Museums

The Ethnographic Museum (Muzeu Etnologjik) is set up in a house of the 18th century which was owned by Emin Gjinolli’s family, and was turned into a museum in the year of 2006. English language guides and texts are available which are accompanied by minimal music of Philip Glass and are used for tours explaining the traditional architecture with different exhibits showing the family and guest sections of the house, clothing, birth and burial rituals, handicrafts, and such.. There are also traditional gifts on sale at this museum, such as the traditional eggshell hat “plis”.

The Kosovo National Museum was built in 1898 by the Austrians on behalf of the Turkish Army designed as a beautiful ochre-painted villa. Formerly, the museum had prehistoric objects that were uncovered in Kosovo but they were all spirited off to Belgrade, Serbia just prior to the 1998-1999 conflict and have yet to be returned. Negotiations for returning objects are still going on between authorities of the Republic of Kosovo and Serbia.

The archeology of this museum exhibits the details of the life of the Dardanian, Romanian, and Illyrian eras. In the center of the stage is located the Goddess on a throne (Hynesha ne Fron) statue which is 6000 years old and was found in 1956 in Terrtoria and was returned to Prishtina in 2002.

Other Museums of Kosovo include the Independence Museum, the Kosovoa Art Gallery, the Kosovo Railways Museum, Prizren League Museum in Prizren including (Prizren League, Art Gallery, and Ethnographic Museum), Museum of Kosovo 1389 Battle, Ethnographic Museum of Peja, Gjakova Ethnographic Museum, Qerkezi Family House Museum in Gjakova (The mother of the family lost her husband and four sons – yet missing persons from the war of 1998-1999 in Kosovo.), and the Museum of Mines and Minerals in Trepca, Mitrovica.