| Vučitrn | |||
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| — Municipality and city — | |||
| Вучитрн (Vučitrn) Vushtrri (Vushtrria) |
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| Vučitrn City Park and Tomb (Turbe) of Karabash. | |||
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Vučitrn
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Kosovo[a] | ||
| District | District of Kosovska Mitrovica | ||
| Area | |||
| • Municipality and city | 435 km2 (168 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2011) | |||
| • Municipality and city | 69,881 (municipality) | ||
| • Density | 202.6/km2 (524.7/sq mi) | ||
| • Metro | 30,000 City | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Postal code | 42000 | ||
| Area code(s) | +381 | ||
| Car plates | 02 | ||
Vučitrn or Vushtrri (Albanian: Vushtrri or Vushtrria; Serbian: Вучитрн, Vučitrn; Turkish: Vıçıtırın; English: Wolf thorn; Latin: Vicianum) is a city and municipality in north-eastern Kosovo[a]. It is the seat of the Kosovska Mitrovica District. The name of the city means "wolf's thorn", the name of the spiny restharrow plant in Serbian.[1]
Although there is no official data, the total population of the municipality is estimated at 69,881. It is also the home of the Kosovo Police Service training school where from 1999 members of the OSCE trained the new multiethnic police service following the departure of the Serbs in 1999. The staff at the training school were made up of serving and retired police officers from the member states of the OSCE.
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Vicianum ("Area of Calves"),is the Roman name of the town. At the end of the first century B.C., Viciana was conquered by the Romans. During this occupation, Viciana developed a considerable economy and a thriving culture. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Viciana was transferred to Byzantine rule. After the Great Schism of the Church in 1054, the majority of Vicianum's population remained Orthodox.
During Middle Ages, Vicianum transferred into town that was formed around Vojinovića Tower, as contemporary chroniclers write. Serbian Emperor Dušan enlarged the fortress.
In the fourteenth century the Ottoman Empire began to expand into the Balkans, with the Ottoman presence in Vučitrn first recorded in 1439, 50 years after the 1389 Battle of Kosovo signaled the entrance of the Ottomans to Kosovo. The establishment of Ottoman administration in Vučitrn spread Islam to the municipality and the construction of mosques, inns, madrassa's and hamams (public baths) followed. Between the 15th-18th Centuries, Vučitrn was one of the largest settlements in the Balkans and it was the center of a very important sandjak (administrative unit) of the Ottoman Empire.
1912 saw an end to centuries long Ottoman rule as a result of the First Balkan War. Vučitrn and the entire surrounding area joined the Kingdom of Serbia that year in an event that would be internationally recognised the following year. However, by 1914, World War I had broken out and Vučitrn was occupied by Austria-Hungary; after the war when which the Central European powers had been driven out, Serbia joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
During World War II the city was incorporated into the German zone of occupation. In November 1944, the Yugoslav Communist administration was established.
In March 1989, Serbian Communist authorities abolished the Constitution of 1974, restoring Kosovo's status as after the 1971 amendments of the 1963 constitution. It was a move widely seen to disenfranchise the local ethnnic Albanian authorities in the region and this eventually led to an armed uprising organized by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and the intervention by NATO forces in March–June 1999. NATO forces entered Vučitrn on 16 June 1999.
| Ethnic Composition, Including IDPs | |||||||||||||
| Year/Population | Albanian | % | Serb | % | Roma | % | Ashkali | % | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 1999 | 81,807 | 93.3 | 5,466 | 6.2 | 300 | 3.4 | 150 | 1.7 | 87,723 | ||||
| Current figure, est. | 98,000 | 95.4 | 4,137 | 4.0 | 125 | 1.2 | 400 | 3.9 | 102,662 | ||||
| Ref: OSCE (PDF/ HTML) | |||||||||||||
In Vučitrn Municipality Albanian, Serbian and Turkish languages are official languages.[2]
Notes:
| 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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