Gračanica, the municipality that grew up beside Pristina

For most travellers, Gračanica means a monastery. For the Kosovo Agency of Statistics it’s also a municipality of 17 settlements south of Pristina, one of those that has grown fastest over the last decade. I’ll describe it as a place, with its figures, and leave the monastery and Ulpiana to their own pages, which is where the things you’re coming for are.

A municipality on the capital’s doorstep

Gračanica (Graçanicë in Albanian) lies in the Pristina region, one of Kosovo’s seven statistical regions, just south of the capital. In the 2024 census it had 18,486 inhabitants, against 10,675 in 2011, according to the statistics agency. That’s huge growth for so short a time, and it shows above all in the settlements closest to Pristina.

The biggest isn’t the village that gives the municipality its name but Uglar, which went from 1,186 to 5,064 people. Next come Graçanicë, with 4,923, and Llapllasellë, Çagllavicë and Kishnicë, all above a thousand. At the other end there are near-empty hamlets such as Badoc, with 33 residents in 2024, beside the lake of the same name that supplies Pristina’s drinking water, according to the capital’s Municipality.

What you come to see

Two things, both first-rate. Gračanica Monastery is a 14th-century church with frescoes finished around 1321, one of UNESCO’s four Medieval Monuments in Kosovo since 2006 and protected as a Special Zone by Law 03/L-039. There’s an odd administrative detail. The law, passed in 2008, places it in Pristina, and the Ministry of Culture still lists it under that municipality.

West of the monastery, within a kilometre, is Ulpiana, the Roman town that Justinian rebuilt in the 6th century as Justiniana Secunda. It’s the only entry in the Ministry’s database recorded under Graçanicë municipality, it has permanent protection and it’s been an archaeological park since 2016.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Pristina on Expedia and filter by area before price.

How to fit it into your trip

There’s no need to stay the night. From Pristina it’s a few minutes along the Gjilan road, the same road the bear sanctuary uses in its directions. My plan would be a morning split between the monastery and Ulpiana and then, if you’re still keen, on to the bear sanctuary at Mramor. It’s all laid out in day trips from Pristina.

If you’re travelling with children, the easiest win is further along the Gjilan road at the bear sanctuary in Mramor, which charges €4 per adult and publishes its opening hours. For context, the Pristina region, which includes Gračanica, received 261,110 overnight guests in 2025 according to the statistics agency. And Uglar, the municipality’s largest settlement, more than quadrupled between the two censuses, from 1,186 to 5,064 people.

If you’re driving, OpenStreetMap places one of the hotels on Pristina’s tourist map, the Emerald, on the Ferizaj road inside this municipality. For everything else, the capital is the better base.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Pristina and pick one that fits your day.

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