Deçan, the town at the foot of the monastery and the mountains

Nearly everyone who searches for Decani is looking for the monastery. Fair enough, but Deçan is also a mountain municipality with its own town, its kullas and the way into one of the highest parts of Kosovo, and it deserves more of your time than the car park.

The municipality in figures

Deçan (Dečani or Dečane in Serbian) had 27,775 residents in the 2024 census, against 40,019 in 2011, spread over 37 settlements. The main town, also called Deçan, had 3,135, followed by Isniq, Strellc i Epërm, Strellc i Ulët and Baballoq. According to OpenStreetMap it belongs to the Gjakova region, although the ministry’s heritage inventory files it under Peja.

The monastery, close at hand

On OpenStreetMap, Visoki Dečani Monastery is a little under two kilometres from the centre as the crow flies, up towards the mountains. It was the first piece of the UNESCO property, inscribed in 2004, which describes it as a mid-14th-century work built for the Serbian king Stefan Dečanski, which is also his mausoleum. It has counted as heritage in danger since 2006, and Kosovo’s Special Protective Zones law covers it too. I go into detail on the Visoki Dečani Monastery page.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Peja before prices climb.

Kullas and mountains

The Culture Ministry’s heritage database (DTK) lists seven kullas, the stone tower houses, under Deçan. In the old part of town stands Zymer Hima’s, 18th century, three storeys with a timber gallery; its record says the 1998-1999 war damaged it and that in 2009 the NGO Intersos restored it with funding from the Italian Foreign Ministry. Inside it follows the classic layout of these houses, with the stable on the ground floor, the family rooms on the first and, at the top, the men’s room where guests were received. The rest are in villages such as Carrabreg i Epërm, Irzniq, Prapaçan, Strellc i Ulët and Pozhar. The seventh, Brahim Hoxha’s, is actually in Junik.

Behind the town the mountains begin. Much of that high ground has been Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park since 2012, and the FCDO notes that mines from the last conflict still lie on the tri-border summits, so never leave waymarked trails.

How to fit it in

Deçan lies between Peja and Gjakova, and from either you can do it in a day by car. Personally, I would stay in one of them, see the monastery in the morning, have a late lunch in town and spend the afternoon on a kulla or a short climb towards the mountains. There is no official accommodation data for the municipality itself, only figures for the whole region, which had 828 beds in 2025 according to ASK. Driving from Peja or Gjakova, bear in mind the FCDO’s advice against night driving.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Peja before prices climb.