Cultural heritage of Kosovo

Kosovo is a partially recognized state and disputed territory located in the Balkan Peninsula in Southeastern Europe.

Kosovo has an expansive cultural heritage, including monuments, clothing items, museums, and traditional food.

Monuments in Kosovo mostly consist of ancient cities, castles (Kulla), monasteries, mosques and churches.

First is the headgear, a woolen cone-shaped plis for the male, and a pashnik headdress for the female of a common red color.

Today plis and tirq are being worn combined with European modern clothes to symbolize national identity.

The motifs and patterns on these garments can be explained by prehistoric religion and chromatically there are three basic colors, the most symbolic of which is red.

The Veshja e Dukagjinit was a white long sleeve cotton shirt but the edges were colorfully embodied.

The Kosovo cuisine developed under the influence Albanian, Turkish, Serbian, Croatian Greek and Italian dishes.

Due to the harsh continental climate vegetables are seasonal flourishing mainly in the summer.

[9][10] Thus, instruments like the Kemenche[11] and traditional dances such as Hora from the Turkish culture become a symbol of Kosovar ethnic identity.

[16] Kosovo's Islamic heritage suffered devastating events during the "ethnic cleansing" operations.

Qurans were found with pages ripped out and spread with feces, and valuable collections of Islamic manuscripts were burned.

[16] During the 2004 unrest in Kosovo, Human Rights Watch estimated that 29 Serbian Orthodox Churches and Monasteries were burned or destroyed.

[19] Preserving what is left and restoring what is lost, is one of the main goals of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.

[20] Other agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning and many other non-governmental organisations such as the CHwB and the RIC are also dedicated to rescuing and preserving tangible and intangible cultural heritage touched by conflict, neglect or human and natural disasters.

[citation needed] There are many projects that are organised for this cause and one of them is the annual "Tour de Culture", which attracts many people from many countries.