Bajë
| |
---|---|
Village | |
Coordinates: 42°48′51″N 20°40′21″E / 42.81417°N 20.67250°E | |
Location | Kosovo |
District | Mitrovicë |
Municipality | Skënderaj |
Elevation | 761 m (2,497 ft) |
Population (2011)[1] | |
• Total | 340 |
Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
Area code | +381 290 |
Car plates | 02 |
Banja (Banje; Serbian Cyrillic: Бања, Бање, Albanian: Bajë or Baja), or Banja Rudnička (Serbian Cyrillic: Бања Рудничка), is a settlement in the Skenderaj municipality in Kosovo. The rural settlement lies on a cadastral area with the same name, of 1033 hectares. The village has an Albanian majority.
Banja is located circa 2 km from Runik, on the Pejë–Mitrovica road.[2]
Banja was mentioned for the first time in a charter of Serbian King Stefan Uroš I (r. 1243–1276), dating to the mid-13th century, granted (metochion) to the Gračanica monastery.[2] It was then granted by King Stefan Milutin (r. 1282–1321) to the Banjska Monastery.[2] The village church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, as founded by nobleman Rodop who served Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković (r. 1427–1456), and was buried here in 1436.[3] Two bells found in its ruins are preserved in the Patriarchal Monastery of Peć and National Museum in Belgrade.[3] Between 1936–41 the church was renovated, but destroyed during World War II[3] by Albanian fascists.[4][5][6][need quotation to verify] The village was among those in North Kosovo that was burned down by Albanian paramilitaries and the Serb population expelled.[7] In 1971 the church was reconstructed.[3] The church was used as a model for an Orthodox church in Norway.[8]
On the night of 21 May 1998 a large number of Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army members of Drenica attacked the villages of Banja and Suvo Grlo (which are inhabited by Serbs) and a military station in Rudnik, above Skenderaj. Serbs and Serbian police answered the fire, no deaths or injuries were reported by them.[9]
Ethnic group | 1948 | 1953 | 1961 | 1971 | 1981[10] | 1991 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Serbs | 338 | |||||
Albanians | 32 | |||||
Total[11] | 552 | 595 | 636 | 513 | 371 | 274 |
((cite journal))
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)