Ferizaj, the town growing up beside the railway

Ferizaj doesn’t make the lists of Kosovo’s prettiest places, and I won’t pretend it should. It’s a practical town, sitting on the road and the railway between Pristina and Skopje. But it has one image that, to my mind, earns the stop, and it makes a good base for the mountains to the south.

A town on the rise

Ferizaj (in Serbian, Uroševac) had 48,472 people in the 2024 census by the Kosovo Agency of Statistics (ASK), almost 6,000 more than in 2011. It’s Kosovo’s fourth town by population, after Pristina, Prizren and Gjilan. Its municipality, with 109,255 residents across 45 settlements, is Kosovo’s third largest, and it has held steady while others in the region have shrunk.

Outside the town, the large villages are Pleshinë (4,421), Greme (4,207), Talinoc i Jerlive (3,920) and Nekodim (3,539). It’s a lowland municipality, with big villages around a town that acts as the service centre for the whole Ferizaj region.

What is there to see in Ferizaj?

What I’d go to see is the centre, for one specific reason. OpenStreetMap places the main mosque, the Xhamia e Madhe, and the Orthodox church of St Uroš about 40 metres apart. The photo on this page catches them together, two white minarets beside the church’s golden domes. I have no official source on their history or visiting hours, so I won’t give you construction dates. But as a picture of a place where several communities live side by side, it’s hard to find a more direct one.

A few streets away the same map shows a Catholic church, the Guardian Angel (Engjëlli i Rojës). With all three on a short walk, you’ve done the centre. If Islamic heritage interests you more widely, there’s my guide to mosques in Kosovo.

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

The older heritage lies outside town

The Ministry of Culture database (DTK) lists nothing inside the town itself but five archaeological sites in the municipality. There’s a Neolithic settlement at Varosh, a 3rd-century Roman site at Nerodime e Ultë, a 4th-century Roman cemetery, Tuma-Gur, at Zaskok, a late antique site at Greme and, at Nikadin, the remains of an early Christian church from the 4th century. There are no published visiting hours and no interpretation centre at any of them, so they suit only those who go looking for archaeology on purpose.

The 2008 Special Protective Zones law also gives a 100 m zone to the monastery of St Uroš at Nerodime. The municipality has two places by that name, Nerodime e Epërme (1,418 people) and Nerodime e Poshtme (1,512), and the law doesn’t specify which. For Kosovo’s other protected churches, see Orthodox monasteries in Kosovo.

Rail, road and mountains

Ferizaj’s real asset is its position. OpenStreetMap marks a railway station in town, on the line that continues south through Kaçanik and Hani i Elezit to North Macedonia. Trainkos runs the trains, but its website wouldn’t show me a readable timetable, so double-check times before planning around them. My guide to trains in Kosovo sets out what is known.

By road, Ferizaj is the closest large town to Shtërpcë and Brezovica, the Sharr ski centre. If you’re heading for the mountains and can’t find a room up there, you’ll have more services here. Remember you drive on the right, and that the FCDO advises avoiding driving at night where you can.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Ferizaj and choose by the reviews.

How I’d fit it in

Driving from Pristina to Skopje, Ferizaj sits halfway and is the obvious stop. My plan would be an hour in the centre, between the mosque and the church, then on south to Kaçanik for Kaçanik fortress, 16th century according to the heritage database, before crossing at Hani i Elezit. The FCDO says that border gets busy in summer and at holiday time, so I’d leave early. Have euros in cash for the local car insurance you’ll need if you’re bringing a vehicle in, since green cards aren’t valid in Kosovo, and remember your GHIC won’t cover you here.

Sleeping and eating

ASK only publishes hotel capacity for the region, 58 establishments and 1,434 beds in 2025, without breaking out the town. In and around town, OpenStreetMap has just four motels and three apartments mapped, alongside 21 restaurants, 16 cafés and 14 fast-food places. That’s what contributors have mapped rather than a census, and booking sites show more. For a night on the way through, it’s enough. I’d look near the station or the centre, so you can set off early for Skopje or the mountains.

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