The Shtjefën Gjeçovi Chapel is a cultural heritage monument in Karashëngjergj,

Prizren Prizren ( sq-definite, Prizreni, ; sr-cyr, Призрен) is the second List of cities and towns in Kosovo, most populous city and Municipalities of Kosovo, municipality of Kosovo and seat of the eponymous municipality and District of Prizren, ...

, Kosovo.

Shtjefën Gjeçovi Shtjefën Konstantin Gjeçov-Kryeziu or Stjepan Gečević (12 July 1874 – 14 October 1929) was an Albanian Catholic priest, nationalist, ethnologist, and folklorist from Kosovo. He is regarded as the father of Albanian folklore studies. Life Gj ...

was born in 1874 in

Janjevo Janjevo () or Janjevë (in Albanian) is a village or small town in the Lipjan municipality in eastern Kosovo. The settlement has a long history, having been mentioned for the first time in 1303 as a Catholic parish. The town was prior to the Ko ...

, attending

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

school in

Shkodër Shkodër ( , ; sq-definite, Shkodra; historically known as Scodra or Scutari) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, fifth-most-populous city of Albania and the seat of Shkodër County and Shkodër Municipality. Shkodër has been List of o ...

and continuing his education in Derven (now in

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

Finiq Finiq (, sq-definite, Finiqi, ) is a settlement, considered a town or village, and municipality in Vlorë County, in southern Albania located 8 km from the Ionian Sea and 20 km north of the Greek border. It was formed at the 2015 local g ...

, and

Banja Luka Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city in Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is the tr ...

. He was a noted folklorist and Albanologist. He was killed in 1929 in Zym, Prizren, and is buried in the Karashëngjergj cemetery. In 1935, his edition of the Kanun of

Lekë Dukagjini Lekë III Dukagjini (1410–1481), mostly known as Lekë Dukagjini, was a 15th-century member of the Albanian nobility, from the Dukagjini family. A contemporary of Skanderbeg, Dukagjini is known for the '' Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit'', a code of ...

, a traditional code of law, was published posthumously in Shkodër. The eponymous chapel was built in the cemetery in the 1960s by the Kosovo Office for the Protection of Monuments. Small and rectangular, the chapel has a northern

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

with a semicircular base and a matching wooden semicircular door facing south. The building is stone with

lime mortar Lime mortar or torching is a masonry mortar (masonry), mortar composed of lime (material), lime and an construction aggregate, aggregate such as sand, mixed with water. It is one of the oldest known types of mortar, used in ancient Rome and anci ...

, plastered on the inside but out. The southern façade includes a stone Latin cross and a metal plaque with the birth and death dates of Father Gjeçovi. The roof is covered in stone slabs two deep, except for the three-layer portion over the apse.

References

Historic sites in Kosovo Chapels in Europe Albania articles missing geocoordinate data Religious buildings and structures in Prizren Cultural heritage monuments in Prizren District 1960s establishments in Kosovo {{Kosovo-struct-stub