Gazimestan (, , ) is the name of a memorial site and
monument
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...
commemorating the
Battle of Kosovo
The Battle of Kosovo ( tr, Kosova Savaşı; sr, Косовска битка) took place on 15 June 1389 between an army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and an invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan ...
(1389), situated about 6-7 kilometres southeast of the actual battlefield, known as the Kosovo field. The name is a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsghazi'', meaning "hero" or "champion", and Serbian word '' mesto'', meaning "place". Gazimestan is reached from the
Pristina
Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians and ...
– Mitrovica highway, on a 50-metre hill above the plain, ca. 5 km north-west from Pristina. Every year, on ''
Vidovdan
Vidovdan ( sr-cyr, Видовдан, lit. "Saint Vitus Day") is a Serbian national and religious holiday, a ''slava'' (feast day) celebrated on 28 June (Gregorian calendar), or 15 June according to the Julian calendar. The Serbian Church desi ...
'' (St. Vitus Day), 28 June, a commemoration is held by the monument, which in later years is also covered by an image of Prince Lazar, who led the Christian army at the battle.
History
The site was the place where Despot
Stefan Lazarević
Stefan Lazarević ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Лазаревић, 1377 – 19 July 1427), also known as Stefan the Tall ( sr, Стефан Високи / ''Stefan Visoki''), was the ruler of Serbia as prince (1389–1402) and despot (1402–1427), ...
erected a marble pillar with an inscription commemorating the battle. That monument disappeared during the Ottoman period. A monumental building in the form of a temple (''Vidovdanski hram'', "Vidovdan temple") designed by Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović was planned but never realized. In 1924 a small monument honouring the Serbian heroes at the battle (''Kosovski junaci'', "Kosovo heroes") was erected; it was an
obelisk
An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...
with a cross on top. It had a Cyrillic inscription: "To the fallen heroes for the honorable cross, freedom, and rights of their people – 1389 1912 – ythankful descendants, citizens and soldiers of the city of Priština". During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, just after the Yugoslav capitulation, the monument was mined by Albanian fascist troops and completely destroyed. In the years prior to the war, a larger monument had been planned and a cornerstone placed near where the present monument is, but the threat of war put it on hold.
Until the end of World War I and the creation of Yugoslavia (1918) there were no conditions or opportunities for large masses to gather at the site. More notable celebrations of ''Vidovdan'' (St. Vitus' day) at Gazimestan are noticed only since 1919, in 1924 when the obelisk was erected, and finally before the start of the war, five and a half centuries after the battle. In this period an estimated 20,000–100,000 people gathered on Vidovdan at Gazimestan. Participants included not only native Kosovo Serbs, but also others from distant regions, such as the Bay of Kotor,
Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...
,
Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...
Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
,
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
and some places in Vojvodina. The celebration programme included, from 9 or 10 o'clock, commemoration in liturgy at
Gračanica Gračanica () may refer to:
Places
Bosnia and Herzegovina
*Gračanica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a town and municipality in Tuzla
*Gračanica (Bugojno), a village in Central Bosnia
*Gračanica, Gacko, a village in Republika Srpska
*Gračanica, Proz ...
, Samodreža and Gazimestan, speeches, discourses, and artillery fire. In 1935 and 1939 there were also
air show
An air show (or airshow, air fair, air tattoo) is a public event where aircraft are exhibited.
They often include aerobatics demonstrations, without they are called "static air shows" with aircraft parked on the ground.
The largest air show m ...
.
In 1989, on the 600th anniversary, Serbian president
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...
held the famous
Gazimestan speech
The Gazimestan speech ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Govor na Gazimestanu, Говор на Газиместану) was given on 28 June 1989 by Slobodan Milošević, then president of Serbia, at the Gazimestan monument on the Kosovo field. It ...
at the site.
In 1997 the site was declared a
cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...
of Serbia.
In 1999, in the aftermath of the
Kosovo War
The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war ...
(1998–99) the monumental area was mined.
In 2007, a 14-day march from Belgrade to Gazimestan was organized by several patriotic organizations.
In 2009, the commemoration brought the biggest crowd since 1999, with several thousand people.
In 2010, the Kosovo Police was handed over the task of guarding the monument, which was criticised by the Serbian government. In 2014, President
Tomislav Nikolić
Tomislav Nikolić ( sr-Cyrl, Томислав Николић, ; born 15 February 1952) is a Serbian retired politician who served as the president of Serbia from 2012 to 2017. A former member of the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS), he d ...
held a speech at the monument.
Monument
The Gazimestan monument was designed by Aleksandar Deroko, in the shape of a medieval tower, and built in 1953 under the authority of
SFR Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...
.
Gazimestan na Vidovdan 2009. godine.JPG, Vidovdan 2009
Monumenti memorial i Gazimestanit.jpg, Vidovdan 2013
Gazimestan2.jpg,
Kosovo curse
The Kosovo curse ( sr, Косовска клетва / ''Kosovska kletva'') or Prince's curse ( sr, Кнежева клетва, link=no / ''Kneževa kletva''), is according to legend, a curse said by Serbian Prince Lazar before the Battle of Kosov ...