Kalaja (Pograxha) lies about 13 km southeast of Gjilan and is mainly a compact settlement. Jewellery and old burials have been found at Tuma, while the study presents the area as an early Dardanian settlement site.
The village appears on an Austrian map from 1689. Kosovo Vilayet yearbooks from 1893, 1896 and 1900 record the forms Podgarak and Pogragjë. During the interwar period Serbian colonist families were also settled on village land.
Before the 1999 war the village had around 300 houses and approximately 2,100 Albanian residents. On 19 April the population left; some were expelled to North Macedonia, while houses were destroyed and one person was killed during the war.
Source
Source and further reading
Principal source: Prof. Dr. Jusuf Osmani, Vendbanimet e Kosovës 6 — Gjilani, Prishtinë, 2004.
Source entry: KALAJA (Pogragja)
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.