Guri i Kuq Fortification

Northwest of the village of Guri i Kuq, on the hill known by the name Gradina, there are clear traces of a fortification. The top of the hill has a visual connection with the surrounding area, with the plains from Istog, Klina, Peja, Deçan, Gjakova and Prizren.
The fortification on the top of the hill is oval in shape, measuring 50 x 65 m, with an area of nearly 0.35 ha. It is made up of two fortification rings, which form the castle part and its citadel. This manner of fortification is quite widespread among the castles of this region.
The citadel consists of oval-shaped walls measuring about 35 x 25 m. The western side is surrounded by cliffs, which are here and there fitted with walls bound in dry-stone, a technique also encountered at Pogragjë in Klina. From the north, the rock ridge is continued by a wall preserved in the form of a rampart 2-3 m wide, made of small and medium stones, apparently bound with weak lime mortar. The faces of the wall are damaged and covered by dense vegetation. In the eastern part of the citadel, where the terrain is gentle, traces of an entrance were identified, created by a break in the surrounding wall. Around the fortification of the citadel, at the top of the hill, about 30-40 m away on the outside, lies the surrounding wall of the castle. This wall was built of small and medium stones, and in some places supplemented with steep cliffs.
The weak construction technique and the adaptation of the fortified terrain in the fortification make us think that we are dealing with a rapid, urgent construction, used for emergency cases.
The surface survey of the terrain did not produce any find that would allow the site to be dated precisely, but the shape of the castle, its plan and the construction technique tell us that this place was used from prehistory, while the construction of the surrounding walls with lime mortar shows us that this fortification was also used as a place of refuge in the Late Antique period.