Sredačka župa

File:Sredačka Župa region.jpg

Location map in Kosovo.

Sredačka Župa (Serbian Cyrillic: Средачка Жупа; "county of Sredska") is a remote geographical region, a valley, in southeastern Kosovo, below the Šar Mountains at the source of the Prizrenska Bistrica.

Geography

File:Crni vrh.jpg

Crni Vrh ("Black Top").

The region, an oval basin, lies below the Šar Mountains, at the source, upper stream of the Prizrenska Bistrica ("Prizren river"). South of the region between the Prizren mountains and Koritnik mountain, lies the Gora region.

It currently includes Sredska, Pousko, Jablanica, Lokvica, Rečane, Živinjane, Planjane, Nebregošte, Manastirica, Struže, Donje Ljubinje, Gornje Ljubinje, Drajčići, Mušnikovo, Gornje Selo.

History

It was a medieval župa (small administrative division) of the Serbia in the Middle Ages in modern-day southeastern Kosovo. It encompassed seven hamlets and was centered in the town of Sredska. In the early 19th century, Sredačka župa was inhabited by Serbs, and in the first decades Serbian schools were opened here. During the Serbo-Turkish War (1876–78), in the Prizren surroundings there existed the bajrak (district) of Opolje, Ljubinje (Sredačka župa), Suva Reka, Ostrozub, Ljum and Gora.

Between 1918 and 1945 Sredačka Župa was a municipality of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After World War II, in 1945, the Slavophone Muslims in Sredačka župa were ascribed Albanian ethnicity and names by state institutions (as was the case with Gorani and other Muslim non-Albanian speakers). The region was annexed into the municipality of Prizren by the FPR Yugoslavia (1945–63). In 1953, there were 12 villages in the region, and the region was inhabited by "Serbs [...] divided into Muslims and Orthodox" in all villages except Stružje (Struže) inhabited by Albanian Muslims.

Culture

Church of the Holy Virgin, Sredska.

Monuments

• Church of the Holy Virgin, Sredska.
• Church of St. George, Sredska.

Demographics and anthropology

File:Юго-запад-Косова.png

Ethnic groups in the Šar Mountain region, Kosovo, 1981 census (in Russian). Green—Bosniaks/Muslims, Yellow—Albanians, Red—Serbs.

The region is inhabited by a majority of Bosniaks and minority of Serbs (who left during and following the Kosovo War). The community was one of several groups noted having Serb origin and language in the Prizren region (Šarplaninska Gora, Sredačka župa, Prizrenski Podgor, Prizrensko Polje, Podrima) that did not submit to Albanization. In 1932, it was said that in Sredačka župa, a woman could be bought for 10,000 dinars.

Notable people

• Vuk Isakovič (1696-1759), Austrian soldier
• Čolak-Anta (1777-1853), Serbian revolutionary
• Jake Allex (1887-1959), Serbian-American soldier

Annotations

It is known in historiography as Sredačka Župa (Средачка Жупа), Sredska Župa (Средска Жупа) and Sretečka Župa meaning "county of Sredska")