The Rugova Canyon, the stone gateway to the Accursed Mountains

There are not many towns in Europe where you leave the centre, round a bend and find yourself inside a limestone canyon. Peja is one. The Rugova Canyon starts more or less on its outskirts, and for me it is the main reason to stay in Peja rather than just pass through.

What exactly is the Rugova Canyon?

It is the gorge the Lumbardhi river follows from the mountains down to the town. Inside the territory, the Lumbardhi of Peja runs for 56 km, according to ASK, the statistics agency. Peja’s tourism website, which does not say who runs it and which I therefore cite as a secondary source, puts the canyon at about 12 km long, starting about 2 km from the centre, with rock walls up to roughly 1,000 m. It also says the canyon has been protected as a natural monument since 1988.

The firmest official reference is a different one. Law 04/L-086 of 2012, which created Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park, mentions the canyon road when it sets out the park boundary. In other words, the canyon is the corridor into 62,488 hectares of protected mountains shared by Gjakova, Junik, Deçan, Peja and Istog. On British maps you will usually see the range as the Accursed Mountains.

What you see along the way

The road from Peja towards Kuqishtë, shown on OpenStreetMap as Pejë-Kuqishtë (Rugovë), hugs the river and passes through a tunnel cut into the rock. The first few kilometres are the most dramatic, with the walls closing in and the water below.

Peja’s tourism website singles out an arched stone bridge at km 5, which features on the municipal coat of arms and on the label of the town’s beer, and a 40 m Tibetan bridge across the canyon that serves as the starting point for several via ferrata routes. For cavers, the same website describes Gryka e Madhe, about 8 km from town, with more than 16 km of passages surveyed, visited only in organised groups with some experience.

At the very mouth of the canyon sits the Patriarchate of Peć. If you only have one afternoon, put the two together.

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

Via ferrata, climbing and caves

Rugova is where Kosovo’s adventure activities are concentrated. Peja’s tourism website describes five via ferrata routes in Rugova, the first opened in 2010, and a visitor centre at the canyon entrance that hires out gear and bikes and arranges guides. There is rock climbing on the canyon walls too, which is exactly what the wall shot further down shows.

My advice is simple. If you have never done a via ferrata, book a guide and start on a moderate route; if you have, the Marimangat, with its Tibetan bridge, is the one I would go for.

How far up should you go?

The canyon is the way in, not the destination. The road carries on to the Rugova villages, such as Bogë, which Peja’s tourism website says has a ski run and lift, Drelaj and Kuqishtë, and from there routes head off to the mountain lakes. The government tourism portal, in its 2021 archive.org copy, names Hajla, at 2,403 m, as Rugova’s highest peak and mentions the Qafa e Qyqes viewpoint over the town.

If you want to sleep up there, I cover it in guesthouses in Rugova. I would do at least one night, because the canyon at dawn, with no traffic, is a different place from the canyon at midday.

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

Things to bear in mind

Three pieces of FCDO advice apply squarely here. First, avoid driving at night, all the more on a mountain road of tunnels and bends. Second, wildfires are common from April to October, and landslides follow bad weather. Third, there are old landmines up on the borders with Albania and Montenegro, where the FCDO asks you to keep to main routes. That is not an issue in the canyon itself; on the border peaks above, it is, which is why I’d go with a local guide.

Entry is free and there are no opening hours, since it is a public road. You pay for activities and guides, and I could not check their prices against an official source. Bring euros in cash; the FCDO suggests using ATMs inside banks.