Shtime ( sq-definite, Shtimja) or Štimlje ( sr-Cyrl, Штимље), is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

located in the Ferizaj District of

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

. According to the 2011 census, the town of Shtime has 7,225 inhabitants, while the municipality has 27,324 inhabitants. The territory of the municipality covers an area of 134 square kilometers.

History

Since the end of the 13th century Shtime was one of four courts of the

King of Serbia This is an wiktionary:archontology, archontological list of Serbs, Serbian monarchs, containing Monarch, monarchs of the Serbia in the Middle Ages, medieval principalities, to heads of state of modern Serbia. The :Serbian monarchy, Serbian mona ...

in Nerodimlje župa. Its position at that time was on the northern bank of

Svrčin Lake Svrčin ( sr-cyr, Сврчин; ) was one of the castles of Nemanjić dynasty, built around 1321, on an island in the artificially made Svrčin lake, northeast from present day Uroševac. The exact location of the medieval Svrčin has not been de ...

. After the mass expulsion of the Albanians from the former Sanjak of Niş by the

Principality of Serbia The Principality of Serbia () was an autonomous, later sovereign state in the Balkans that came into existence as a result of the Serbian Revolution, which lasted between 1804 and 1817. Its creation was negotiated first through an unwritten agre ...

, many Muhaxhir refugee families settled in Shtime and its surroundings. During the

Yugoslav colonisation of Kosovo Over the course of the twentieth century, Kosovo experienced four major colonisation campaigns that aimed at altering the ethnic population balance in the region, to decrease the Albanian population and replace them with Serbs and Montenegrins. ...

, 95 Serbo-Montenegrin colonist families were settled in Shtime and the surrounding villages by the Yugoslav government. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Albanians looted and demolished the Serbian church in the municipality.

Demographics

References

External links

Municipality of Štimlje

SOK Kosovo and its population
Municipalities of Kosovo Cities in Kosovo {{Kosovo-geo-stub