Kroibardhi (Dobraja e Madhe) lies about 7 km west of Lipjan, on lowland terrain. A spring in the centre of the village has long been important for the water supply; local tradition associates its use with the Roman period as well.
A register from 1455 recorded 13 households, while the 1566–74 register recorded 12. A German traveller in 1783 mentioned Dobranne beside a river-spring, and late-19th-century yearbooks preserve the form Dobranije. After the expulsion of Albanians from the Sanjak of Niš in 1877–78, muhajir families settled in the village. The years 1913–25 brought substantial emigration to Turkey, while colonist families were also settled here between the world wars.
In the autumn of 1912 Serbian troops gathered the village men at Soishtë, killed 12 and wounded many others. In 1999 the village had 327 houses and 2,240 residents and sheltered thousands displaced from surrounding settlements.
Source
Source and further reading
Principal source: Prof. Dr. Jusuf Osmani, Vendbanimet e Kosovës 5 — Lypjani, Prishtinë, 2003.
Source entry: KROIBARDHI (Dobraja e Madhe)
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.