Kosovo Turns Back the Clocks

Six elegant clock towers once graced Kosovo’s city centres as communal wristwatches for the people of the Ottoman Empire.  

Just two survived the 20th Century and only one still tells the correct time – but a new trend has seen three built, or rebuilt, in as many years, often to different, and some say kitsch, designs.  

Clock towers, Sahat Kulla in Albanian, still stand in Pristina, which shows the wrong time – and in Rahovec, in southern Kosovo.

Clock tower in Gjilan | Photo by: Donjeta Demolli

Vushtrri, Gjilan, Peja and Gjakova have lost these quintessential Ottoman structures for a variety of reasons.  But the clock tower in Gjakova was rebuilt in time for the 100th anniversary of its destruction three years ago, the reconstruction of Gjilan’s Sahat Kulla is underway, and Ferizaj, which became a town long after the Ottomans departed, unveiled its own in 2009.

Poor replicas:

The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, decided to rebuild the clock tower of Gjakova three years ago.

Bu not everyone is pleased. Architect Shqipe Nixha says that while reconstruction of the tower was a justifiable proposition, the new edifice is not close to being a replica of the original.

“Despite moving the site by several metres, the tower was rebuilt inside the bazaar, which in a way has saved the compositional integrity,” she noted. “The problem is the architecture of the rebuilt tower.”

One difference is that while the original tower had exposed brickwork, the new version is plastered and whitewashed.

In Gjilan, a new tower is being erected next to the town’s central park but, according to Nixha, the design pays little heed to the appearance of the original.

“As far as I know, none of these constructions are based on accurate and sufficient documentation, which is the essential principle for the reconstruction of cultural monuments,” she said.

In Ferizaj the situation is even stranger. Following its construction of an underpass for the town, the firm behind the project, Drenica Company, decided to gift it with a clock tower despite not receiving permission to do so from the town hall.

The company’s owner told Balkan Insight that he built the clock tower to serve as extra evidence that the country of Kosovo was also being built.

“The clock tower in Ferizaj has two main symbols,” Ismet Shamolli said, “five Albanian territories and the plis [traditional Albanian hat] on top.”

But some Ferizaj citizens say the results send the wrong message. “I think the clock tower has harmed the city’s image,” Kushtrim Palushi of the non-governmental organization, INPO, said. He said the tower “looks like a spaceship waiting to be launched into space”.

Naim Ferati, director of culture for Ferizaj municipality, said he knew nothing about the tower’s construction in advance. “I wasn’t informed that there was a public debate on this issue and I’m sure there wasn’t one,” he said. “We were not informed at any time of this [project] and we saw it only when it was finished.”  

Professor Shemsi Krasniqi, sociologist at the University of Pristina, describes Ferizaj’s clock tower as “anachronistic” and “kitsch.”

He says there were more pressing issues for towns and cities to deal with in terms of the built environment.

“A city’s beauty does not depend on vertical piles, whether they are clock towers or other monuments,” he said. “What is required is on the horizontal plane – in squares, parks, green areas and other aesthetic objects of earthly, not heavenly, proportions.

“To build a new clock tower, with no taste, no function, no layout and no need, is a waste of money,” he added. “It shows a complete lack of artistic taste concerning the public space.”

Clock Tower in Gjakova | Photo by: Donjeta Demolli

Nixha says more attention should be directed towards existing buildings that are in danger of being destroyed.

“We need to invest in the conservation, restoration and the re-functionalisation of heritage buildings and architectural complexes to save them from further destruction,” he said.

“Nothing more than good will and professional expertise is needed for this.

Out of time: For centuries, citizens of Pristina turned to their grand Ottoman clock tower to tell the time. But following the replacement of the mechanism by electric components in 2006, the tower has been misleading those unaware of its lack of punctuality, despite two bouts of restoration works.

Currently the time is around one hour fast, and the custodians of this structure have yet to discover why the clock tower is not telling the correct time.

The bell tower was erected in the late 19th Century with the original bell dating back to 1764, when it was brought from Moldova as war loot, first to Vushtrri and then to Pristina.

The hexagon-shaped tower is 26 metres tall and is made of red bricks.

The original mechanism of the clock was replaced in the 1960s and the bell set to ring every half an hour.

But in 2002 the original bell was stolen. Despite its replacement, interior renovation work, the switch from cogs and wheels to electrics in 2006 and last year’s exterior renovation work, the clock tower continues to tell the wrong time.

French troops from KFOR took over safeguarding of the tower after the war, changed the mechanism in 2006 and retain the key to set it.

A 26,000 euro, six-month renovation of the bell tower in 2009 dealt only with the façade, not the mechanism.

This article is funded under the BICCED project, supported by the Swiss Cultural Programme.