New Attacks on SOC property in Kosovo: Who is bothered by the Christ the Savior Church in Pristina?

First, in 1999, they tried using explosives, but they failed. Then they attempted to seize it, but that didn’t work either. In the meantime, the Christ the Savior Church in the center of Pristina has been vandalized and set on fire so many times that it is difficult to count all the incidents. Historian and professor Jusuf Buzhovi has now brought the story back to the beginning by claiming that this church should have been demolished right after the war. Interviewees for Kosovo Online warn that this is a dangerous message that targets the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SoC) while also continuing the narrative that there is no place for Serbian history and cultural heritage in Kosovo.

Written by: Djordje Barovic

Appearing on KTV in a program dedicated to the March 2004 events, historian Jusuf Buzhovi stated that the Orthodox church in the courtyard of the University of Pristina should have been demolished immediately after the war.

“This church was built in 1996, and it is the most violent church constructed under conditions of military hegemony in Kosovo,” said Buzhovi.

He added that the church remained standing only due to "tricks" in the Ahtisaari Plan regarding the protection of religious sites in Kosovo.

“This is anti-historical because the state of Kosovo allowed a violent church to be legitimized in the university center,” Buzhovi said, as reported by Koha.

His statement triggered numerous reactions.

The Raska-Prizren Diocese responded by stating that such remarks are not just a provocation but also an open call for the destruction of religious sites and a clear form of hate speech, which must be unequivocally condemned by all who value peace, religious freedom, and cultural coexistence.

The Church of the Holy Savior is one of two Orthodox shrines in Pristina.

The first, the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, is also the only preserved Orthodox church in Pristina. It was built in the early 19th century on the foundations of a monastery dating back to 1544.

During the March 2004 pogrom, it was set on fire, and its iconostasis was destroyed. It was later restored, and stone fragments from the March 18 attack, when Orthodox priest Miroslav Popadic was stoned by attackers, were symbolically incorporated into the reconstruction.

Construction of the Christ the Savior Cathedral began in 1992, but only rough structural work was completed by 1998 due to a lack of funds.

In 2012, the University of Pristina attempted to dispute the legitimacy of the land where the church was built, but it lost the court case four years later.

“The Christ the Savior Church is currently a symbol of intolerance and the attempt to expel Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija. The claims by Albanian historians about usurped property are false because the construction of this church began in 1996 in the center of Pristina, on land owned by the SOC that was confiscated by the communist authorities after World War II, and part of that land was later returned. The entire university and the city center were built on property taken from the SOC,” explained Bishop Ilarion of Novo Brdo, a vicar of the Serbian Patriarch, in response to calls to demolish the church.

He sees the underlying reasons in the “low level of tolerance” in Kosovo and the ongoing attempt at “historical revisionism.”

“Attempts at historical revisionism and calls for demolishing the church are part of the same agenda and a disgrace to contemporary Albanian society in Kosovo and Metohija, considering the level of religious freedoms, political freedoms, freedom of movement, property rights, and identity rights,” Ilarion said.

Marking a “Legitimate Target”

Luka Jovanovic, an assistant professor at the Department of History at the Faculty of Philosophy in North Mitrovica, warns that such statements send a clear message that Serbian Orthodox Church sites are "legitimate targets" for destruction and desecration.

“There is an absolute message being sent that SOC sites are legitimate targets for destruction and desecration. We have seen that the Christ the Savior Church in Pristina has been continuously vandalized in recent years. A singer even filmed a vulgar music video inside the church, which in itself represents an attack on SOC sites,” Jovanovic told Kosovo Online.

He emphasized that sending such messages is “clearly marking targets” not only on Serbian but also on global cultural heritage sites in Kosovo.

“These statements legitimize the idea that anything not destroyed in 1999 or 2004 must either become purely Albanian—with a fabricated narrative among Albanians that it is an Albanian site with an Albanian history and past—or else it is a legitimate target that must be erased from the territory where it has always existed,” Jovanovic explained.

He pointed out that open calls for the demolition of SOC sites are the result of decades of rhetoric aimed at erasing Serbian cultural heritage, involving historians and public figures in Kosovo.

“There is an ongoing effort to erase the Serbian ethnic and Orthodox Christian identity. The official narrative is to first declare that the sacred sites, which form the backbone of Kosovo and Metohija’s cultural heritage, are not Serbian—essentially fabricating a different historical character for them. They have attempted to attribute an ancient, quasi-pagan identity to every Orthodox, Christian, and Serbian endowment—church or monastery—and then to portray them as Catholic Albanian sites. But when they realize that this has no historical foundation, they move on to calling for their complete demolition and removal,” Jovanovic concluded.

He reminds that in such a situation, despite the fact that the Church of Christ the Savior in Pristina is of a more recent date, it too falls under the narrative applied to much older Orthodox religious sites in Kosovo.

"If we take the example of the Church of the Virgin of Ljevisa, we see that they have established that it was built on the foundations of an ancient temple, belonging to the ancient culture of the Dardanians or Illyrians. In the case of Decani, we can see that they constantly push the narrative that it was a Catholic shrine of Albanian Catholics in the Middle Ages," explains Jovanovic.

He emphasizes that the rhetoric claiming that there were no Serbs in Kosovo during the Middle Ages is equally dangerous.

"I was struck by the statement of one of the guests that there were no Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija during the Middle Ages. I have only one question: Find a historical source from the Middle Ages that claims that Albanians existed in Kosovo and Metohija," concludes this historian.

Attack on "Symbols"

Bojan Popovic, a museum advisor at the Museum of Frescoes in Belgrade, told Kosovo Online that the most sacred symbols of the Serbian community in Kosovo have been continuously under attack and that the threat to demolish the Church of Christ the Savior in the center of Pristina is just part of that narrative.

"It is clear that what is most sacred to everyone suffers the most—faith, places of worship, cemeteries. These are the most intimate aspects of every nation's life. The question is, to what extent can this injustice be endured? Of course, within some future solution, all these messages only prevent a resolution for anyone living in that area, that is certain," Popovic told Kosovo Online.

He adds that the same applies to other Serbian sacred or cultural monuments.

"There is a constant tendency to portray them as anything but Serbian," emphasizes this art historian.

He describes the ongoing attacks on the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church as a "deliberate intention" that is supported from abroad.

"There is obviously a certain intention backed by foreign support. This does not receive enough condemnation from the world. Some states condemn it, but not those that support an independent Kosovo. It should be said that this has no justification whatsoever, and the other side should consider what will happen in 50 or 100 years. We will still be neighbors," Popovic points out.

He reminds that the West has a clear stance on respecting private property.

"The only other place where someone’s property is usurped, and they are unable to access it for decades under the guise of so-called peace, is Cyprus," stresses Popovic.

He believes that Albanians suffer the most from such policies, pointing out that this is a consequence of the failure to meet the standards outlined in Martti Ahtisaari's plan regarding the protection of Serbian Orthodox Church property in Kosovo.

"There is an economic anarchy where perhaps the largest number of Albanians suffer the most, as they endure the terror of such a group of people and such an ideology. Imagine what it means—something we all know as Balkan nations—what it means to endure the harsh ideology of a government. Imagine how Albanians in Kosovo feel when they have to endure a government that is entirely backed in this way. Do you remember the so-called triumph when they returned a mere 15 hectares of forest to Decani Monastery? That is truly a major farce," Popovic states.

He calls on Albanians to stand against such ideas.

"I would ask Albanians to stand up against this because it is a terrible injustice against humanity," Popovic urges.

He emphasizes that throughout history, there have been frequent cases where sacred sites of different nations and faiths were destroyed during wars. However, he notes that in modern history, there are only two cases in this region where religious monuments of another nation were removed during peacetime—Nazi Germany and the Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

"Albanians are traditionally a hospitable people. It is a great shame that in Pristina—a city they know little about and certainly do not know of the famous inscription on its walls about how Vuk Brankovic adorned the city—they do not know their own foundations and origins. Meanwhile, they are building one of the largest Catholic churches in the Balkans while simultaneously seeking to exclude a place of worship from the city’s urban plan—not just a place of worship belonging to another nation, but to another nation that still lives there. This is simply unacceptable, in the same way that it was unacceptable during World War II in Croatia," Popovic asserts.

The denial of Serbian architecture and religious heritage is also illustrated by an example from Prizren.

"In the evening, when you step outside in Prizren and look towards the fortress, the highest point, you see that it is illuminated, but right below it, the Church of the Holy Savior remains in complete darkness," Popovic notes.

The Serbian "Occupation" of Kosovo

Aleksandar Gudzic, a historian from Gracanica, tells Kosovo Online that the calls for the demolition of the Orthodox church in Pristina are part of the narrative about the "Serbian occupation" and the supposed Albanian continuity, which Kosovo’s political sphere uses to build its statehood, institutions, and educational system, with the ultimate goal of completely erasing Serbian presence.

"For decades, the Albanian political sphere in Kosovo has been building Kosovo’s statehood, institutions, and educational system on the narrative of exclusive Serbian guilt for the war, as well as on the idea of Albanian continuity in this region," says Gudzic.

He explains that this narrative is based on two key points built around the thesis of Serbian occupation of Kosovo.

"According to this narrative, Serbs occupied Kosovo twice. First, in the 12th century, the Nemanjic dynasty occupied Kosovo and built their churches and monasteries on the foundations of Albanian churches. The second point is the so-called 'Serbian occupation of 1912.' The ultimate goal of this scientifically unfounded construction is to establish Albanian continuity and to erase the memory of Serbian presence in this region from public consciousness," Gudzic states.

Commenting on the claims made by historians and writers Jusuf Buzhovi and Enver Redzaj that the Church of Christ the Savior in Pristina should have been demolished immediately after the war, Gudzic says these are "very dangerous messages" that could lead to further misunderstandings and conflicts.

"Experience has shown that it is not enough to simply demolish churches and monasteries; it is also necessary to spread a false narrative about Albanian continuity. It is not uncommon in Albanian public discourse to hear claims that Gracanica is an Albanian church that the Serbs took over. We are all expected to accept the narrative coming from Pristina, from its academic and political circles," Gudzic stresses.

However, he says there is ample evidence that disproves this narrative.

Regarding the Gracanica Monastery, he points to its founding charter, which is depicted as a fresco at the church entrance.

"Its founder, King Stefan Uros II Milutin, using the complete methodology of charter writing—including invocation and intitulation—states: ‘I, by the grace of God, King of Serbian and Coastal Lands, decided to build a church.’ He then lists all the places he donates to the monastery for its sustenance. So, the facts contradict this narrative, and it cannot endure in the long run. It will last only as long as Kosovo's statehood lasts. The moment that ceases, so will this narrative, along with the falsification and appropriation of history," the historian asserts.

He explains that a "romanticized approach to history" that lacks scientific grounding is not exclusive to Albanians in Kosovo.

"This tendency is also visible among other neighboring nations. For instance, Croatian pseudo-historians feel the need to embellish their past, as do Bosniaks and Serbs. I recall a statement by historian Radivoj Radic, who said that ‘Balkan nations always try to make themselves appear older than they are.’ Even the Greeks, whose history stretches far into the past, feel the need to enhance their past. This is a widespread tendency in the region. However, in Kosovo, it is different because it has political backing and is part of an institutional project," Gudzic emphasizes, recalling a similar event in 2019 when then-Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj claimed that Novo Brdo was an ancient Albanian city called Artana.