Medieval routes between the Adriatic and Kosovo

Kotor in the Middle Ages was closely connected to Kosovo, mainly due to the interest in mines and ores, especially gold and silver, but also goods and other interests. Therefore, the roads were very important for this Adriatic-Kosovo communication. There were several consolidated roads of this time from which the Kotor-Kosovo communication was made. They took the road inland, in a difficult mountainous relief. There were three important directions: the first went from the shore of Lake Shkodra, towards the swampiest part and towards the upper part of the Lim River valley to Peja; the second towards the medieval city of Danji, with its famous customs house that in Venetian times was given under the governance of the famous Kotor family Draga and continued further in the Albanian Bjeshkët e Nemuna towards Prizren; The third direction was known as the Zeta road, via Zenta, which connected, in addition to Kotor, Budva and Tivar, and which, beyond the mountains towards Cetina, descended to Podgorica, captured Plava or even the Brskovo mine and continued on to Peja.

From 1578 the Bolica family was responsible for the postal service from Venice to Istanbul, where Kotor was a kind of hub, an inevitable meeting point for this inter-Adriatic communication. This enabled this family to create an extraordinary network extending throughout the Balkans. The Bolica family, one of the oldest patricians of Kotor, was a kind of logistical pillar of the Catholic missions of the Counter-Reformation, especially in Albania and Montenegro. These covered areas from Tivat and Shkodra, to the deep highlands from Kelmend to Mireditë and Prizren.

Zamjević, who was instrumental in the relocation of the Arbanasi to Zadar, with whom he himself lived –  expanded the geography of communication between Bokelë and Albanians to a wider radius. Meanwhile, the shared living of the Bokelë, Croatian, Montenegrin and Albanian diaspora in Venice added a new dimension of meeting points to this geography.

In fact, when it comes to roads, Martin Segoni, a Kotor native, but who during his life also had spiritual ties with Albanians in Novo Brdo and Ulcinj, was later the most specific handler of the route itinerary. He wrote a special work, which the nergu dedicated to the Vatican, on the breakdown of Balkan geography with special emphasis on the routes from which the Balkan Crusades could be made. It is not accidental that these Kotor natives were the best connoisseurs of Balkan roads and geography and of the area where Albanians lived. They deserved this title because of their experience, their contacts with this Balkan geography, where the Albanians they had to deal with also lived.

Where Latins, Arbëror, Slavs met...

As Šufflay has also noted, the cities of antiquity that flourished on the eastern coast of the Adriatic had Illyrian origins and roots, then an ancient Hellenic appearance, but reached the Middle Ages with a fully Roman content. The central area of ​​Illyrian stone castles, according to this emblematic author, was the one north of Durrës and Lezha, where the kingdom of Teuta and Agron was centered in Rizon, not far from Perast, which could have been the Illyrian tribal city of the Pirusts. However, the citizens in the bay of Rizon (Kotor) would later belong to the Roman “tyrius Sergia” as did the Romans in Zadar and Quarnaro (Kvarner). The barbarian and peoples' influxes made a ruthless selection of the survival of the old Roman cities, which under the Byzantines took on the character of a defensive line, since Justinian, where the strategic base of the series of fortifications was the Via Egnatia. But, when the barbarians managed to block it for a while, the coastal cities on the Durrës-Lezha line served as a base. In fact, the line of Roman castles from Tivar and Lezha along the Drini in the Middle Ages was known as the via Zenta, which led to Prizren. The pronounced border of the Byzantine defense from which the current name of Krajës (Krajina) on Lake Shkodra derives.

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The former Roman via publica, connecting the coast to Puka in Prizren, was equally important.

Cities that could not survive these dramatic changes proved incapable of historical survival. Among them was the well-known Dioclea. But a cluster of cities arose nearby, such as –  Shasi (Suacium), Drishti (Drivastum), Balecium (Balëza), Danja (Dagno). Tivari took over the ecclesiastical primacy inherited from Dioclea. Nearby cities such as Shkodra and Lezha were recycled or moved, adapting to the terrain, sometimes where the Roman fortification was, sometimes by moving nearby, until the later Venetian fortifications, of the Serbian dynasties, or of the Balshajs and other local Arbëro gods, until the long-lasting Ottoman rule.

But, the "ethnic core" of the cities from the island of Krk to Durrës and Krujë was made up in the Middle Ages of the descendants of Roman citizens, the Latins, Latin in the vernacular languages ​​of the Arbori and Slavs, or the Latins of the Priest of Dikole or of Thomas the Archdeacon. The cities of the eastern Adriatic coast, however, were later mixed and were areas where Latins, Arbori and Slavs met, and later also the Venetians and finally the Ottomans.

These cities were distinguished by their autonomy and by the statutes that regulated the life and community of fortified cities. There are opinions that Byzantium encouraged these new characteristic regulations, while the opposite pressure on the right to form municipal law in Dalmatia was exerted by the Croatian government, like the Serbian one in Diocle and Zeta. The Consilium Rogatorum did not manage to extend south of Thebes.

The bell that called the people in 1330

In Kotor in 1330 the Republic of the city called the people to the assembly in the square near the Cathedral of St. Tryphon, but this council was completely withdrawn in 1361 and was replaced by the Consilium Maius. But, influenced by Dubrovnik and Vendee, in 1372 the senate or Consilium rogatorum was established in Kotor. The institution of the notary became part of this coastal legal culture.

The Byzantine thalassocracy can be said to have survived in the eastern Adriatic basin, despite Slavic, Lombard and Frankish pressure, as demonstrated by the installation of the Dalmatian theme. This even enabled Venice to achieve a kind of independence by accepting Byzantine sovereignty and rejecting Frankish one.

Even in difficult times for Constantinople with political ups and downs, it specifically managed to preserve "Byzantium outside Byzantium".

Byzantium preserved the thalassocracy by keeping control of key and strategic points on the coast that enabled unhindered communication, hence one can speak of "Byzantium in the Adriatic".

It is believed that Saint Tryphon, as the patron saint of Kotor, changed the tradition, because until then Saint George was celebrated in Kotor. This change was paradigmatic and political. According to the city's tradition, the year 809 marked the bringing of the relics of Saint Tryphon from Constantinople to Kotor and with it was also associated the creation of the famous Kotor war navy, with a tradition that continues to this day, which was accompanied by a three-day celebration resembling those of Byzantine cities. Kotor was now a secure military station for Byzantium in the eastern Adriatic, as compensation for the long-term failure to maintain positions on the other side of the sea, in Venice and Ravenna.

In the recorded liturgies of the early Middle Ages, in several Dalmatian cities, including Kotor, the prayer known as the exultet or prayer of praise addressed to the Byzantine emperor was preserved. The exultet was a direct and nominal expression of sovereignty and as such is preserved in the well-known Kotor Missal, which is the southernmost known extension of its use in Dalmatia and the Eastern Adriatic.

All of this simultaneously marks an emblematic re-establishment of Byzantium in these areas with a millennial influence that will remain a symbol of these Adriatic cities long after Byzantium is no more.

Arbanon before the first fall of Byzantium was part of what was known as the administrative organization of the eastern Adriatic that included Diocletian, Croatia, Arbania and Split. As is known, among the first medieval mentions of Arbanon, Arbanon (Arbanon, Αρβαηοη, Рабан) in its beginnings, as a territorial-ethnic-administrative concept, comes from a circumstantial source, namely from the event of the inauguration of the Cathedral of Saint Tryphon in Kotor in 1166. The Byzantine emperor Manuel Komnenos (1143–1180) had appointed Constantine Dukan in 1179, “archbishop of all Diocletian, Croatia, Arbania and Split” (τοῦτον δοῦκ(α) καὶ ἀρχηγὸν καταστής (ας) ἐπὶ πάση Διοκλήᾳ, Δαλματ(ίᾳ), Χορβατ(ίᾳ), Ἀρβαν(ίᾳ) καὶ Σπαλάθ(ρῳ)).

The old connection of Arbanon with Kotor

In this respect, the connection of Arbanon with Kotor within a Byzantine hemisphere is of interest and marks an old and long connection of Kotor with the Arbëri that will continue for centuries. It was therefore a kind of geographical or geopolitical connection between them that preceded the later preservation of the established legal-political term of (τοῦτον δοῦκ(α) καὶ ἀρχηγὸν καστασθής(ας) ἐπὶ πάση Διοκλήᾳ, Δαλματ(ίᾳ), Χορβατ(ίᾳ), Ἀρβαν(ίᾳ) καὶ Σπαλάθ(ρῳ)) in Venetian Albania.

Venice played a significant role during the Fourth Crusade and benefited significantly in the attempt to control the eastern Adriatic and Balkan ports and in 1205 brought Dubrovnik under its sovereignty. Then George, king of Zeta, became a vassal of Venice, swearing an alliance and aid if Demetrius of Arbansia (Demetrius Dei gratia panyperseuatos et manus archon; nobili Demetrio Arbanensi principi; Dametrius judex Albanaorum; áποιχομένου υρχοντος τοϋ Αρβάοου Γίνη τοϋ Προγόνου) would attack the newly conquered Venetian lands in these areas. This brought Venice to the Eastern Adriatic, where it would remain until the end of its existence, in 1797, and which once again linked the two shores of the Adriatic with political, commercial and cultural influence. This change was both geographical and geopolitical for this Adriatic strip, which included Kotor and the Arbërorët.

Kotor, being a port of interest in the time of the Nemanjićs, had privileges in its trade in the Balkan hinterland. Although Kotor maintained a substantial autonomy that characterized it, in the time of the Nemanjićs it had privileges and did not have tension from the smaller feudal lords as later. This enabled Kotor to explore these opportunities by developing communication with the Balkan hinterland. This communication, therefore, in addition to the sea routes, also extended inland and made this connection of Adriatic interest –  Balkan hinterland.

Kotor's interest in Kosovo's ore mines

Kotor in the Middle Ages was closely connected to Kosovo, mainly due to interest in mines and ores, especially gold and silver, but also other goods and interests. Therefore, the roads were very important for this Adriatic-Kosovo communication.

There were several consolidated roads of this time from which the Kotor-Kosovo communication was made. They took the road inland, in a difficult mountainous relief. There were three important directions: the first went from the shore of Lake Shkodra, towards the swampy part and towards the upper part of the Lim River valley to Peja; the second towards the medieval city of Danji, with its famous customs house that in Venetian times was given under the governance of the famous Kotor family Draga and continued further in the Albanian Bjeshkët e Nemuna towards Prizren; the third direction was known as the Zeta road, via Zenta, which connected in addition to Kotor also Budva and Tivar and which beyond the mountains towards Cetina descended to Podgorica, captured Plavë or even the Brskovo mine and continued further to Peja. However, this road was not infrequently mentioned for the difficulties and dangers that were threatened by Albanian raiders.

The first two roads, in addition to important cities such as Shkodra and Lezha and the coastal cities of Tivar, Ulcinj, Budva, Kotor and Dubrovnik, also reached various communication points of importance in the Middle Ages, such as the Rotecco Monastery, Saint Nicholas and Saint Shirxhi in Buna, Shasi, Sapa, Danji, Drishti, etc.

Also, from Kosovo, through the two entry points, mainly Peja and Prizren, other branches continued with caravan connections. The route from Lake Shkodra to Prizren took approximately 35 hours of travel. From Prizren onwards, it was possible to go to Lipjan or Janjevo and through Kaçanik and Skopje, along the Vardar valley roads, further towards Bulgaria or Greece. Prizren was the point where the rival interests of Kotor and Dubrovnik met.

From Dubrovnik, but also from Kotor, there were also caravans with mules, driven by Vlachs, skilled at mountain roads.

In fact, the connection between Kotor and the Adriatic, including Dubrovnik, in the interior of the Balkans, mainly went towards the areas of Northern Albania and Zeta and inevitably came to Kosovo and beyond. Such a route was of primary importance throughout the Middle Ages, but later changed due to other geopolitical circumstances –  with Ottoman domination and the loss of importance that mining had in Kosovo and the region, especially after the securing of other international markets, and especially after the discovery of overseas resources.

Such intensive commercial communication also had other influences, both in culture and religion. Catholic influence became more prominent in the centers of Kosovo, but also in architecture.

The Catholic churches in Novo Brdo, Trepca and elsewhere are evidence of this. However, the influence is also seen in the Orthodox monasteries and a typical example of this influence is the Deçan Monastery, with its emblematic facade with Romanesque influences, alternating marble and decorative plastic and sculpture, all in the Catholic Mediterranean fashion, attributed to Fra Vita Cuccolo and his group.

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To be continued in the next issue of the Culture Supplement

Footnotes have been removed by the Editorial Team. The footnotes are the Editorial Team's.