Korishë ( sr-Cyrl, Кориша; romanized: Koriša) is a village in the

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, ...

Municipality in southern

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 ...

History

Prior to the Ottoman expansion into the region, Korishë was a large settlement that extended out into the Brešta ridge to the east of the village. The area surrounding the village had nine Serbian Orthodox sites including the

Hermitage of St. Peter of Koriša The Hermitage and Monastery of Saint Peter Koriški (; ) is a ruin of the hermitage and monastery located in the village of Korishë, Prizren municipality, Kosovo. The monastery and hermitage are at the same location. History The Monastery is a ...

and Monastery of St. Mark of Koriša scattered within the Brešta ridge. At the turn of the 20th century, the population demographics of Koriša changed. Prior to 1912, there were between 30 and 40 Serbian households and by 1940, only 25 Serb homes remained with many Serb families moving permanently to

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

and

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names of European cities in different languages (M–P)#N, names in other languages), less often spelled in English as Nish, is the list of cities in Serbia, third largest city in Serbia and the administrative cente ...

. Throughout this time, many Albanians moved down from settlements on the Kabash Mountain into Korishë. By 1940, there were 54 Albanian households. 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. ...

, 11 Serbo-Montenegrin colonist families were settled in the locality of Korisha-Kabashi. During World War II, in the village of Korisha near Prizren, Albanians destroyed the 14th-century Serbian Church of St. Peter.

Kosovo War

During the Kosovo War, more than 80% of the village was destroyed and burnt by Serbian forces. It was the site of the NATO-ordered Koriša bombingbr>
It resulted in at least 147 casualties, all of whom were ethnic Albanian Kosovans. While the results of the bombing itself are well documented, the stated reason for the strike (military necessity) was heavily disputed by the Yugoslavians. It has been claimed by some involved in the area of the strike point that the Serbian police deliberately placed the eventual bombing victims in the targeted building in anticipation of a NATO attack. However, these claims are unsubstantiated. It has also been claimed, among a general variety of sources ranging from news organizations to, again, individuals present at the bombing site—that the whole incident was the result of a complicated affair where these specific Kosovan Albanians were originally trying to exit Yugoslavia, supposedly to escape the Serbs. This relates to the wider topic of the Yugoslav campaign and the activities of the Serbian security forces during the Kosovo War, which are controversial in and of themselves.

Notable sites

There are 3 artificial waterfalls, which are being visited by a lot of Tourists all around Kosovo. On the right side of Kabash Mountain, in an area called Gralishtë, is a large, unfinished castle. It dates from the 5th to 6th century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Korisa Villages in Prizren