Zvečan Fortress The Fortress of Zvečan , located in the north - west of the city of Kosovska Mitrovica , in North Kosovo , is an enormous castle and one of the oldest fortresses in South Eastern Europe . It was built on the top of the extinct volcano vent , overlooking the Ibar river . Zvečan Fortress was declared Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1990 , and it is protected by the Republic of Serbia . History . It represents one of the oldest Balkan medieval fort resses , although its exact date of construction is unknown . The underlying construction dates from the period of Classical antiquity , and it is not unlikely that the location was fortified in prehistoric times . As a border fort of the Raška state , the site gained importance in 1093 , when the Serbian ruler Vukan Vukanović , launched his conquest of Kosovo ( then part of the Byzantine Empire ) from there . Part of the fortress was designated as one of the courts of the Serbian House of Nemanjić , and it was the place where Stefan Uroš III died in 1331 . In 1389 , it was captured by the Ottoman Turks after the Battle of Kosovo , and it remained an active military site well into the 18th century , after which it was abandoned . According to some data from the Roman times , the medieval town Zvečan , just as all the towns of the time , was built on a barely accessible hill in the base of which was the architecture of the early Byzantine period . The archeological data up to the 9th century are rather scanty as well as the written documents about it . Only by the beginning of the 10th century was the fortress on the hill mentioned for the first time , its reconstruction being ascribed to the Bulgarian Czar Simeon . By the end of the 10th century it was referred to as the Serbian fortress of some princes from Raška who used it in their struggle against Byzantine . The town gradually grew gaining its importance at the time of spreading of the Serbian state southwards in the conflicts with Byzantine . As a strategic fortress , Zvečan was mentioned in 1092 and 1093 since in its area the roads from the north and south intersected playing a significant role in military and trading sense . During the reign of Grand Prince Vukan of Raška ( by the end of the 11th century ) , the area of Kosovska Mitrovica was the battlefield in Vukan ’ s campaign against Byzantine and his brother Tihomir winning at last near the village of Pantina . Thick and high walls of Zvečan fortress at the Nemanjić ’ s time , served not only for protection against the enemy ’ s assaults but also as a shelter for the merchants from Dubrovnik as well as a dungeon for the overthrown rulers of the Nemanjić ’ s lineage . Thus Konstantin Nemanić , Stefan Dečanski ’ s stepbrother , was buried here in 1322 . King Stefan Dečanski himself was imprisoned and ended his life there ( 1311 ) after having been caught in Petrič according to his son Dušan ’ s order . For some time , the ruler of Zvečan was Grand Prince Lazar ’ s son - in - law , the chieftain Musa , at the time of Czar Uroš . By the end of 14th century Zvečan was under the rule of Vuk Branković and after his fall from power , the Turks appeared in Zvečan . Zvečan finally fell into Turkish power in 1455 , when the Turkish population colonized these areas . Among whom Feriz Ćefalija was mentioned to have an authorization from the Sultan and Pasha from Skoplje to make trading connections with Dubrovnik . By its subjection to Turkish rule , Zvečan lost its importance as a military fort and the authors of the travel books from the 16th century , Benedicte Kuripešić and Evlija Čelebija referred to its as a deserted town on the hill to the north of Kosovska Mitrovica . Under the Turkish rule , Zvečan was neglected and was in the possession of the Bosnian Vilayet . Eventually , Kosovska Mitrovica became a kadiluk ( district ) of the Bosnian vilazet and Zvečan , along with Kosovska Mitrovica , remained in that administrative until 1877 , and it , as it too was a part of Kosovska Mitrovica , belonged to the Priština region ( Sandžak ) until the region ' s liberation in the First Balkan War , in 1912 . From 1912 to 1945 little was done on the research and restoration of Zvečan ; it was only after 1945 when many archeological excavations were carried out in the town which was put under the protection of the state . There is a need for complete reconstruction of the fortress in order to prevent it from further ruining .