Urbishti e Zhegocit (Vërbica e Zhegocit) lies about 22 km northwest of Gjilan and is a dispersed hill-and-mountain settlement. At Kodra e Kishës and other localities, foundations, pottery and settlement traces survive; local tradition also remembers an old route connected with Artana.
A 1498 register records the form Verbica, while an Austrian map from 1689 and late-19th-century yearbooks document the settlement again. Muhajir families arrived after 1878, while the period after 1912 brought further migration.
At the beginning of 1999 the village had 118 houses and around 1,040 Albanian residents. Thirty-seven houses and 55 auxiliary buildings were burned, many residents were killed, and for a time the headquarters of the KLA Karadak Operational Zone operated here.
Source
Source and further reading
Principal source: Prof. Dr. Jusuf Osmani, Vendbanimet e Kosovës 6 — Gjilani, Prishtinë, 2004.
Source entry: URBISHTA E ZHEGOCIT (Vërbica e Zhegocit)
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.