Rečane, Suva Reka

Rečane (Serbian Cyrillic: Речане, Albanian: Reçan), or Reqan, is a settlement in the Suva Reka (Suhareka) municipality in the disputed region of Kosovo. The rural settlement lies 483 m above sea level in a cadastral area of the same name, covering 679 hectares. It has an ethnic Albanian majority. In the last census of the population, it had over 1,600 residents.

Reqan

Village
Reqan
Location in Kosovo
Coordinates:
Location Kosovo[lower-alpha 1]
DistrictPrizren
MunicipalitySuharekë
Population
 (2011)[1]
 • Total1,130
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)

History

It is mentioned for the first time in the "Saint Archangels charter" (Svetoarhanđelska povelja) of Emperor Stephen Uroš IV Dušan, dating to 1348; Rečane was granted (metochion) to the Saint Archangels Monastery, the Emperor's foundation, in Prizren. The boundaries that were marked in detail at that time have remained their names unchanged to this day. It is believed that the Church of St. George, an endowment of an unknown voivode who was buried there in 1370, lied at the outskirts of the boundaries, which is testified on a tombstone in the church floor. In the mid-19th-century, the church was dilapidated, abandoned and the dome was half destroyed. Muslim shepherds wintered in it and held their goats, in the summer it was used as a restplace for cattle. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was partially restored. A little over half of the church's original paintings are preserved. Of the ten pieces from the series dedicated to the patron, St. George, six scenes have survived, which have a great iconographical and cultural importance. The first three scenes were made according to the Serbian translations of "The Life of St. George", while the lower zone is occupied by depictions of individual saints and the Adoration of the Lamb in the apse. On the south wall of the west aisle, in a series of standing figuers, five female martyrs are depicted, and on the west wall four holy warriors. All inscriptions are in Slavic. The frescoes were painted in the 1360s, a work of two zographs of the Prizren School of painting. Between 1956 and 1960, there was conservation work carried out on the frescoes of the church.

Demographic history
Ethnic group 1948 1953 1961 1971 1981[2] 1991
Albanians 730
Serbs 188
Total[3] 363 421 524 706 896 1065

Notes
  1. Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008. Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the 2013 Brussels Agreement. Kosovo is currently recognized as an independent state by 98 out of the 193 United Nations member states. In total, 113 UN member states recognized Kosovo at some point, of which 15 later withdrew their recognition.

References
  1. 2011 Kosovo Census results
  2. 1981 Census, Kosovo (Preliminary)
  3. Kosovo censuses 1948-1991
  • Enti Statistikor i Kosovës:


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.