Country Kosovo Time zone CET (UTC+1) Car plates 03 Area 454 km² Postal code 31000 | District District of Peć Area code(s) +381 Website Municipality of Istok Elevation 480 m Population 39,963 (2014) | |
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Weather 13°C, Wind N at 8 km/h, 36% Humidity | ||
Istok or Istog (Albanian: Istog, Istogu, Serbian: Исток, Istok) is a town and municipality in the Peć district of north-western Kosovo. The town is the administrative capital of the municipality, which includes the town and the surrounding villages.
Contents
Map of Istog
Istok 2015
Name
The name of the town comes from the version of the Serbian word istok (variant istek), meaning "well, water source" referring to the springs of the Istočka river, a tributary to the White Drin river. The name of the nearby village of Vrela, one of the largest settlements in the municipality, also means "springs", as does the newly proposed Albanian name of the town, Burimi.
History
The Ottoman defter (tax registry; census) of 1582 registered the Peć nahiyah as having 235 villages, of which Suho Grlo (Suvo Grlo) was located within modern Istok municipality. Suvo Grlo had three bigger mahala (neighbourhoods), whose inhabitants were Serbs. One of the neighbourhoods converted to Islam. There were several Orthodox priests in the village.
Demographics
Most of the Serbs in the municipality of Istok live in the village of Osojane, which is under the administration of the municipality of Istok under the control of Serbia. Osojane is to the east of the city Istok, part of the Serbs lives in north part of the municipality.
Economy
After World War II, watermills on the river of Istok were nationalized and a new fish plant was built to operate as a socially owned enterprise. The company's name during socialism was "Ribnjak" (in Serbian) meaning "piscatory" or "fishery", and when it was privatized as Motel "Trofta" (in Albanian) meaning "Trout", or the type of fish it has been and is still producing, selling, and distributing. The company employs around 70 people.