Anadrini is a rich, fertile plains region located in the greater Field of Dukagjini, part of the western portion of Kosova, with its center being the city of Rahovec. Known for its rolling hills and vineyards, one might think they are strolling through Tuscany when visiting the region. Literally translating to “On the banks of the Drin”, it is named after the White Drin, the longest river in Kosova, which acts as a border between Anadrini and the region of Dushkaja. Famous for being the viticultural heartland of Kosova, it is one of the most prolific wine-producing areas in the Albanian-speaking territories.
Although the region has remained relatively under-the-radar, Anadrini has bred countless patriotic figures and movements throughout its history and stood as a bastion of Albanian scholarship. The most notable among these have been Sheh Hilmi Abdylmaliq Hoxha, Ukshin Hoti, and Dr. Sabajdin Cena, as well as martyrs of the Kosova Liberation Army such as Selajdin Mullabazi and Xhelal Hajda.
Anadrini’s recognition has not kept up with its vast contributions. In fact, the history of the region has been used as propaganda justifying exclusionary Serbian rule and settlement in Kosova. However, discoveries made in the mid-20th century in and around the city of Rahovec, the central hub of Anadrini, not only dismantle such claims but strengthen the integrity of the local culture that has been passed down through millennia into the modern day.
Present-day Kosova was once split into two Roman provinces: Moesia Superior and Dardania, named after the tribe who called the land home. With Roman control came Roman development and the region grew effectively Romanized. Roman towns and trading hubs were scattered throughout this part of the Balkans, with the most famous being the road station Vicianum (today’s Vushtrri), the city of Ulpiana (today’s Lipjan), Nissus (today’s Nish), and Scupi (today’s Shkup).
In later centuries, during Byzantine rule, Dardania would be a focal point of investment by Justinian the Great, who is thought to be of Romano-Illyrian heritage. Justinian would found an archbishopric in the name of a city that he founded, dubbed Justiniana Prima, and would later begin the construction of the Fortress of Prizren, designed to stop the Slavic incursions into Byzantine territory in the 6th century AD.
As the Eastern Roman grasp of the Balkans gradually weakened due to the Justinian Plague and subsequent conquest by the Bulgarian and Serbian Empires, the region of Dardania became susceptible to settlement. This settlement would follow a certain pattern that would persist well into the modern period, with Slavic peoples populating the plains of today’s Kosova, with proto-Albanian populations dotting the mountain pastures and ranges in and around the region, growing accustomed to a semi-nomadic lifestyle.
This pattern is also reflected by the toponymic system within Kosova itself. Much of the placenames in the region are of distinctly Slavic etymological origin, a fact which has been used by Serbian regimes to build hegemonic claims. The simplicity of these assertions, however, can be easily dispelled.
Chrysobulls (literally meaning “golden bull”) were decrees given by European monarchs, especially those in close proximity to the Byzantines. Several of these decrees made by Serbian rulers, such as Stefan Dušan and Uroš I, confirm an Albanian (Arbanaš) presence in the Western portion of today’s Kosova, known as Dukagjini. These records also mention Albanian villages that exist to this day, mainly in the vicinity of Prizren and Drenica. Later Ottoman defters confirm that much of Dukagjin, such as in the region of Has, was inhabited by a Christian Albanian population residing in villages of mixed Orthodox and Latin names.
It is much more likely that when medieval Slavs referred to “Kosovo” in their records, they referred to the Eastern portion of the region we know today more specifically as Kosovo Polje, or the Field of Kosova. This coincides with the fact that much of eastern Kosova holds Serbian placenames, noted by the suffix -evac or -ovac. However, western Kosova, known as Metohija to the Serbs, housed Old Bulgarian place names, usually ending in -ovec. These were retained by the Albanian population in western Kosova, which explains why the city is not called Orahovac in Albanian but Rahovec. In short, the Albanian retention of Bulgarian place names indicates little influence of Serb settlement in the Field of Dukagjini and Anadrini as a whole.
In “Kosovo: A Short History”, Noel Malcolm records what will bring us to the topic of today’s discussion. On page 54, Malcolm states that, “when Dečanski founded his monastery of Dečani in 1330, he referred to 'villages and katuns of Vlachs and Albanians' in the area of the White Drin.” In contrast, Serb scholars have consistently pushed the narrative that Anadrini’s viticulture and wine tradition was popularized in the region by Serbs after Stefan Dušan's chrysobull of 1348. Through this decree the Serbian ruler gave the Hilandar monastery on Mt. Athos lands with vineyards bordering the territory around a place named Orahovac.
This narrative was pushed by biased scholars until a fateful era of archaeology within Anadrini that began with the discovery of Roman artifacts and writing in the region. Thus, for example, in the village of Reti, two Roman-era marble slabs with Latin inscriptions were discovered.
The first slab contains the inscription: “D(is) m(anibus) Aur(elia) Catulla vixit annis XX F(iliae) b(ene) M(erenti)".
The second slab reads: "D(is) M(anibus) Scerviae-dus Sita es Vix(it) an(nis) XXX interfectus a llatromibus si ta Dasi p(ater) f(ilio) p(iissimo) et Sibi et Caiae Dasi coniugi b(ene) m(erenti) Vius F(aciendum) C(uravit)".
When translated, the engravings say:
“For the spirits of the dead,
To Aurelia Catulla, who lived 20 years. For a well-deserving daughter.”
“For the spirits of the dead,
To Scervia’s son, Sita, who lived 30 years and was killed by robbers. Thus Dasi, his father, for his most dutiful son, and for himself and Caia Dasi, his well-deserving wife, arranged for this to be made.”
Mark Krasniqi, in his work on the city of Rahovec points out that in addition to these epitaphs, an additional broken slab was found on which this text is engraved: “...et Sitae F(ilio) sumi cor(niculario) c(o) hor(tis) pri(mae) Dardanorum V(i) ixit an(nis) XXX b(ene) m(erenti) P(osuit).”
The translation reads:
"And to Sita, son of Sumi, cornicularius of the First Cohort of the Dardanians, who lived 30 years, well-deserving, this was placed."
During an excavation project in 1953 in the city of Rahovec for the construction of the wine cellar known today as Bodrumi i Vjetër (The Old Cellar), two more Roman artifacts were found that completely dispelled the preceding myths. One, a vessel known as an amphora – a circular or cylindrical storage container for wine or grapes during the Roman period – and a marble slab with a yet-to-be translated inscription bordered by grapes and vines. The nail-in-the-coffin for the claim solely associating Serbian populations with viticulture is that two Dardanian sun wheels were engraved at the top of said slab, symbols used by Albanians well into the present day.
These discoveries not only solidify that the culture of winemaking in the region of Anadrini represents a tradition that has survived for millennia but also that it traces a Paleo-Balkanic heritage within Kosova. The inscriptions serve as evidence of a Romanized Dardanian population inhabiting the land in and around the city of Rahovec.
Viticulture in Anadrini, while a relatively unknown topic, is a multi-layered and complex historical phenomenon. Its relevance to the history of the region should incite much higher levels of interest among Albanians and scholars of the Balkans alike.
Valton Vuçitërna is a first-year student majoring in Finance at Michigan State University's Eli Broad College of Business. Valton was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan to parents from Kosova and is the founder of The Anadrini Project, a database designed to record the histories and genetics of families in the region of Anadrini. He is interested in European history and the cultural heritage of the Albanian people.