page_title: Culture of Gjakova
hierarchical_section_title: Culture of Gjakova
caption_attribution_description: English: The Islam Begu Bridge in Gjakova. I've got the right of publishing in Wikipedia from the director of the Institute for Cultural Monuments Protection
context_page_description: Gjakova has been populated since the prehistoric era. During the medieval period, in 1485, Gjakova is mentioned as a village, concretely as a market place.
  Gjakova served as a trading center on the route between Shkodër and Istanbul.
  The old town of Gjakova was one of the most developed trade centers during the rule of the Ottoman Empire in Balkans. A testimony to this period is the Grand Shopping area located in the center of the old town, containing many preserved and restored shops and residential buildings. Shopping was developed around the Hadum Mosque, built in 1594-95 as a donation by Hadum Sylejman Efendia, who simultaneously donated funds for other public facilities in the town, including some of the first shops in the old marketplace.
  Gjakova is mentioned as a city for the first time in 1662, by the Ottoman Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi, who described it as a flourishing and attractive town consisting of 2,000 houses, all built of stone with roofs and gardens.
context_section_description: Gjakova has been populated since the prehistoric era. During the medieval period, in 1485, Gjakova is mentioned as a village, concretely as a market place. 
  Gjakova served as a trading center on the route between Shkodër and Istanbul.
  The old town of Gjakova was one of the most developed trade centers during the rule of the Ottoman Empire in Balkans. A testimony to this period is the Grand Shopping area (çarshia e madhe) located in the center of the old town, containing many preserved and restored shops and residential buildings. Shopping was developed around the Hadum Mosque, built in 1594-95 as a donation by Hadum Sylejman Efendia (known as Hadum Aga), who simultaneously donated funds for other public facilities in the town, including some of the first shops in the old marketplace.
  Gjakova is mentioned as a city for the first time in 1662, by the Ottoman Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi, who described it as a flourishing and attractive town consisting of 2,000 houses, all built of stone with roofs and gardens.  
  Public buildings were suited on a broad plain and included two richly adorned Congregational mosques, several prayer-houses, some khans with leaden roofs, a delightful bathhouse, and about 300 shops like nightingale-nests.
  The forms of denominating the city had changed during the centuries. The oldest form "Jakova" originates from the base "Jak" anthroponym dispersed among vendor Albanians and the Ottoman suffix "ovasi" that means a field. Therefore, "Jak ovasi" means Jak’s field, because Jak Vula, according to the tradition, allowed Hadum Aga to build the mosque and the above-mentioned objects with the condition that the city to be built would carry his name.
caption: Old image of Gjakova
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