Gordana Tomović

Kosovo and Metohija on old maps from the XV to the XVIII century

Source: Kosovo and Metohija -past, present, future, Papers presented at the International Scholarly Meeting held at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade , March 16-18, 2006,
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade 2006, pp. 49-60.

Abstract:  Maps of the greatest European cartographers from the XV to the XVIII century are important testimonies to the geostrategic significance of Kosovo and Metohija, which is always denoted as an integral  part of Serbia, with special emphasis on its rich mine ores, important routes and large Serbian towns. The last shining moment of Serbian economic prosperity  in the XV century and Kosovo’s wealth in precious metals, the importance and development of its urban centers and its road network, are represented on two unique maps from the workshop of Fra Mauro, from  the island of Murano near Venice. Under Turkish rule cartographic knowledge of Kosovo and Metohija was based on records of travelers, merchants, Catholic missionaries. Two themes in the cartography of that period dominate on the image of Kosovo – the lost lake with Svrčin castle and the celebrated place of the Battle of Kosovo with  Emperor Murat’s tomb. From the large cartographic production between the XV and the XVIII century, this paper will deal with the  details of important maps depicting Kosovo and Metohija made by Francesco Roselli (1480-1484), Giacomo Gastaldi (1570), Christian Sgrooten (1578), Maria Vincenzo Coronelli (1688), Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola (1689), Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli (1689), Etienne Briffaut (1738), and Carl Schütz (1788).

Key words: Kosovo, Metohija, Cartographic presentation, XV-XVIII century.

 

Kosovo and Metohija as the integral part of Serbia is represented on cartographic works within the European and Mediterranean world from the earliest preserved manuscript maps up to the present time.

The last brilliant economic rise of the Serbian Despotate in the first decades of the XV century, especially Kosovo’s  wealth in precious metals, the importance and development  of its urban centers and road network, were depicted splendidly on two unique maps, which present the pinnacle of  mediaeval cartography, produced in the Saint Michael monastery on the island of Murano in Venice, in Fra Mauro’ s workshop.

The first is a sea chart, named Borgiano V, painted in color on three pieces of parchment, measuring 73 x 147,5 cm, oriented with South on top, depicting European and African Atlantic coasts, the Mediterranean and a part of Central Asia. The chart, now in Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana (Cod. Borgiano V), was made in 1450, with unusual artistic features: winding roads running at the foot of shaded mountains, various towns depicted in perspective, the rivers are broad and winding and the  road network well developed. The chart is not complete, but by its characteristics it is considered to be a work of some anonymous cartographer from Fra Mauro’s workshop.[1]

Following the example of the maps made by antique geographer and astronomer Claudius Ptolemy (cca 100 – 178), the whole southeastern European peninsula is traversed by a single mountain range – Catena Mundi. In line with  contemporary sea – charts, the map is oriented towards the North, while the names and the images are  shown upside down. The towns of Priština and Novo Brdo (Nuova Barda) on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija are presented in this map for the first time. South of Priština, a nameless  round lake, with an island in the middle, is depicted. The course of the river Morava (fl. Moraua) is shown as running through Kosovo east from Priština and Novo Brdo, while  the road by the right riverbank  crosses  it at Priština and then turns towards Bosnia. Priština is presented as a fortress with two side towers and Novo Brdo as a mighty tower on top of a separated  mountain range.

The second map is Il Mappamondo, a monumental round map of  the world, now at the library of Saint Marco in Venice. It  was ordered by the Signoria of Venice, as a replica of a world map, now lost, made for Portuguese king Alfonso V in the year  1459. The making of both maps lasted eleven years, from the beginning of 1448  to April 1459. As Fra Mauro died in the fall of the same year,  his collaborators completed the second chart  on August 26, 1460.[2]

Fra Mauro’s map is made in color on parchment, being almost  circular in  form (diameter: 193–197 cm), oriented with South on top. The Earth was sketched by freehand, without scale and geometrical base, but by its content and artistic features  -  relief, settlements, floral and animal world, which radiate with the spirit of  Humanism and Renaissance, the map marks  a break  with antique cartography. Numerous contemporary data are included  - in both image  and text. The names of settlements are in the Italian language, sometimes in translation (Forno – Peć, Moraua pizola – Moravica). The southern part of Serbia (Seruia) embraces a horseshoe range of shaded mountains stretching from Istria to Black Sea. On a solitary mountain with several peaks a strong fortress with three towers stands out  – the town Novo Brdo, and the vignette is contains  the name of the town  in both Serbian and Italian or Dubrovnik versions: Nuova Barda ouer Nuouo Monte. Placed between Novo Brdo and the name of Serbia, in big blue letters and a note in Italian: fosse da oro et arçento (gold and silver mines), is a representation of the economic and strategic significance of the  country, as well as of the greatest Serbian mining center, Novo Brdo, which had its own mining code. This note testifies to the widespread knowledge of Novo Brdo’s rich mines of gold-bearing silver. In describing Novo Brdo, contemporaries wrote that it was truly a town  of silver and gold,a  silver and golden mountain, where gold and silver are combined, and whence more than 200.000 gold coins flowed to the despot’ s treasury  each year. That the silver de glama from Novo Brdo silver made up a significant portion of the  silver export from Serbia and Bosnia in the first half of the XV century and in the European traffic of precious metals is confirmed by data from the books of Dubrovnik mint and from the commercial books of the brothers Kabužić, merchants from Dubrovnik.[3]

On Fra Mauro’s map Priština is denoted as a fortified town with three towers north from Novo Brdo on the road between Morava and Drina rivers, while between Priština and  the great mountain range Mons Chatene a similar vignette  designing Peć (Forno). To the south of Priština, on the northern edge of mountain range the great fortified town Skoplje is marked as a border region between Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Macedonia (Scopi e sui confin de Albania, Seruia, Bolgaria e Macedonia).

All data on Fra Mauro’s map referring to Serbia  correspond to the period after 1430, when Smederevo was built, and before 1455, when the Turks conquered Novo Brdo.

Florentine cartographer Francesco Roselli (cca 1445 – 1527) produced one of the oldest regional charts of the Balkan Peninsula. The copper engraving (46,5 x 33 cm) is considered to have beeen made between 1480 and 1484, while Roselli was working on a map of Hungary on the court of Matthias Corvinus.[4]

The map has important innovations – the central range of mountains is divided into separate chains, contemporary names of inhabited settlements are registered, while regional boundaries are marked in both line and text. South from the  Saracme mons mountain chain, which should stand for Mt.Kopaonik, there is a large lake with an island, on which  the town Svrčin  (Suerciagnio) is located, while the region to the right of the lake is denoted as Sitnica (Sittinicza). It is a  representation of  a lost geographical landscape – a marshy region in Kosovo where the  Nemanjić castle of  Svrčin on the island of the lake, while  other royal castles in the district Pauni and in the villages Nerodimlje and Štimlje stood nearby, on lake’ shores.[5] Svrčin lake was made artificially and by scheme, as is evident from king Milutin’s Gračanica Charter (1321). The natural course of Nerodimka River was changed at the bend towards Lepenac and connected by a dug channel with the source of the Sitnica River. Thus was formed  Nerodimka’s famous bifurcation, its division into two watersheds, flowing into the Aegean and  the Black Sea. The channel had double purpose – an economic and a defensive one, serving both as a  fishery and for moving water  mills, while also allowing  a water-filled trench to be formed  around the castle.  The fish - ponds and water mills of the Lipljan episcopacy lined the Nerodimlje channel, all the way from the from the “Rodim extract“ ( “izvod rodimski“)  to its mouth into  the Sitnica.[6] By digging up the channel a middle area surrounded and defended by water was created, stretching from the mouth of Štimlje into the Sitnica in the north to Uroševac in the south, where a water ring was formed out of the courses of the Sitnica and its left tributaries, the rivers Kožarska and Štimlje, connected by long swamps. The Rahovica swamp, which Turks later called Sazlija, was the greatest. It extended to the Robovačka swamp at the junction  of the Sazlija and Štimlje rivers,  and was exsiccated in the XIX century.[7]  According to the Turkish register for the Vlk vilayet (the Branković Region) from 1455, the villages Horavica (Rahovica) and Tulanovce (Talinovac) were each paying 50 Turkish coins for the use of the lake.[8] Rahovica swamp was mentioned in 1479/1480 by bishop of Ulcinj and humanist Martin Segon, born in Novo Brdo and a  contemporary of Francesco Roselli. At Lake Horavice and swamps (… iuxta Horavicae lacum et paludes..)  roads branched off toward Binačka Morava and toward Skoplje through the Kačanik canyon. Segon knew of another lake in Kosovo, Lake Kosovo (lacus Casovii), at the mouth of the river Lab into the  Sitnica.[9] This was a swamp between the villages of Donja Brnjica and Drenovac, which is shown on Serbian maps made at the end of the XIX century, which  also show a marshy region stretching between the  Nerodimka bifurcation near Urosevac and the mouth of the  Štimlje into the  Sitnica at the village of Rupovce (today’s Robovce). Surrounded by marshy river courses and swamps, a small stretch of elevated land  was left in the middle, looking like an island on a lake, with the villages Ločka Bara, Prelez, Papaz, Hamidija, Babuš and Svrčin at the center.[10]

Northeast from Svrčin lake the town Novo Brdo (Nouo Mons) is denoted as a fortress with a tower on the top of a large isolated mountain, while to the south stretches the  Glibotima montes chain, actually the  northeastern portion of  Šar-planina (i.e., Šar- Mountain) –Mt. Ljuboten. To the left and to the right of  Svrčin Lake the territory of Serbia is marked twice as "Zervia". From the source of  the Vardar river to Mt.Ljuboten, the Serbian boundary is marked by a dotted line bearing the  inscription: thus far is Serbia (huc usque Zervia).

 Svrčin Lake, initially marked without name on the map named Borgiano V, then on Fra Mauro’s world map, is also shown on other charts made by European cartographers and cosmographers in the XVI century, aiming to introduce new data into various editions of Ptolemy’s Geography. [11] The whole presentation of Serbia on those maps is dominated by Kosovo Lake (Svercegno), as is the case with the maps made by Marcus Beneventanus in 1507, by Martin Waldseemüller in 1513. and by Giacomo Gastaldi in 1560.

Gastaldi’s maps, although unsuccessful compilation made of various discordant sources, nevertheless provide the most data about Serbian territory in the XVI century, although mainly in the way of the  roads. Settlements and toponyms are grouped as discordant enclaves on his map of Greece published in the great work by Abraham Ortelius Theatrum orbis terrarum, Antwerp 1579.[12]

Along the mountain Kopaonik (Copagnich) are lined up: the village of Djerekari (Chirecari), Mt. Rogozna (M/onte/ Argentato), Novo Brdo (Monte nouo), Gračanica (Grachaniza) and Vedenich –the antique settlement Vindenis, perhaps the mediaeval village of Vidina in Kosovo; to the east are Priština and Vučitrn (Vchiterno). Between the river Drim (Drino flu/vius/) on whose banks stands  Prizren  (Prisno), and the spring of Vardar (Vardaro flu/vius/) there are stretching   mountain chains of Šara (Sar) and Crna Gora (M/onte/ Negro), and to the south a long forest region at Kačanik (Silua cachianica). The Svrčin lake (La/cus/ Suersagno) with an island and the Sitnica region  (Sitaica) are erroneuosly dislocated northwards, all the way to the source of the Ibar west of Niš (Nisa).

In addition to the distinctive image of Lake Svrčin, yet another theme connected with the southern part of Serbia was starting to attract the attention of cartographers – Kosovo as a region and a battlefield, the place where Emperor Murat was killed. At the end of the XV century there appeared some works on Turkish history, its army, war successes and customs, such as the memories of the janissary Konstantin Mihailović from Ostrovica and Martin Segon’s tractate, through which accounts of the Battle of Kosovo, by way of the  works of Sansovino, Leunklavius, Bonfini and Tubero, made their way to the European cartographers of the XVI and the XVII century.[13]

The field of Kosovo is mentioned for the first time in cartographic sources in the mid XVI century. Cosmographia universalis by German cartographer Sebastian Münster (1489-1552), in its various editions from 1545 until 1650, depicts a part of Serbian territory on the map of Poland and Hungary from 1550, where between the names Servia and Nys (Niš), to the east of Svrčin Lake with the island (Suere Lagno), the name Campus Cassouius is inscribed with large letters.[14]

Certain innovations in the cartographic presentation of Kosovo and Metohija were brought by Dutch cartographer Christian Sgrooten (cca 1532-1608). On his map Tractus Danubii from 1578 he added in the route from Belgrade toward Bulgaria, which  branched over Kosovo to Skoplje (Scupia) and Vučitrn  (Vacetren). The Kosovo valley and Kosovo Field are denoted as Vallus Cassouia and Campus Cassouia, between the Lab (Liaba) and Skoplje (Scupi) in the region of Raska (Rascia).[15]

A modern approach to the elaboration of maps including more accurate contemporary information was achieved by Italian cartographers, educated humanist Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola (1643-1695), the official cartographer of the Duke of Modena, Francesco II, and famous Venetian cartographer and cosmographer Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718).

Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola made the first regional chart of Serbia, published in 1689.[16] The map entitled The Kingdom of Serbia otherwise called Rascia (Il Regno della Servia detta altrimenti Rascia) shows numerous contemporary toponyms, often with their ancient names, additionally depicting a developed fluvial network, the main routes and bridges, mountain chains and forest cover and, what was especially important, the division of church jurisdictions. In making the map, Cantelli used rich cartographic sources, geographical descriptions and travel accounts, as well as reports by Catholic priests and missionaries. It is considered to be the best map of Serbia from the XVII century.

The region of Kosovo and Metohija is shown as being under the jurisdiction of Skoplje (Iurisdizione di Scopia). The Sitnica (Sitniza fl/uviuis/) together with the Lab (Lab fl/uvius/) flows into Ibar (Ibar Maior olim Moschius fluius). On the right side of the Sitnica is Kosovo Field – Pianura di Cassouo olim Campus Merulae, which explains its ethimology, coming out of the Serbian name for the blackbird. Between Priština, marked by a vignette as a larger city, and the village Svetlje (Sfitele) on the Lab, a second Murat’s tomb is denoted (Sepolcro d’Amurat secundo), as a result of the fact that  Cantelli  erroneously located Svrčin lake and one Turkish tomb in the north of Serbia. To the north, on the Little Ibar river (Ibar Minor), is Saint Peter’s church, while  Trepča is  on the opposite side of the river, with a note mentioning its silver mines (Treppcia ui sono minieri d’Argento). Above Mitrovica lies Mt. Kopaonik (Copagnich), on the left side of the Ibar is the village Vidina, and on the right  the town of Zvečan (Suecian). To the south are the villages of Gušterica (Gusteriza), Janjevo (Iagneuo) and Vragolija  (Vragolia). On the left side of the Sitnica are the village Ribarići (Ribare) and Vučitrn (Vciterno, Wcitano), as well as  the long mountain chain Monte Gliubotin o Marinai olim Scardus Mons (Šar -Mountain and Mt. Ljuboten). The courses of the White and the Black Drim are faithfully represented, while Prizren on the Bistrica is marked by a town vignette with a great cross denoting it as an ecclesiastical seat,  and by the text: Prizrena, Prisreno, olim Ulpianum et Iustiniana Secunda. Near Prizren are the villages of Graždanik (Grasdanico), Gorožup (Gorosupi), Tupec (Tupezo), Pirane (Piragni), Suva Reka (Suharick) and Hoča (Hocia), while to  the left side of the White Drim (Drino bianco fl/uvio/), extends the territory of the Drim Basin - Podrimlje (Podrima). At a foot of the mountain named Klisura (Monte Glisura) is Novo Brdo, with a note about its silver mines (Montenuouo, o Nouo Bordo, con minieri d’Argento). Kačanik (Catsanisch, o Caccianico) is located on the road from Priština to Skoplje, while the church of Saint Mary (S/ancta/ Maria) lies on the way to Novo Brdo. Cantelli marks the territory of Serbia by the borders of the jurisdiction of Skoplje, which on the southeastern side runs east of Kosovo, Novo Brdo and Kratovo, then turns south towards Macedonia, passing south of Katlanovo and Skoplje, then towards Albania over the mountain Monte Karopnize olim Orbelus Mons (probably Karadzica on the left Vardar bank); south of Tetovo and the Ljuma River valley (Lumi fl/uio/) over Mt. Galic (Galich M/ons/) – i.e. today Djalic, descending to the Black Drim, going down the river from the Church of the Holy Savior to Darda, where it turns northwest  and passes over the mountain chain Monte Agari (the Cafa Agrit pass on the Prokletije mountains)[17]  between Peć and Plav. Serbia’s southern borders  and the church division on the map correspond approximately with the jurisdiction of The Patriarchate of Peć according to the Turkish church register dating mid XVII century.[18]

Cantelli’s contemporary, the famous Venetian cartographer and editor Maria Vincenzo Coronelli (1650-1718), depicted the Danube Basin (Corso di Danubio)  – i.e., Podunavlje -  in his well-known work Atlante Veneto, in six folios. Folio 5, published in Venice in 1688, represents the Illyric, comprising a portion of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro.[19] In spite of incorrect geographical base and other mistakes, the map contains a great deal of  historical information, contemporary and ancient names of certain places and rivers, and, in some places, even the  number of Moslem and Christian houses. Despite the large amount of material he systematically collected for years for the purpose of map-making, Coronelli places Kosovo filed (Campo Cossovo) between the rivers Piva and Lim, with a note  that Hungarians call it Rigomazeu, the Latins Campus Merulus, while Sansovino wrongly places it on the boundary of Raška. The allusion is on Francesco Sansovino, the XVI century writer, who published a collection of texts about the Turks, which were subsequently used both by Leunclavius, and Mavro Orbini. The map is abundant with details that could have beeen noticed only directly on the ground, such as the  notes about wooden bridge over the Sitnica and the Lab, the  ruins of Veletin and  Janjevo lake.

In Kosovo and Metohija Coronelli marks Trepča (Trepcia), Mitrovica, Zvečan (Seucian) and, to the south, Priština, with a note that it contains about 4000 scattered houses and only a small number of Christian ones  (Pristina di 4000 Case sparse, poche de Christiani). On the right side of the Sitnica is Vučitrn (Wicitergia), noted as the seat of the pasha of Skoplje (Isa–bey Ishaković); then, as with Cantelli, a second Murat’s tomb  between the Lab and Vučitrn (Sepolt/ura/ di Amu/rato/ secunda), the village of Svetlje on the Lab and a wooden bridge (Ponte di legno), the little rivers Sutjeska and Kižnica (Chisniza Fiume) along with the ruins of the mediaeval fortress Veletin (Veletino rovin/ato/). Janjevo with the church of Saint Nicolas is located on the spot where a river flows out of Lake Janjevo (Lago di Iagneuo), to the south are the villages of Gušterica and Vragolija, inhabited by both Moslems and Orthodox (Vragolia habitata da Turchi, e Greci). At the source of the Lepenac river lies Kačanik, a fortress  with 50 Turkish guards (Cacianich Forte con Presidio di 50 Thurchi). Prizren is to the south, described by a long note: Prisren, Prisereno, Iustiniana Secunda, Vlpianum, Villa Vulpiana, habitata da 6000 Turchi e pochi Christiani (where live 6000 Turks and a few Christians). Near are the villages of  Ljubinje and Graždanik, with 20 Turkish houses each, then Zjum, Rogovo, Tupec, Pirani, Bistražin (Biscasina), Orahovac (Rahouac) and, across the Topluha, Suva Reka (Suha Riesca). To the north of Suva Reka, in the wrong region – Podrimlje, and on the wrong river – the Drina, is shown Novo Brdo (Nouomont, o Nouomant). On the left side of the White Drim (Drino bianco Fiume, o Drin Bieli, Drilo Albus L/atino/) lies Djakovica, with 200 Moslem houses (Iacoua, o Iacouizza, 200 Case de Turchi).  Upstream, on the river Fiume Rieca, is  the village of Junik, located in a valley, with 20 Turkish houses (Iunich Villa in piano del 20 Case de Turchi). A wooden bridge (Ponte da legno) is sketched going over the Dečanska Bistrica, while Dečani (Decian) are marked along the way toward  Peć. At the source of the Bistrica (Bistriza F/iume/), Peć is denoted as the seat of the Dukadjin sandjak (Pechia Residenza del Sandiaco del Ducagini). The Podrimlje is overly enlarged, being extended by the large inscription Podrima provincia  to run from the  mountain region north of  Plav Lake (Lago di Plaua) in the west to Kačanik and the source of the Lepenac in the east.

The first maps of Serbia based on a land survey were made by count Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, born in Bologna, geographer, cartographer and military engineer, who between 1681 and 1704 served as a general and a diplomat in the service of Austria.[20] Left behind in his legacy in Bologna is an  uncompleted perfectly elaborated map of Serbia, on which Kosovo (Cossouo) is depicted as a region extending north from Šar- Mountain (Sar M/ons/) and Kačanik (Katzanek) to Mt. Goljak (Golak). Through Kosovo  flow the rivers Sitnica (Sitninza), Lab (Lapsa fl/uvio/) and Ibar  (Iber fl/uvio/), while as inhabited settlements are marked Zvečan (Swecsan), Mitrovica (Mitrovitz), Priština (Pristine), Vučitrn (Wucsitrin), Lipljan (Lipen) and Banjska (Bagniza). Three  towns are located in the upper course of the river Drim: Prizren (Pristrean), Djakovica (Diacovitz) and Peć (Becs). A double line marks the route running from the Drina over Mt. Rogozna and Kačanik to Skoplje. All the inhabited settlements are marked with a  topographic sign with a half-moon, showing that the whole country was under the Turkish rule. On one of Marsigli’s sketches, whose he named The first embryos of the maps of Serbia (Primi embrioni di Mappe della Seruia), spotted lines are mark the boundaries of certain regions in Serbia – Bihor, Stari Vlah and Kosovo. The southern  border of Kosovo runs from Kačanik, encomprasing Janjevo  Novo Brdo, Priština to the east, cutting across the river Kosanica and going up to the Ibar north of Mitrovica, from where it descends down the left bank of the Ibar behind the mountain chain back to Kačanik. Although the sketch is rough, without details, it shows that Marsigli clearly distinguished Kosovo as a separate region on the territory of Serbia, with the region  of Metohija separately shown to the west, with the towns of Prizren, Djakovica and Peć.

During the Austro–Turkish war of 1736-1739, cartographic material was collected on the ground by survey, on the basis of which Vienna book-seller and editor Etienne Briffaut  made his  map of Serbia  in 1738.  Although unattractive, by its content it is considered to be the best map of Serbia in the XVIII century.[21]

The course of the White Drim (Drin Blanc Fl.) and the peaks of Prokletije mountains (M/onte/ Poklenos) separate the region of Metohija from Albania in the southwest. On the right bank of the Drim lie Dečani (Decian), and on its left bank  Peć, the seat of the Serbian Patriarch  (Pechia, hic Patriarcha Servie). To the north is Mt. Kopaonik (Copaun), to the east Banjska (Bantzka), Mitrovica (Murovitza), Vučitrn (Vuziterna), Priština and Janjevo (Iagneno), next to which are  two nameless lakes; wi Dobrotin, Lipljan, Novo Brdo (Movibordo) and to the north wrongly located Šar-Mountain (M/onte/ Sardag). As Briffaut did not have enough data about the settlements on the border between Serbia and Albania, he was compeled to use the well-known but outdated inventory from Ptolemy’s charts. Thus, in the border region of Albania toward Serbia and Macedonia  the ancient settlements of Ulpiana, Timacum, Vendenis and Siparuntum appear on the eastern side.

The map was intended for military use and that is why special attention was devoted to the routes. From Pljevlja and Prijepolje the so-called via Drine  runs  over Mileševa and Rožaj (Roshai) to Peć, where it turns down the left side of the White Drim towards Priština, branching off  to the south toward Podujevo and Kuršumlija. The second road comes from Herzegovina, going over Plav, crossing the first road north of Peć, going round mountainous region and descending to the border with Albania, leading further to the village Hoča, where it  turns north and leads towards Bulgaria. The third road comes from Višegrad, going via Priboj, Nova Varoš, Novi Pazar towards Banjska, Mitrovica and Priština, where it merges with the first road. Between these main roads going west-to-east,  a transversal road from Mitrovica to Podujevo is also marked. The value of Briffaut’s map lies  in the various topographic signs marking fortresses, cities, castles, towns, marketplaces, monasteries, villages, Turkish watchtowers and navigable rivers marked by double lines. In the area of southern Serbia, among the settlements listed on Etienne Briffaut’s map from 1738, only Peć, Vučitrn and Priština are marked signed as urban settlements, while all the others are shown as  villages.

On the map War theatre of Austria, Russia and Turkey, made by Carl Schütz in 1788, the southern part of territory of Serbia, all the way to the borders with Albania and Macedonia, is denoted for the firs time with the name Raška (Rascien). This area included the entire region of Kosovo and Metohija: Peć, Podrima, Djakovica, Prizren, Janjevo, Novo Brdo, Priština and Vučitrn.  In the center are Kosovo Field (Ebne Kosovo) and Murat’s tomb (Grab Murads I).[22]

The above examples show that, in the production of European cartographers, the presentation of Serbia and Serbia’s southern province was based as much on real as on intermediary and available information, in accord with the political situation in the  Balkans, initiated and directed by the interests and needs of contemporary centers of political power. Nevertheless, in all cases, the region of Kosovo and Metohija was always shown as an integral  Serbian territory within the framework of Serbia.