33 Countries of Origin’ Profiles

7 What the people lack in money, they make up for with family as the way of life in Kosovo is truly centered on the family, which is the reason so many people continue to seek out jobs despite the dire economy. Cultural institutions Among Kosovo‘s most significant historic sites are the medieval Serbian Orthodox monasteries of Dečani (Albanian: Deçan) , Gračanica( Graçanica; near Pristina), and Peć (Pejë), as well as the Church of the Virgin of Ljeviša (near Prizren). In 2004 the Dečani monastery was designated a UNESCO W orld Heritage site; the others were inscribed in 2006. Two of the oldest Muslim sites are the 15th-century Çarshia and Mbretit (Fatih) mosques in Pristina. During the 1998–99 conflict, dozens of Muslim sites were destroyed, including the 18th- century Red Mosque in Pejë and the Ottoman-era bazaar i n Gjakovë (Ðakovica). Following the conflict, revenge attacks damaged or destroyed a number of Orthodox churches, although the World Heritage sites survived. Pristina is home to the Kosovo Museum (2002), the Academy of Sciences and Arts ( 1975), and the National Theatre (1946; originally located in Prizren). Construction of an opera house, named after the pre- independence Kosovar Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, began in the capital in 2009. Many of Kosovo‘s cultural and archaeological artifacts r emain in Belgrade, Serb, where they were taken prior to the 1998–99 conflict. Identity The people of Kosovo i dentify based on their ethnicity. Most citizens are ethnically Albanian and may identify as either Albanians, or as Kosovars, who are also ethnic Albanians, but also tie in their nationality, hence the name Kosovar. In order to indicate these ties to both their Albanian ethnicity and Kosovan political entity, these people generally call