Banja, Srbica

Banja or Banja Rudnička (Serbian Cyrillic: Бања, Albanian: Bajë) is a settlement in the Skenderaj municipality in the disputed region of Kosovo. The rural settlement lies on a cadastral area with the same name, of 1033 hectares. The village has a Serbian majority; in the 1991 census, it had 274 inhabitants.

History

It is mentioned for the first time in a charter of Serbian King Stephen Uroš I (r. 1243–1276), dating to the mid-13th century, which was granted (metochion) to the Gračanica monastery. The village church, dedicated to Saint Nicholas, was founded by vlastelin Rodop, a nobleman at the court of Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković (r. 1427–1456). The ktetor also gifted a bell to the church. The bell and charter is preserved in the Peć Patriarchate and National Museum in Belgrade. Rodop was buried in the church, and his tombstone lies in the church. In the years between the World Wars, the church was renovated, however, during World War II, members of the Albanian fascist Balli Kombëtar looted it and destroyed the iconostasis and buried it in stones. In 1971 the church was reconstructed.

On the night of May 21, 1998, a large number of Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army members of Drenica attacked the villages of Banja and Suvo Grlo (which are inhabited by Serbs) and a military station in Rudnik, above Skenderaj. Serbs and Serbian police answered the fire, no deaths or injuries were reported by them.^[1]

Demographic history

Ethnic group	1948	1953	1961	1971	1981[2]	1991
Serbs					338
Albanians					32
Total[3]	552	595	636	513	371	274

References

1. Ilustrovana Politika, Broj 2054, 30. maj 1998. Dnevnik od 19. do 24. maja
2. 1981 Census, Kosovo (Preliminary)
3. Kosovo censuses 1948-1991

Coordinates: 42°48′51″N 20°40′21″E / 42.81417°N 20.67250°E