Gazimestan (Serbian Cyrillic: Газиместан, Serbian pronunciation:[ɡaziměstaːn], Albanian: Gazimestani) is the name of a memorial site and monument commemorating the Battle of Kosovo (1389), situated about 6–7 kilometres southeast of the actual battlefield, known as the Kosovo field. Gazimestan is accessible from the Pristina–Mitrovica highway, on a 50-metre-high hill above the plain, ca. 5 km northwest of Pristina. Every year, on Vidovdan (St. Vitus Day), 28 June, a commemoration is held by the monument, which in later years is also covered by an image of Prince Lazar, who led the Serbian army at the Battle of Kosovo.
Name
Gazimestan derives from the Arabic word ghazi 'hero, holy warrior' and the Serbian word mesto 'place'.[1]
In 1989, on the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, Serbian president Slobodan Milošević gave the famous and controversial speech Gazimestan speech, which has been called the starting point of the disintegration of Yugoslavia.[citation needed]
In 1997 the site was declared a cultural heritage of Serbia.[3] Large numbers of Serbs gather at the monument to commemorate Vidovdan. Violent protests by the Kosovo Albanian community have sometimes occurred during these gatherings.[4]
Monument
The Gazimestan monument was designed by Aleksandar Deroko and built in 1953 on the order of the Serbian communist government.[5] The monument connected the "fighting tradition" of the Serbian people with the modern-day victory of the communist revolution. It is designed in the form of a medieval tower. The inside bears inscriptions with excerpts from folk poetry about the Battle of Kosovo.[6] Its design prompted a debate on architectural style: modernist critics, represented by the writer Živorad Stojković, saw it as incompatible with the times and reminiscent of the architectural style favored under the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.[6] Later, the Kosovo curse, which was recorded by the 19th-century folklorist Vuk Karadžić and which curses any Serb who does not fight at Kosovo, was also included in Cyrillic letters on the monument.[7] Nowadays, the monument is under constant guard by police and is surrounded by a high fence.[8] It has been claimed that the monument was deliberately targeted for bombing and damaged during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia; however, an investigation by academics András Riedlmayer and Andrew Herscher published in 2001 found that any damage observed "was not consistent with anything that could have been caused by an aerial attack." The staircase inside of the monument was reportedly damaged by an explosive after the Kosovo War.[9]
Wollentz, Gustav (2020). Landscapes of Difficult Heritage. Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN978-3-030-57124-5.
