Bishtazhin (; ) is a village located near

Gjakova Gjakova or Đakovica, ) and Đakovica ( sr-Cyrl, Ђаковица, ) is the sixth largest city of Kosovo and seat of the Gjakova Municipality and the District of Gjakova, Gjakova District. According to the 2024 census, the municipality of Gjakov ...

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

. It is inhabited exclusively by

Albanians The Albanians are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, Albanian culture, culture, Albanian history, history and Albanian language, language. They are the main ethnic group of Albania and Kosovo, ...

History

Bishtazhin was mentioned in the Ottoman

defter A ''defter'' was a type of tax register and land cadastre in the Ottoman Empire. Etymology The term is derived from Greek , literally 'processed animal skin, leather, fur', meaning a book, having pages of goat parchment used along with papyrus ...

of 1571 and was inhabited by a Christian Albanian population. The village had 45 households. Bishtazhin was formed during the 16th century. Saint Teresa's mother is believed to have hailed from Bishtazhin. During the

Yugoslav colonisation of Kosovo Over the course of the twentieth century, Kosovo experienced four major colonisation campaigns that aimed at altering the ethnic population balance in the region, to decrease the Albanian population and replace them with Serbs and Montenegrins. ...

, 5 Serbo-Montenegrin colonist families were initially settled in Bishtazhin, and in the locality of Bishtazhin-Lipovec-Smaç, a further 33 Serbo-Montenegrin colonist families with 164 people were settled in the area between the years of 1929-1933. From April 13th-15th of 1941, Serbian

chetniks The Chetniks,, ; formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland; and informally colloquially the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationalist m ...

massacred 72 Catholic Albanians in the village. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Albanians destroyed the Serbian church in the village.

Religion

Bishtazhin is inhabited by Catholic Albanians. The Church of Our Lady of the Rosary is located in the village.

Places of interest

The Terzi Bridge is nearby.

References

Villages in Gjakova {{Kosovo-geo-stub