Gjakova, the town that revolves around its bazaar

Gjakova has no monument that appears on every postcard, which is why many people drive through on their way to Prizren without stopping. I think that is a mistake. Few towns in Kosovo keep such a complete Ottoman centre that is still so much in use, with open shops, working tekkes and a 16th-century mosque in the middle of the bazaar.

A town that grew around a mosque

Gjakova (Gjakovë in Albanian, Đakovica in Serbian) had 41,809 residents in the 2024 census. It heads a municipality of 78,699 people and 88 settlements, more villages than any other in the territory, and the wider Gjakova region.

The official tourism site, offline for rebuilding and read here in an archived copy, records a story about the town’s origins. The tale goes that Hadum Aga talked a landowner, Jak Vula, into handing over a plot for the mosque, and the town that grew around it was first called Jakovë. I take it for what it is, a local tale, but it explains why everything turns on the same spot.

What is there to see in Gjakova?

Everything centres on the Gjakova Grand Bazaar (Çarshia e Madhe), a 16th-century ensemble under permanent protection since 1955. Its DTK entry counts 525 buildings of interest, built of stone, timber, adobe and old tiles, and says it served crafts, trade and administration. It is still an area of shops and workshops.

In the middle of the bazaar stands the Hadum Mosque, dated by the DTK to 1585. It forms a complex with its minaret, Koranic school, old cemetery and a library the record ranks among the oldest in Kosovo. Nearby, the 30 m clock tower, lost to fire in 1912, was rebuilt a century later from archive photographs.

Gjakova is a town of tekkes, too, the lodges of the Sufi orders. The DTK protects, among others, the 18th-century Sheh Emin tekke in the bazaar area and the 19th-century Sheh Danjolli tekke on the way into town from Peja. And opposite the town hall, the Ethnographic Museum occupies a house built in 1810 by the Sina family.

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Bridges over the Erenik

The River Erenik runs south of town and has two protected Ottoman bridges. The Tanners’ Bridge (Ura e Tabakëve), 127 m long with seven arches, is now for pedestrians only. The more spectacular one is out of town, at km 7 on the Prizren road, in the village of Bishtazhin. That is the Tailors’ Bridge (Ura e Terziut), 18th century, with 11 arches and 192.8 m long.

Sleeping and eating

The whole region had only 34 establishments and 828 beds in 2025 according to ASK, nearly all of them in town. According to the DTK, two old bazaar buildings have been turned into places to stay, Hani i Haraqisë and the Çarshia e Jupave. I have no official source for restaurants, so no names from me; OpenStreetMap does mark cafés, bars and restaurants inside the bazaar itself, around the Çarshia e Jupave.

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Beyond the bazaar

Gjakova has Catholic heritage too. On what is known as the Catholics’ street, the DTK lists the church of St Anthony, called Shën Ndou locally. A first church of 1882 was lost, and Father Lorenc Mazreku built the present one on the same site in 1931; it has a single nave and two bell towers on its front.

To the south, near the village of Kusar at the foot of Mount Pashtrik, the government tourism portal describes Kusar Cave, with a stepped rocky entrance. According to that text it opened only recently and has no guide, so I would treat it as a short walk rather than an organised visit. I cover it with the others in Kosovo’s caves and waterfalls.

How many days?

For the town, one full day is enough. I would add a second for Visoki Dečani Monastery in the neighbouring municipality and, with a car, an afternoon for Rahovec and Lake Radoniq. Bring euros; Kosovo uses the euro without being in the EU, and carrying some cash is sensible, as nothing official tells you which bazaar shops take cards. The FCDO gives no Gjakova-specific warnings, so the general ones apply, like ordering taxis by phone and using ATMs inside banks.