Skënderaj, home of the Runik ocarina

Hardly anyone plans a trip around Skënderaj, and I can see why, since there’s no old town to wander. But it has two things that would make me take the detour, a 15th-century monastery in the woods and, in a nearby village, the spot where Kosovo’s oldest musical instrument came out of the ground.

A rural municipality on the Drenica plateau

Skënderaj (Srbica in Serbian) went from 50,858 people in 2011 to 40,664 at the 2024 census, on Statistics Agency figures. The town itself counted 9,451, followed by Llaushë with 2,201 and Polac with 2,115. The municipality has 49 settlements, and the OSCE’s 2018 profile reckoned on some 378 km², living off farming, brickworks, flour mills and small shops. It lies about 16 km from Mitrovica and 32 from Pristina as the crow flies.

Runik and its ocarina

The Ministry of Culture places the Runik site on the Drenica plateau, about 10 km north-west of town on the road to Istog. It describes it as one of Kosovo’s earliest Neolithic settlements, belonging to the Starčevo culture and the 6th millennium BC. Test trenches were dug in 1966-68 and again in 1984, and in March 2010 a magnetometer survey covered around 10,000 m².

Out came pottery, figurines and a cult table, plus two pieces the Ministry singles out. One is a vessel painted ochre with a black spiral shaped like the palm of a hand. The other, and to me the municipality’s great story, is a fired-clay ocarina just 8 cm tall with finger holes, which the Ministry presents as the oldest musical instrument found in Kosovo. Whether the site can be visited, and where the ocarina is displayed, isn’t stated in anything official I’ve read, so treat it as a story that gives the place meaning rather than a stop.

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

Devič monastery

About 5 km south of town, in woodland below Mount Devič, stands Devič monastery. The Eparchy of Raška-Prizren credits Despot Đurađ Branković with founding it around 1434 and says nuns live there now, and the 2008 Special Zones law includes it in its list. It’s what I’d come for.

Mills, kullas and a timber-lined mosque

The rest of the listed heritage is out in the villages. At Kuqicë, the Beka family’s water mill, with stone walls and a timber roof, has always ground grain for the family and the area, and its owners reckon it’s around 300 years old. At Açarevë, the Tahir Rrahmani kulla dates from the last decade of the 18th century, with two storeys and a stone-slab roof. At Pemishtë, Fetah Loshi’s house is an early 19th-century çardak. And the Syriganë mosque was built in 1825 at the villagers’ initiative, with a wooden gallery inside carved with geometric patterns.

The environment agency also protects the Banjë thermal spring as a natural monument, since 2007.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Pristina and choose by the reviews.

How to fit it in

I see it as a stop on a driving day, not an overnight. From Mitrovica, Devič and Skënderaj fill half a day; from Vushtrri, about 17 km away, likewise. If you’re hiring a car, the FCDO advises against driving at night, and on rural roads like these that’s advice I’d follow. For the bigger picture, see the Mitrovica region guide.

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