Show on map
The village of Isniq lies off the road between Peja and Decan. From the junction where the bus dropped me it’s a twenty minute walk along a single lane road through the fertile Dukagjini valley where farm labourers are out in force working the fields.
The village is notable for a couple of beautiful medieval kullas (fortified houses) which were restored in 2001 by a Swedish NGO, Cultural Heritage without Borders. Kullas used to be at the centre of Albanian clan life, each home to an extended family or a group of smaller families. Their use declined during the 20th century and the remaining ones were targeted during the war as symbols of Albanian culture, the majority damaged or destroyed altogether.
Many villages in this region still have a few standing but in states of disrepair, with the walls collapsed and trees growing through the rubble.
In Isniq the villagers must be used to people coming to see the kullas, as I’d only been in village for a minute when an elderly man appeared from one of the houses. He turned out to be Mr Osdautaj, whose family own one of the kullas and have lived there for two centuries. Although not officially open to the public on the day I visited, he was happy to give me a tour, even opening up the small anthropological museum in the basement. The kulla stood in a courtyard with wooden steps
leading up to the entrance on the first floor (the ground floor traditionally used for livestock). The interior was sparse and plain, apart from the ‘men’s room’ (‘oda e burrave‘) on the top floor where the heads of the family would make important decisions and share out the next days work – this was decked out with colourful woven rugs, cushions and wall hangings.
The second kulla is occupied by a husband and wife from the Kulkeci family who Mr Osdautaj roused by banging loudly on their door. Although similar from the outside the first floor was more obviously lived in, with patterned sofas, glass display cabinets and a collection of trinkets that gave the room the feel of a 1970s caravan. Again the top floor had a ‘men’s room’. Mr Kulkeci pointed out shrapnel marks in the beams from the war.
I was then given a quick tour round the rest of the village, dominated by square with a KLA memorial, a modest mosque and other ruined, unrestored kullas. Apart from the odd car coming through the village felt quite timeless.
