Junik, a village of kullas on the edge of the national park

Junik is small in every respect except the mountain behind it. With under 4,000 people and three settlements it is one of Kosovo’s smallest municipalities, yet on OpenStreetMap the highest summit in the territory lies within its boundary. And in between, a village of stone kullas that few people visit.

A tiny municipality

ASK, the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, counted 3,943 people in Junik in 2024, against 6,084 in 2011. Almost all live in Junik village, 3,925; Gjocaj had 18 and Jasiq none. OpenStreetMap places it in the Gjakova region, between Deçan and the town of Gjakova, hard against the Albanian border. Peja’s tourism website, which I treat as secondary, mentions the Qafë Morinë crossing as a way in from Albania that leads through Junik towards Deçan and Peja.

The 2012 park law counts Junik among its five municipalities and runs the boundary just west of the village, so the mountains fall within Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park.

The kullas, the reason to come

Two Junik kullas appear in the DTK. The better known is Brahim Hoxha’s, called the Oda e Junikut locally. Its record describes it as a fortified family house, places it in the Hoxha quarter and says it belonged to Imer Hoxha in the 18th century. It also says the building hosted gatherings of the area’s clans, where justice was dispensed under customary law, and that an assembly was held there from 21 to 25 May 1912. It has had provisional protection since 2012.

The other is Jah Imeri’s, from the early 19th century, near the mosque in the Hoxhaj quarter. It has three storeys, built of stone with lime mortar and chestnut timber, with a stone gallery jutting out on two sides and a wall almost a metre thick. For me it is the clearest example of why these houses were home and fortress at once. I explain more of them in kullas in Kosovo.

No official source gives visiting hours or terms. Their records describe them as family houses, so normally you see them from outside.

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

The mountain and its warnings

On OpenStreetMap, Gjeravica lies within Junik’s boundary. The Spanish Foreign Ministry gives it 2,656 m. It is high mountain terrain close to the border, and the FCDO is clear. Old mines remain by the Albanian border and on the summits shared with Montenegro, and the advice is never to leave the main roads and paths. If you are climbing, take a local guide, and check your travel insurance covers it, since the GHIC is not valid in Kosovo.

How to visit

Junik takes a morning from Gjakova or Peja by car. I would pair it with Visoki Dečani Monastery in the next municipality and head back to town to sleep, since there is no official accommodation data for Junik itself. With Velika Hoča, Bogë and Drelaj, it’s one of my prettiest villages in Kosovo.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Gjakova on Booking.com and filter by area before price.