The High Decani Monastery has officially regained its historical lands after years of legal disputes with local authorities. Now, all monastery lands have been registered in the cadastre, announced the press service of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska-Prizren.

"Based on the cadastral extract, we can confirm that the decision of the Constitutional Court from 2016 has been implemented, and the monastery is recognized in the cadastre as the owner of previously contested property. Thus, it can be concluded that the lengthy legal process surrounding the 24 hectares of monastery land in High Decani has finally come to an end," the statement reads.

High Decani is the primary Serbian Orthodox monastery in Kosovo. The 24-hectare land plot was assigned to the monastery in the 1980s, during the rule of Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. However, in more recent times, following the formation of the unrecognized Republic of Kosovo, in 2016, the Constitutional Court in Pristina affirmed the monastery's right to use the land. The court's decision was supported by the EU, OSCE, UN, and ambassadors of leading Western countries. Nevertheless, regional authorities refused to acknowledge this decision for several years. In the summer of 2022, the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija even announced cutting off all contacts with the authorities in Pristina due to this "unprecedented violation of the rule of law and religious freedoms."