Peja, the Kosovan town with mountains at the end of the street

Peja (Pejë in Albanian, Peć in Serbian) is a mid-sized town that never takes its eyes off the mountains. The peaks of the Bjeshkët e Nemuna show up at the end of most streets, the Lumbardhi river runs through the middle, and the moment you head west the road dives into the Rugova Canyon. It is Kosovo’s unofficial capital of mountain tourism, and the town I would use as a base for the whole west.

How big is Peja?

The Kosovo Agency of Statistics (ASK) counted 41,171 people in the town at the 2024 census and 82,745 in the municipality, spread over 79 settlements. It is the main town of the Peja region and sits at 520 to 530 m, according to the government’s tourism portal, which is offline for rebuilding and which I read in its 2021 archive.org copy. The same portal puts Pristina Airport about 70 km away and the Kulla border crossing into Montenegro about 30 km.

It is a walking town. The centre, the bazaar and the riverside fit into an unhurried morning; what makes Peja special lies around it rather than inside it. The ring of peaks you see from the square is the reason most visitors come, and the town has grown used to serving walkers, climbers and families heading for the hills.

The Patriarchate of Peć

On the outskirts, at the mouth of the canyon, stands the Patriarchate of Peć. UNESCO added it in 2006 to the serial site of the Medieval Monuments in Kosovo, on the In Danger list since that same year, and describes it as four domed churches with wall paintings. Law 03/L-039 protects it as a Special Zone. It is a working Orthodox monastery, so I’d dress as for any church in daily use and ask before taking photographs inside. Opening times and admission are not published by any official source.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Peja before prices climb.

What is there to do in the centre?

The Ottoman core centres on the Peja bazaar, the old shopping street lined with low shopfronts, and the Bajrakli Mosque, which the Culture Ministry’s heritage database (DTK) dates to the 16th century. The same database lists two more 16th-century mosques, the Hamam Mosque and the Taftali, the 17th-century Xhylfahatun Mosque and the tomb of Halil Bey by the Kushumli Mosque.

The civic buildings are worth the detour too. The DTK protects the 19th-century kulla and konak of Jashar Pasha, the konak of Tahir Bey, which Peja’s tourism website says now houses the town museum, and the mill complex of Haxhi Zeka, one of the few buildings in Peja with permanent protection. Haxhi Zeka also gives his name to the main square, which fills with café tables in the evening.

Rugova and Radavc, two trips not to miss

The Rugova Canyon begins a couple of kilometres from the centre, according to Peja’s tourism website, and climbs towards Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park. The Lumbardhi, 56 km long inside Kosovo by ASK’s count, comes down it. There are via ferrata routes, caves, and guesthouse villages higher up at Bogë and Drelaj.

North of town, at Radavc, are the Palaeolithic cave listed by the DTK and, according to Peja’s tourism website, the spring of the White Drin. Peja’s tourism website adds that the town’s beer is brewed with water from that spring, the same Peja beer with the canyon bridge on its label.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Peja before prices climb.

Getting there and getting about

From Pristina you come by car or by bus from the main bus station. Trainkos runs a train line to Peja, but its website does not show timetables in readable form, so I won’t quote frequencies I could not check. If you hire a car for Rugova, remember what the FCDO says. Your green card is not valid, you buy local insurance at the border, and mountain roads are best avoided after dark. Traffic drives on the right.

How long to stay

One night covers the town and the Patriarchate but leaves out Rugova, which is the best part. I’d book two or three nights and, if you like walking, spend one of them up in a mountain guesthouse. Peja also works as a base for day trips to Visoki Dečani monastery or Gjakova, both easy outings by car with time to be back for dinner in the centre.