With a municipal population of 204,721 inhabitants 2016 , Pristina is the second-largest city in the world with predominantly population after in. Within Serbia, it would be the. Geographically, it is located in the north-eastern part of Kosovo close to the. The city is situated some 250 kilometres north-east of Tirana, 90 kilometres north of , 520 kilometres south of and 300 kilometres east of. During the , what is now the area of Pristina was envolved by the. Pristina was home to several and people at the. King brought various tribes together in the area of Pristina in the 4th century BC, establishing the. The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient city of , that was considered one of the most important Roman cities in the. In the Middle Ages, Pristina was an important town in and also the royal estate of , , , and. When the conquered the Balkan peninsula, Pristina was an important mining and trading center due to its strategic position near the rich mining town of. The city was known for its trade fairs and items, such as and goat hair as well as gunpowder. The first mosque in Pristina was built in the late 14th century while under Serbian rule. Tolerance and coexistence of religion and culture has been part of the society for centuries. The capital city, Pristina is the heart of Kosovo due to its central location and its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education, service, research and healthcare. Almost all domestic and foreign companies, media and scientific institutions have headquarters in the city. The toponym Priština also appears as the name of a hamlet near in Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to , Snoj's etymology would presuppose a rare and relatively late word formation process. However, this explanation cannot be correct, as Slavic place names ending in -ina corresponding either or both to an adjective or the name of an inhabitant lacking this suffix are built from personal names or denote a person and never derive, in these conditions, from common nouns 2007: loc. The inhabitants of this city call themselves Prishtinali in local or Prištevci Приштевци in the local Serbian dialect. The city played an important role in the development of one of the most important cities in. The succeeding , , Bubanj-Hum and cultures were active in the region. The area what is now Pristina has been inhabited for nearly 10,000 years. Early findings were discovered dating as far back as the 8th century BC, in the areas surrounding Pristina, which includes Matiçan, and. In the 4th century BC, King brought various tribes together in the region, establishing the. After the conquest of Illyria in 168 BC, Romans colonized and founded several cities in the region which they named. The city suffered tremendous damage from an earthquake in 518 AD. The rebuilt the city in great splendor and renamed it , but with the arrival of Slav tribes in the 6th century the city again fell into disrepair. Middle Ages The inscription above the entrance of built during the Ottoman rule Pristina was an important town in. The counties of Sitnica and Lipljan, which had territory around present-day Pristina, are mentioned in Life of Saint Simeon, a text written by the Serbian historical figure between 1201 and 1208. The medieval fort of Višegrad, whose ruins lie three kilometres east of the city centre, was mentioned in Milutin's time, and served as his capital, and the nearby was founded by him in ca. The first historical record mentioning Pristina by its name dates back to 1342 when the Byzantine Emperor described Pristina as a 'village'. The old town stretching out between the Vellusha and Prishtevka rivers which are both covered over today, became an important crafts and trade center. Pristina was famous for its annual trade fairs Panair and its goat hide and goat hair articles. Around 50 different crafts were practiced from tanning to leather dying, belt making and silk weaving, as well as crafts related to the military — armorers, smiths, and saddle makers. As early as 1485, Pristina artisans also started producing gunpowder. Trade was thriving and there was a growing colony of traders from modern day providing the link between Pristina's craftsmen and the outside world. The first mosque was constructed in the late 14th century while still under Serbian rule. The 1487 defter recorded 412 Christian and 94 Muslim households in Pristina, which at the time was administratively part of the. In the early Ottoman era, was an urban phenomenon and only spread slowly with increasing urbanization. The travel writer , visiting Pristina in the 1660s was impressed with its fine gardens and vineyards. In those years, Pristina was part of the Vıçıtırın Sanjak and its 2,000 families enjoyed the peace and stability of the Ottoman era. Economic life was controlled by the guild system esnafs with the tanners' and bakers' guild controlling prices, limiting unfair competition and acting as banks for their members. Religious life was dominated by religious charitable organizations often building mosques or fountains and providing charity to the poor. During the in the late 17th century, Pristina citizens under the leadership of the Catholic Albanian priest pledged loyalty to the Austrian army and supplied troops. He contributed a force of 6,000 Albanian soldiers to the Austrian army which had arrived in Pristina. Under Austrian occupation, the Fatih Mosque Mbretit Mosque was briefly converted to a church. Following the Austrian defeat in January 1690, Pristina's inhabitants were left at the mercy of Ottoman and troops who took revenge against the local population as punishment for their co-operation with the Austrians. Modern The Monument of in the centre. Brotherhood and unity was a popular slogan of the. The year 1874 marked a turning point. That year the railway between and started operations and the seat of the vilayet of Prizren was relocated to Pristina. This privileged position as capital of the Ottoman vilayet lasted only for a short while. However, The opposed the plan for a , preferring a partition of the European territory of the among the four. On October 22, 1912, Serb forces took Pristina. However, Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the first Balkan War, occupied Kosovo in 1915 and took Pristina under Bulgarian occupation. In late October 1918, the 11th French colonial division took over Pristina and returned Pristina back to what then became the 'First ' on the 1st of December 1918. In September 1920, the decree of the colonization of the new southern lands' facilitated the takeover by Serb colonists of large Ottoman estates in Pristina and land seized from Albanians. The interwar period saw the first exodus of Albanian and Turkish speaking population. From 1929 to 1941, Priština was part of the of the. Plaque on a war memorial in Pristina. The text reads At this location on October 23, 1944, German Nazis executed 104 Albanian patriots who gave their lives for the freedom and independence of their country - Society of anti-Nazi and national liberation veterans of Kosovo. On 17 April 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered unconditionally to axis forces. On 29 June, proclaimed a greater Albania, with most of Kosovo under Italian occupation united with Albania. There ensued mass killings of Serbs, in particular colonists, and an exodus of tens of thousands of Serbs. After the capitulation of Italy, took control of the city. In May 1944, 281 local Jews were arrested by units of the , which was made up mostly of Muslim Albanians. The Jews were later deported to Germany, where many were killed. The few surviving Jewish families in Pristina eventually left for Israel in 1949. As a result of World War II and forced migration, Pristina's population dropped to 9,631 inhabitants. The communist decision to make Pristina the capital of Kosovo in 1947 ushered a period of rapid development and outright destruction. The Yugoslav communist slogan at the time was uništi stari graditi novi destroy the old, build the new. In a misguided effort to modernize the town, communists set out to destroy the Ottoman bazaar and large parts of the historic center, including mosques, catholic churches and Ottoman houses. A second agreement signed between Yugoslavia and Turkey in 1953 led to the exodus of several hundreds more Albanian families from Pristina. They left behind their homes, properties and businesses. However, this policy changed under the ratified in 1974. Few of the Ottoman town houses survived the communists' modernization drive, with the exception of those that were nationalized like today's Emin Gjiku Museum or the building of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments. As a result, the city's population and its economy changed rapidly. In 1966, Pristina had few paved roads, the old town houses had running water and was still a problem. Massive investments in state institutions like the newly founded , the construction of new high-rise socialist apartment blocks and a new industrial zone on the outskirts of Pristina attracted large number of internal migrants. This ended a long period when the institution had been run as an outpost of and gave a major boost to Albanian-language education and culture in Kosovo. The Albanians were also allowed to use the Albanian flag. This golden age of externally financed rapid growth was cut short by Yugoslavia's economic collapse and the. Pristina, like the rest of Kosovo slid into a deepening economic and social crisis. The year 1989 saw the revocation of Kosovo's autonomy under , the rise of and mass dismissal of ethnic Albanians. Kosovo War War-torn Pristina. Following
