Opolje


Opolje is a region in the southern part of the municipality of Prizren in southern Kosovo. The region has 19 villages inhabited by Albanians.

Settlements

The region of Opoja includes 19 settlements:
The name Opolje is of Slavic, Serbian origin. According to Milisav Lutovac, the name "had to do with the inhabited localities dotted around a field". The name also appears in Lower Silesia, in Poland - Opole, and in Russia - Opolye.

Geography

Gora, in a collective term, refers to both the Gorani-inhabited Gora, and its sub-region Opolje, which is inhabited by Albanians. According to the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Opolje had an area of ca. 108 km2, while Gora had an area of ca. 500 km2. Sheltered by high mountain ranges of strong and cold winds, Gora and Opolje does not have harsh winters. There is no natural border between Gora and Opolje, while the northern part of the town of Dragaš has been considered part of Opolje as well.
Opolje is one of the traditional župa in the Šar Mountains massif in southern Kosovo, alongside Sredačka Župa, Sirinićka Župa, Gora and Prizrenski Podgor. In the west of Opolje is the region of Lumë, which extends in both Kosovo and Albania.

History

Middle Ages

The villages of Brodosavce, was mentioned in a charter dated 1330, of King Stephen Uroš III. The ruins of the Zinovo fortress is most likely located beneath Brodosavce. There exists ruins of medieval Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries in Brodosavce, Brut, Plajnik, while old Serbian cemeteries exist in several of the villages.
The Serbian rulers King Stephen Uroš III and Emperor Stephen Dušan mentioned many of the Opolje and Gora villages in their charters, which shows that they existed before those dates. Opolje was a church estate of the Church of the Holy Theotokos in Prizren throughout the Middle Ages.
The surrounding region possesses a good amount of Aromanian toponyms which Dumbrowski argues show the linguistic situation before Slavification.

Ottoman era

In 1455, the southern territories of the Serbian Despotate were annexed by the Ottomans, and organized into the beylerbeylik of Rumelia. Gora, in its broadest meaning, became a nahiyah of the Sanjak of Prizren. The Ottoman conquest resulted in the old trade routes that linked the Adriatic to the Aegean and Black sea lost their importance because of the insecurity on the roads, and the towns and villages along the roads stopped growing. There are no sources which name Opolje a nahiya in the 15th century.
The Ottoman defter from 1591 registers Gora as inhabited exclusively by Serbs, while Opolje to the north is Albanian populated. In the early 16th century, Opolje and the other Šar župas were governed by Kukli-Bey of Bukhara, a period which is marked with the beginning of Islamization of Opolje. Kukli-Bey was seated in Opolje, and after his death, the local villagers were given the lands, and used the mountains in the outskirts of the villages.
In 1955, Lutovac argued that in the 16th century, the Slavic population of Opolje partially adopted Islam and partially emigrated elsewhere, and the vacancies created by emigration were filled by Albanian incomers. Dumbrowski in 2012 argued that the situation described by Lutovac led to language shift from Slavic to Albanian in Opolje and the surrounding region, and that this is the reason for what Dumbrowski argues is evidence of Slavic substrate effects in the Opoja Albanian dialect. Pulaha in 1984 noted that most Christians in Opolje in 1591 had Albanian names, which Dumbrowski interprets to indicate that at the time Opolje was switching from Slavic to Albanian, what Dumbrowski argues were the Albanian incomers had not yet been fully Islamized.

Modern

In 1913, Sredska, Opolje and Luma were economically tied to Prizren.
From 1945 to Opolje was part of the municipality of Gora, but was then given status of a municipality. It was abolished on November 3, 1992, under the law of the federal Federal Yugoslav Republic of Serbia, and instead joined into the municipality of Prizren. The Gora municipality and Opoja region remained separated during the Milošević period.
During the Kosovo war, Albanians from Opoja fled to neighbouring Albania in cars, trucks and tractors along with others on foot that following the conflict returned home. After the war, Opoja was merged with Gora to form the municipality of Dragaš by the United Nations Mission and the new administrative unit has an Albanian majority. Located in Gora, the town of Dragash is the regional and municipal centre for both the Opoja and Gora regions of Dragash municipality.

Demographics

The population of Opolje, in 19 localities, is totally homogeneously Albanian. According to the 1981 census, Albanians constituted 99.9% of the Opolje population. The ethnic homogeneity of Opolje dates from long before, as evident from the 1948, 1953 and 1961 censuses, when 99.8% declared as Albanians. Opolje had an annual population growth in 1961-1971 of 33 per 1,000, and in 1971-1981, 29.8 per 1,000, which represents an enormous relative overpopulation ; according to estimates for 1991, there were 173 people per 1 square kilometre, and in some villages, up to 250 per 1 square kilometre, all in conditions of scarce natural and economic resources. The majority professes Islam.

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