huge medieval fortress built on the top of an extinct volcano cone, the remains of which can be visited today, and residential sections sprawling all around. In the outer wall of the fortress a large cross is visible, built into the stones. The castle, or fortress, was thought at one point to have dated back to the Byzantine Empire, however there is some evidence indicating that it was possibly Serbian.

The population at its height was estimated to exceed 10,000 people. There were mines and smelting furnaces for iron, lead, gold and silver ores. Novo Brdo silver is known by its argentum glame (an alloy of silver with 1/6-1/3 gold). In 1450 the mines of Novo Brdo were producing about 6,000 kg of silver per year. Novo Brdo was the last Serbian city to remain standing during the first invasion. In 1439 the capital of Smederevo fell and Kosovo resisted until finally Novo Brdo fell in 1441. Novo Brdo was by treaty restored to the Serbs in 1443.

The fortress (named in Turkish Nobırda) came under siege for forty days by the Ottomans, capitulating and becoming occupied by the Ottomans on June 1, 1455. This event is described by Konstantin Mihailović from Ostrovica near Novo Brdo, who was taken by the Ottomans along with some 300 other boys to be trained as Janissaries. All of the higher ranking Serbian officials were executed after the castle fell, with the younger men and boys being taken captive to serve in the Ottoman Army, and some 700 young Serbian women and girls being taken to be wives to Ottoman commanders.

Novo Brdo and the surrounding area was put under the spiritual guidance of the Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid . In 1572 a surge of Bulgarian outlaws made the area so dangerous for the Ottomans that Mehmed Bey of Kyustendil ordered a dozen of local Sipahis to be deployed between Vranje and Novo Brdo against the rebels . By the early 20th century, Novo Brdo’s population had dwindled, with most inhabitants moving to the more easily accessible area of Gnjilane. In 1999, with the entry into Kosovo of KFOR and the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the area had a small military outpost occupied by US soldiers, as well as a station of International Police and Kosovo Police.Error processing request