The protection of Cultural Heritage Properties in the Republic of Kosovo

Abstract

Kosovo is a country with an ancient history and a wealthy cultural, tangible and spiritual heritage, created over eight thousand years ago. These heritage assets are important from a historical, aesthetic, architectural and social perspective. They play an important and irreplaceable part of Kosovo's memory. Until the second half of the last century, cultural heritage properties of Kosovo were maintained and protected intuitively from locals. In the recent past, these properties were not valued properly. They have been treated with denigrated and degraded methods; as such the lost is enormous. Especially during the '98/'99 War in Kosovo thousands of traditional buildings were burnt and destroyed from the Serbian forces. Thousands of archaeological and ethnological collections, as well as the cultural heritage documentation of Kosovo are being held unfairly in Serbia. In the post-war period, the protection of destroyed cultural heritage was not considered according to the real requirements. The heritage was left in a degraded state to be further threatened by uncontrolled developments. However, the destroyed monasteries and orthodox churches in 2004 were totally repaired. Since 2006, there has been a development in the system of legislation and administration of cultural heritage protection in Kosovo. With the definition of Kosovo's Status as an independent democratic state, the protection of cultural heritage is demanded as one of the main preconditions. In the cultural heritage field, systematic activities are being developed thus progress is visible. However this does not cover the actual requirements. Regarding the implementation of legal protection, there are halts for different reasons. In this way the protection of cultural heritage properties is being faced with big challenges. Intangible heritage is not being supported and is endangered from being vanished. The paper will explore the treatment and conservation of Kosovo's built heritage within the context of current situation. Furthermore it will describe the legal definition and management mechanisms, underline the demands for development and modernization of administrative mechanisms responsible for managing the protection and enhancement of build heritage, as well as Professional Standards and training programs for conservation, according to international principles.