Leposavić, a Roman town in the Ibar valley

Leposavić is Kosovo’s last municipality heading north and the biggest of the four northern ones, around 750 km² according to the OSCE. For me it also hides the region’s most intriguing archaeological surprise, a whole Roman town that no ancient text mentions.

The municipality and its two figures

Leposavić (Leposaviq in Albanian) has 75 settlements. The 2024 census counted 3,185 people and the Statistics Agency also publishes 9,485 with estimation, the double figure found across the north. The most populous places at the census are Leposaviq itself with 570, Leshak with 330, Soçanicë with 222 and Rëvatskë with 144. The town is about 25 km from Mitrovica as the crow flies.

Municipium DD, a Roman town

The Ministry of Culture places Municipium DD (Dardanorum) at Soçanicë, about 27 km north of Mitrovica, where the Ibar meets the River Sočanica, between the Rogozna and Kopaonik mountains. The area was rich in gold and silver, and that, says the record, is how a small settlement became one of the busiest urban centres of Roman times in these parts.

The odd thing is that it appears in no written source or Roman itinerary. It became known through excavations in the late 1950s and the 1960s, focused on the eastern part of the site, which uncovered the forum, granaries, the civic basilica, part of the baths and the northern cemetery. It thrived from the late 1st century to the first half of the 4th and covered around 30 hectares. It has been permanently protected since 1957. What I haven’t found is what’s visible on the ground today or whether it can be visited.

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

A rural municipality

In 2018 the OSCE described an economy of farming and small trade, with no reliable business figures, and rated the infrastructure as underdeveloped, though it noted several recent road projects. For a visitor that boils down to few services and getting about by car.

Monasteries and nature

Law 03/L-039 protects three monasteries here. Sočanica has a Special Zone with its own map, and the monasteries of St Petka and the Holy Healers a 100-metre strip around them. The OSCE’s 2018 profile totted up 16 Serbian Orthodox churches, seven of them renovated and nine newly built, as well as one mosque.

The environment agency also protects the Vuqë thermo-mineral spring, 16.6 hectares, and a 228-hectare strict nature reserve, both since 1988.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Pristina on GetYourGuide.

Before you go

The Foreign Office names Leposavić when it discusses the risk of protests in the north and warns that the situation there can turn quickly. I’d go by day from Pristina, about 57 km away, combined with Banjska monastery and Zvečan. In a hire car, keep in mind the FCDO’s view that rural roads are fair to poor and worse in bad weather. To the south-west lies Zubin Potok, with Lake Gazivoda, and the whole north is laid out in the Mitrovica region guide.

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