Gurgati (Pograxha) lies about 4 km east of Klina. The Pograxha area preserves one of the richer archaeological layers in this part of Kosovo: traces from the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, the fortified site known as Kulla e Jerinës, building foundations and a Latin funerary inscription from antiquity have been recorded. For the fortification itself, the study also cites later research placing it in the 3rd–4th centuries BCE.
The settlement appears in documents from 1314 and in a charter from 1326. An Ottoman register from 1455 records 31 households, while the 1582 register records 22. It appears again in the Deviç Monastery register in 1761. After the expulsions of Albanians from the Sanjak of Niš in 1877–1878, an Albanian muhajir family lived here for a time before moving to Bardhaj.
During the interwar period, 7 Serbian and Montenegrin colonist families were settled here. In 1919, Serbian authorities burned 3 houses. Before the 1998–1999 war, Gurgati had about 49 Albanian households with 306 residents and 13 Serbian and Montenegrin households. As a result of the war, 2 Albanian houses and almost all Serbian houses except one were destroyed.
Source
Source and further reading
Principal source: Prof. Dr. Jusuf Osmani, Settlements of Kosovo 3 — Klina, Prishtina, 2003.
Source entry: GURGATI (Pograxha)
This page presents a selected summary from the published study of the settlement. For complete archival references, family histories, microtoponymy and the full treatment, consult the original volume.