Coordinates: 42°41′26″N 21°07′25″E / 42.69056°N 21.12361°E / 42.69056; 21.12361

Gazimestan monument.

Kosovo Field, with disposition of Serbian and Ottoman troops before the Battle of Kosovo.

Kosovo Field (Serbian: Косово Поље / Kosovo Polje, "field of blackbirds") is a field in central Kosovo^[a], some 5 km (3 mi) northwest from Pristina, at the confluence of the rivers Lab and Sitnica, and which supposedly is the site of the Battle of Kosovo which took place in 1389. Eponymous of the field are the Ottoman Kosovo Province, and the town of Kosovo Polje (some 6 km/4 mi to the southwest of the monument).

Gazimestan is the name of a monument to the battle, situated a few km to the southeast of the Kosovo Polje field, situated on a hill rising some 50 m (164 ft) above the plain. It was built in 1953 under the authority of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, in the shape of medieval tower designed by Aleksandar Deroko. The Kosovo Field is traversed by the main road across Kosovo (Skopje-Kraljevo), the monument is some 500 m (1,640 ft) off the road to the east The name is from Turkish gazi ("hero"), ultimately from Arabic ghazi ("warrior"). The name Gazimestan could also be derived from the Serbian words gaziti ("walk") and mesto ("place" or "spot"). The monument was the location of the Gazimestan speech delivered by Slobodan Milošević on the 600th anniversary of that battle in 1989, an infamous speech seen by many as inciting conflict throughout the former Yugoslavia. The monument is guarded by international forces on a full-time basis as there have been numerous attempts to destroy it.^{citation needed}

Inscribed on the monument is the "Kosovo curse" attributed to Lazar:

"Whoever is a Serb and of Serb birth

And of Serb blood and heritage

And comes not to the Battle of Kosovo,

May he never have the progeny his heart desires!

Neither son nor daughter

May nothing grow that his hand sows!

Neither dark wine nor white wheat"

This form of the curse first appeared in the 1845 edition of the collection of Serbian folk songs by Vuk Karadžić.

See also

• Names of Kosovo
• Serbian nationalism
• Kosovo curse
• Nemanjić dynasty
• Spatial Cultural-Historical Units of Great Importance

Notes and references

Notes:

References:

External links

• http://www.yuheritage.com/pristina1.htm
• http://www.kosovo.net/news/archive/2006/October_03/5.html

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