Ura e Vjetër e Gurit
Coordinates: 42 ° 49 ′ 24 ″ N , 20 ° 57 ′ 37 ″ E
| Ura e Vjetër e Gurit në Vushtrri | ||
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| Official name | Ura e Vojnoviçit / Vojinovića most | |
| use | pedestrians only | |
| Crossing of | Sitnica (formerly) | |
| place | Vushtrria | |
| construction | Arch bridge | |
| overall length | 135 m | |
| width | 6 m | |
| Number of openings | 9 | |
| Clear height | 7.5 m | |
| start of building | 14th Century | |
| completion | 15th century | |
| Status | Out of service | |
| Builders | Vojinović brothers | |
| location | ||
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| Above sea level | 525 m. i. J. | |
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Cultural monument |
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The Ura e Vjetër e Gurit ( Albanian also Ura e Vojnoviçit , Serbian Војиновића мост Vojinovića most ) in Vushtrria is a stone arch bridge in Kosovo . It was built at the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century. At that time a trade route from Ragusa to Skopje or the road from Mitrovica to Vushtrria crossed the Sitnica river by means of this bridge. The course of the Sitnica changed in the middle of the 19th century, so that today the bridge only crosses dry fields.
The bridge is a cultural monument of the Republic of Kosovo. It was considered the oldest preserved stone bridge in Serbia when it was declared a national treasure in 1990 .
construction
In the legends, the construction of the bridge is attributed to the Vojinović brothers, who are also associated with the Vučitrn Castle in the city center and, according to epic Serbian poetry, were nephews of Tsar Dušan (King 1331-1346, Tsar 1346-1355). The Vojinović were a noble family in the first half of the 14th century, but they were never owned by Vučitrn. The style of the bridge also speaks more for the late 14th or early 15th century.
The bridge was built asymmetrically with nine arches that are up to 13 meters wide, made of red and gray blocks. It is 135 meters long and up to six meters wide. Four semicircular round arches, which differ from the five other pointed ones, were probably added later in Ottoman times . The bridge railing is up to one meter high.
A considerable part of the building is now surrounded by earth, vegetation and rubble. The highest arch was originally 7.5 meters high, today only 3.7 meters protrude from the ground. An arch can no longer be seen. Covered by earth, another small arch is hidden next to the bridge, which led over another branch of the river that only carries water in winter. The condition of the bridge was repeatedly assessed as being quite poor in the period from the late 1980s to 2005.
The name old stone bridge refers to new bridges that had to be built nearby after the course of the river changed. The modern street curves around the bridge.
Web links
- Entry in the database of cultural heritage of Kosovo (English)
- Study: The Stone Bridge - Vushtrri / Vučitrn - Kosovo (PDF; July 2005) ( Memento from March 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d The Stone Bridge - Vushtrri / Vučitrn - Kosovo (PDF; July 2005) ( Memento from March 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b The Old Stone Bridge. In: Database of Cultural Heritage of Kosovo. Retrieved November 13, 2016 .
- ↑ a b Војиновића мост у Вучитрну. In: Споменици културе у Србији. Retrieved November 13, 2016 (Serbian).
- ^ Cultural Heritage in South-East Europe: Kosovo. (PDF) In: unesco.org. UNESCO Office Venice, March 2003, p. 111 , accessed on November 13, 2016 (English).