Qershiza (Stravoçina) lies about 8 km northeast of Theranda and is a hill-and-mountain settlement with houses built on slopes and in the valley. South of the village and near the river, old graves, house foundations and other traces of earlier habitation have been recorded.
The present name has not been securely identified in the earliest documents, but Kosovo Vilayet yearbooks from 1893, 1896 and 1900 record the form Istravoçine. Local memory preserves accounts of family movements and of the settlement's connections with neighbouring areas.
Before the 1998–99 war the village had around 41 houses and approximately 400 Albanian residents. Serbian attacks destroyed 11 houses and other buildings. One KLA member and an elderly woman were killed. Most residents spent a period in the mountains of Llanisht, while part of the population was deported to Albania.
Source
Source and further reading
Principal source: Prof. Dr. Jusuf Osmani, Settlements of Kosovo 4 — Theranda (Suhareka), Prishtina, 2003.
Source entry: QERSHIZA (Stravoçina)
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.