Po redaktohet VICKERS (paragraf)

=== Kosovo, the centre of the Nemanjic state ===

Attempts to gain access to the Albanian coast were prominent in the politics of the medieval Serbian state. The urbanisation and consequently the development of the Serbs began as they drew nearer to the coast and established their administrative and religious centres in Shkoder, Prizren and Decan. In the decade 1180-90, taking advantage of the internal disorders of Byzantium under Andronicus, of the Hungarian attack launched in 1183 with which Nemanja was allied, of the Norman invasion in 1185, and of the Third Crusade in 1189, Nemanja was able to conquer Kosovo and Metohija, including Prizren, and penetrate into northern Macedonia, taking Skopje and the upper Vardar. No territory remained under the former Dukljan dynasty; Zeta was incorporated into Nemanja's state of Raska. Having reached the coast, he acquired southern Dalmatia, including the towns of Kotor, Ulcinj and Bar. From Zeta he also advanced into northern Albania, obtaining the region of Pilot lying between Prizren and Lake Shkoder. Thus Serbia came into possession of a consolidated territory bordering Hungary along the low mountain range on the north side of the West Morava river and extending south well into Kosovo and Metohija and west to the coast, including Zeta, Trebinje, Hum and southern Dalmatia. The Byzantines were clearly on the defensive.

Situated at the crossroads of the main Balkan routes connecting the surrounding Serbian lands of Raska, Bosnia, Zeta and the Shkoder littoral with Macedonia and the Pomoravlje region, Kosovo now became the cultural and administrative centre of the Nemanjic state following the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade in 1204. From the twelfth century Catholicism had begun to penetrate through the coastal areas to the interior of the Albanian-inhabited territories of the north-east, but since state and religion were synonymous, the Nemanjas set about imposing the Orthodox faith on their subject peoples. A large number of Catholic churches and monasteries were enlarged and converted into Serbian ones. In the course of time the Orthodox church divided into several national churches corresponding to the states or peoples of the region. Thus the Serbian Orthodox Church acquired an independent identity in the thirteenth century, becoming closely tied to the power of the state and a strong supporter of state policies.

Throughout the twelfth century, Serbia experienced a growth in economic development. Progress in agriculture was based on rich soils left by former lakes located in fertile basins as in Kosovo (upper Ibar river), Metohija (upper Drin river) and Tetovo (upper Vardar river). Progress in mining also occurred based on deposits of gold, silver, copper and tin. After the fall of Constantinople in 1204 the centre of the Nemanjic state moved to the comparatively rich and densely populated regions of Kosovo and Metohija. Here were established the Nemanjas' cultural and administrative centres which required the seat of the Serbian Orthodox church also to move to Pec on acquiring autocephalous status in 1219. The successors of the first archbishop, Saint Sava, built several additional chapels around the Church of the Holy Apostle, laying the ground for what was to become the Pec patriarchy. Through their various theoretical writings and liturgies, these monastic communities helped to foster and strengthen not only the beliefs of the Orthodox Church but also the spiritual form of the Serbian nation. King Milutin left behind the largest number of endowments in Kosovo, one of the greatest of which is Gracanica monastery built in 1321 near Pristina.

In Kosovo, especially in its eastern part, most Albanians were gradually assimilated into the Eastern Orthodox faith by numerous methods, including the baptism of infants with Serbian names and the conducting of all religious ceremonies such as marriages in the Serbian language. In Montenegro entire tribes such as the Kuc, Bjellopavliq, Palabardha, Piprraj and Vasovic were assimilated; those who resisted assimilation retreated into the hills of what is now northern Albania. It is probable that during the twelfth century the definite differentiation occurred between the Gheg linguistic group north of the Shkumbi river and the Tosk group to the south of it. This division was clearly indicated in 1210 by the choice of this valley as the northern border of the territories `conceded' by Venice to Michael of Epirus. At the same time Roman Catholicism, coming from Dalmatia, spread throughout northern Albania, while the south remained under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church. The formal adoption of Catholicism, besides drawing a clear line of demarcation between Albanians and Serbs, also had a further important effect: it incorporated the resistance of the Albanians into the powerful anti-Serb coalition of the Catholic monarchs of Europe that the Papacy attempted to construct especially at the start of the fourteenth century. There is no doubt that the Serbs' breach with the French Angevins, hitherto their allies, played a decisive role in the creation of this front. Common interests gave rise to major campaigns against the Serbs, such as the Crusades of 1319 and 1331, when the alliance of the Papacy, Naples and Hungary was eagerly joined by Albanian and Croat nobles. The Albanians were not to create any structure resembling a state till the fifteenth century. However, organised in tribes under their own chieftains, they dominated the mountains of most of what is today known as Albania.

Virtually the whole territory of southern Kosovo during the Middle Ages became the property of the big monasteries. The information contained in the founding charters of these monasteries show that in the first half of the fourteenth century the population gradually moved from the mountains to the west and north of Kosovo down into the fertile valleys. Not far from Pec stands the enormous and beautiful church of Decani, built in 1327-35 for Stefan Uros III; its wealth of decoration includes almost 10,000 painted figures and twenty biblical cycles representing the largest surviving collection of icons created within the Byzantine sphere of influence. Each Serbian ruler built at least one monastery. The 1330 Decani charter lists in detail households and chartered villages. The Decani estate was an area of sweeping size which included parts of what is today northeastern Albania. It is these self-sufficient monastic complexes that are cited as proof of the ethnic and homogeneous settlement of Kosovo by Serbs.