Decades of desecration of the Christ the Savior Church in Pristina reflect the reality of Serbian life in Kosovo

The Christ the Savior Church in Pristina has been subject to attempts of seizure, demolition, arson, and has even been used as a public toilet. It has been defaced with graffiti, used for filming obscene music videos, and religious services have been prohibited there. Ahead of Easter, Kosovo Albanians launched a new campaign against the church, continuing a pattern that has persisted since the arrival of KFOR, RTS reports.

Alexander Radovanovic, legal adviser to the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), stated that a university is suing a religious organization to demolish its own place of worship—one for which it holds all documentation and which is legally registered in the cadastre. Zivojin Rakocevic, President of the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), emphasized that the church is the most frequently attacked religious site in Europe.

In an opinion piece, Gurakuç Kuçi described the unfinished Christ the Savior Church in Pristina as a controversial structure, rather than protected religious heritage. He argued it was built to project Serbian dominance over public space, to normalize repression, and to impose a new historical narrative.

This church encapsulates nearly all the problems faced by the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serbian people in Kosovo.

Radovanovic stated that the church is one of the rare buildings in Kosovo that has held all the necessary permits both before and after the war.

“Construction of the church began around 1991, and obtaining the necessary documents lasted until 1993. The church remained registered in the Pristina cadastre even after numerous challenges. It is fully owned by the SOC, and we have submitted all documentation to the international community, so they are fully aware of the situation. Therefore, without delving into technicalities, the church is absolutely legal under both Kosovo's and our own legal systems. That is one of the reasons it still stands,” Radovanovic explained.

He added that no final court decision exists, nor can one exist, that disputes the ownership of the SOC.

Radovanovic acknowledged that there have been numerous attempts to challenge the church’s ownership, but all have failed.

He noted that a previous lawsuit was dismissed in 2017, and that a new proceeding is currently underway.

“I can’t comment on the ongoing case, but having reviewed the arguments of the opposing party, I am absolutely confident that we will prevail again,” said Radovanovic.

He highlighted the paradox faced by the Raska-Prizren Diocese:
“A university is suing a religious organization to demolish its own legally registered religious building with all proper documentation—in the year 2025,” he said.

Monthly Attacks on the Church

Zivojin Rakocevic, who lives in Kosovo and regularly visits Serbian enclaves, affirmed that the Christ the Savior Church is undoubtedly the most attacked religious site in Europe.

“Not a month goes by without some kind of assault on that church,” he said.

He noted that the permission to return the land to the SOC was signed by Hamdi Vranici, an ethnic Albanian who was the President of the Pristina City Assembly in the early 1990s.

“His closest relatives are now the leading advocates for the church’s destruction,” Rakocevic stated.

He added that the area around the church has been excavated multiple times in search of mass graves, the building has been repeatedly attacked, and that beggars have taken shelter there.

According to Rakocevic, the SOC is now barred from accessing the church, which is locked with a new key.

He expressed concern over the silence of human rights advocates:
“How is it possible that no human rights defender or any individual with a conscience has stood in front of that church and called for an end to this?”

“No one from the NGO sector, no one from the Albanian community with a different worldview has spoken out and said—leave that church in peace. This is the church of the Serbs of Pristina, where 40,000 of them once lived,” Rakocevic said.

He added that the cross of the Christ the Savior Church in Pristina, designed by Paja Krunic, stands as a witness—this Easter as well—that Serbs once lived in that city and that they have a right to it.

Ultimately, the Christ the Savior Church, alongside the Church of Saint Nicholas, awaits the return of 40,000 displaced Serbs. For the 15–16 Serbs who remain in Pristina today, the church remains off-limits even in its current state.

Situation in Vucitrn

Rakocevic said that there is something extraordinary in the perseverance of Serbs, as they remain deeply connected to their church.

He noted that the destroyed church in the center of Vucitrn, a town that has been devoid of Serbs since 1999, was filled to the last spot on Palm Sunday.

“Filled with people from Vucitrn, a truly indigenous community, who are no longer physically there, but who live with the soul of their city and the memory of those charred frescoes,” he emphasized.

Yesterday in Vucitrn, the first promotion of a Serbian book was held.

Ways in which the Christ the Savior Church in Pristina has been desecrated

The legal adviser of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), Aleksandar Radovanovic, outlined the various ways in which the provisional institutions and other initiatives have attempted to challenge the legality and ownership of the Christ the Savior Church in Pristina.

“They first tried to simply erase it from the land registry, just as they once did with the land belonging to the Visoki Decani Monastery. However, due to the authority held by the international community at the time, they did not succeed,” Radovanovic stated.

He noted that other methods were then employed, turning the church into an unofficial dumping ground and “an unofficial public toilet.”

“Apparently, no one was bothered by that in the center of Pristina, which only shows that it was all orchestrated. There were even climbers who symbolically occupied the church, and a singer filmed a scandalous music video inside it,” the legal adviser added.

He said that the situation persisted until the Bishop of Raska-Prizren—now Metropolitan of Raska-Prizren—organized a church cleanup and replaced the lock on the door.

“The problem doesn’t lie in institutional actions taken through regular legal channels. The real issue is the constant extrainstitutional pressure we face around the church,” Radovanovic emphasized.

He also pointed to the pressures created by public opinion in Pristina, where the church is widely portrayed as a symbol of, as he put it, Milosevic’s repression of Albanians.

“As a result, there have even been ideas to confiscate the church from the SOC and turn it into a political museum dedicated to that period of Kosovo Albanian history,” said Radovanovic.

He underscored that the Metropolitan and clergy have, on several occasions, been prevented from holding religious services at the church.