Mother Teresa Cathedral and the best view of Pristina

Pristina doesn’t have many viewpoints, and the bell tower of the Mother Teresa Cathedral is the one I wouldn’t miss. The city’s Catholic cathedral stands in the Qyteza Pejton district, south of the centre, and its tower is one of the tallest buildings in the capital. Going up it is the quickest way to understand how Pristina is put together.

A name you’ll see on every corner

Mother Teresa gives her name to three things you’ll walk through in Pristina. There’s the cathedral, Katedralja Shën Nënë Tereza in Albanian according to OpenStreetMap; Mother Teresa Boulevard, the pedestrian spine of the centre; and the square the Municipality calls the city’s main pedestrian space. Walk from the old town to the cathedral and you’ll have covered nearly everything named after her.

Catholics are a minority in Kosovo. In the 2024 census, 27,815 residents said they were Catholic, against nearly one and a half million Muslims and 36,683 Orthodox Christians, according to the statistics agency. There’s more on that in my page on religion in Kosovo.

What can you see from the tower?

The Municipality’s tourist map is fairly precise about it. The tower opened to visitors in 2014, and its position and height give a 360-degree view. On one side is the University of Pristina campus; to the west, the part of the city where the sun goes down; and all around, the other tall buildings.

I would add what is, for me, the best shot of all, the National Library of Kosovo from above. It’s about 250 metres away according to OpenStreetMap, and from the bell tower you can take in its 79 domes in a way you never can from the pavement. If you want a picture of Pristina that isn’t the Newborn sign, this is it.

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How and when to go up

I’ll be honest about what I don’t know. Neither the Municipality nor any other official source I checked publishes the tower’s opening hours, the days it’s open or whether you pay to climb. So there are no figures here. What I would do is go late in the afternoon, when the light slants in from the west, carry a few euros in cash and check at the cathedral itself whether the tower is open that day.

It’s a working church, so behave as you would in any church at home, and don’t wander in during a service unless you’re joining it.

gov.uk also reminds visitors that terrorist attacks in Kosovo cannot be ruled out and that religious sites, churches included, could be targets. That’s no reason to skip the tower, but it is a reason to stay aware of your surroundings, as you would at any busy landmark.

Fitting it into your day

The cathedral rounds off a day in Pristina nicely. It’s the last stop of one day in Pristina, after walking down the boulevard, passing the Newborn monument and circling the Library. From there it’s little more than a kilometre’s walk back to the centre for dinner.

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

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