Gazimestan is the name of a monument commemorating the historical Battle of Kosovo, situated about 6-7 kilometres north-northeast of the actual battlefield, known as Kosovo Field (Serbian: "Косово Поље", "Kosovo Polje"), or in Albanian: "Fushë Kosovë/Fushë Kosova". The monument was designed by Aleksandar Deroko and built in 1953 under the authority of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. It is in the shape of a medieval tower. Gazimestan is reached from the Lazarevo-Mitrovica highway, on a 50 m hill above the plain.
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The name originates from the Ottoman Turkish word "gazi", meaning 'hero' (or in specific contexts 'war veteran'), which in turn is a loanword from Arabic. Thus, in a portmanteau with the Serbian word "mesto", meaning place, Gazimestan's meaning becomes "Place of Heroes". The Serbo-Croatian language absorbed a huge number of Turkish, Arabic and Persian loanwords during centuries of Ottoman rule in the Balkans (see: History of the Balkans).
The monument was the location of the Gazimestan speech delivered by Slobodan Milošević on the 600th anniversary of that battle in 1989, which preceded a violent surge in nationalistic and ethnic tensions prior to the Breakup of Yugoslavia.
Inscribed on the monument is the "Kosovo curse" attributed to Prince Lazar:
This form of the curse first appeared in the 1845 edition of the collection of Serbian folk songs by Vuk Karadžić.
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| a. | ^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, while Serbia claims it as part of its own sovereign territory. Its independence is recognised by 86 UN member states. |
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