The Gjakova region, from bazaar to monasteries and vineyards

Look at Kosovo’s tourism figures and the Gjakova region barely registers. That is odd, because here you have one of the great medieval monasteries of the Balkans, the largest Ottoman bazaar in the territory according to its official record, and an entire village protected by law. That mix of a lot of heritage and very few visitors is, for me, the best reason to come.

Four municipalities between mountain and plain

The region fills the south-west of Kosovo, between the Bjeshkët e Nemuna range on the Albanian border and the plain that runs down towards the White Drin. According to OpenStreetMap it consists of Gjakova (Đakovica in Serbian), Deçan (Dečane), Junik and Rahovec (Orahovac). ASK works with the region in its tourism series without saying which municipalities it contains, so the split comes from the map.

The 2024 census gave the region 152,216 residents. Gjakova has 78,699 and, with 88 settlements, more villages than any other municipality in Kosovo. Rahovec, with 41,799, and Deçan, with 27,775, are the other two large ones; Junik, with 3,943 people and three settlements, is among the smallest in the territory. All four have lost population since 2011.

Gjakova and its bazaar

Gjakova town, with 41,809 residents, is the natural hub. Its heart is the Grand Bazaar (Çarshia e Madhe), permanently protected since 1955, with 525 buildings catalogued by the DTK. Around it you find the late 16th-century Hadum Mosque, several Sufi tekkes, the clock tower rebuilt for the centenary of its destruction in 1912 and, out of town, the Tailors’ Bridge over the River Erenik, 192.8 m long.

It is a town for wandering, with no single star sight to overshadow the rest, and I like that. I go into the details on each page, starting with the Gjakova Grand Bazaar.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Gjakova for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

Visoki Dečani, the great monastery

In Deçan municipality stands Visoki Dečani Monastery (Manastiri i Deçanit in Albanian). In 2004 it became the first element of the serial site «Medieval Monuments in Kosovo» and in 2006 added the Patriarchate of Peć, Our Lady of Ljeviš and Gračanica. Since that same year the whole property has been classed as in danger. UNESCO dates it to the mid-14th century and notes that it holds the tomb of the Serbian king it was built for, Stefan Dečanski.

In Kosovo the Special Protective Zones law covers it, keeping the zone it already had. No official website I could open publishes opening hours or visiting rules, so I treat that cautiously on the Visoki Dečani Monastery page.

Junik, Rahovec and Velika Hoča

Junik, at the foot of the mountains, whose high ground lies inside Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park under the 2012 law, keeps stone kullas listed by the Culture Ministry, such as the Brahim Hoxha kulla, known as Oda e Junikut. On OpenStreetMap, Gjeravica, Kosovo’s highest summit at 2,656 m according to the Spanish Foreign Ministry, falls within its boundary.

Rahovec, on the east side, has a clock tower of 1792 and a Halveti tekke of 1732, and it is vineyard country, with almost 14,000 hectares of farmland according to the archived government tourism portal. About 5 km away is Velika Hoča (Hoçë e Madhe), the only whole village the Special Protective Zones law protects as such, and nearby, Zočište Monastery.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Gjakova for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

The tourism numbers

This is the striking part. In 2025 the Gjakova region had 13,776 overnight guests and 27,042 overnight stays, according to ASK, the lowest of the seven regions; neighbouring Peja had 201,711 guests. Capacity is small, too, with 34 establishments, 434 rooms and 828 beds. For you that means no queues, but also that booking a little ahead in summer is wise, because there are not many beds to choose from.

Planning a visit

With two days, give one to Gjakova and one to Dečani and Junik. With three, add Rahovec, Velika Hoča and Lake Radoniq, Kosovo’s second largest lake at 5.96 km² according to ASK. Outside town a car is close to essential, and remember that your green card is not valid in Kosovo, so you buy local insurance at the border.

Two FCDO warnings apply here. Old mines still lie along the Albanian border and on the tri-border summits, so around Junik and Gjeravica stay on the main tracks. And wildfires are possible from April to October, while rural roads deteriorate after bad weather.