Gazimestan

Gazimestan is the name of a memorial site and monument commemorating the Battle of Kosovo , situated about 6-7 kilometres southeast of the actual battlefield, known as the Kosovo field. The name is a portmanteau derived from Arabic ghazi, meaning "hero" or "champion", and Serbian word mesto, meaning "place". Gazimestan is reached from the Pristina–Mitrovica highway, on a 50-metre hill above the plain, ca. 5 km north-west from Pristina. Every year, on Vidovdan , 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.

The site was the place where Despot Stefan Lazarević erected a marble pillar with an inscription commemorating the battle. That monument disappeared during the Ottoman period. A monumental building in the form of a temple designed by Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović was planned but never realized. In 1924 a small monument honouring the Serbian heroes at the battle was erected; it was an obelisk with a cross on top. It had a Cyrillic inscription: "To the fallen heroes for the honorable cross, freedom, and rights of their people – 1389 1912 – [by] thankful descendants, citizens and soldiers of the city of Priština". During World War II, just after the Yugoslav capitulation, the monument was mined by Albanian fascist troops and completely destroyed. In the years prior to the war, a larger monument had been planned and a cornerstone placed near where the present monument is, but the threat of war put it on hold.

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