Rotary Club Peja
Heritage

Peja, the Rotary City

Among Rotarians, Peja is known as the Rotary City. These are the places, symbols and stories the club has left in the city.

Why “the Rotary City”?

Peja has served as the incubator of Rotary in Kosovo: the first club, the first projects, and the sponsor of most of the clubs that followed. Over the years Peja Rotarians have also left their mark on the city itself, so much so that Rotarians around the world now call it the Rotary City.

Here are the places, symbols and stories that make up that heritage.

A stone arch bridge over the river in the Rugova Canyon, between steep limestone cliffs
The Rugova Canyon, just west of Peja. The canyon also featured in the original logo of Rotary Club Peja.
  1. 2005

    Where it all began

    The first Rotary meeting in Kosovo took place on 23 February 2005 at the Art Design restaurant in Peja. On 23 February 2020, at the club’s 675th meeting, Peja Rotarians returned there to place a Rotary plaque marking the spot.

  2. 2011
    The Rotary stone in the Rotary Park

    Rotary Park and the stone monument

    For the club’s 5th anniversary, Rotary Club Peja, Rotaract Club Peja and the city council arranged the Rotary Park in one of the busiest parts of the city, and raised a massive natural stone engraved with the Rotary wheel.

  3. 2015–2016
    Rotary Club Peja stamp: the bridge in the Rugova Canyon

    Rotary postage stamps

    In 2015, for the 10th anniversary of Kosovo’s admission to Rotary International and the 110th anniversary of Rotary, the Rotary clubs of Kosovo issued two stamps, showing Skanderbeg and Saint Mother Teresa.

    In 2016, for the club’s 10th anniversary, Post and Telecom of Kosovo issued two stamps for Rotary Club Peja: the bridge in the Rugova Canyon that links Kosovo and Montenegro, and the traditional stone kulla of the Peja region. All four were designed by club member Antian Asllani, Paul Harris Fellow.

  4. 2016
    The black marble Rotary monument in the centre of Peja

    The Rotary monument in the city centre

    For the 10th anniversary, a black marble monument bearing Rotary’s motto Service Above Self was unveiled in the centre of Peja, close to the monument to Mother Teresa, on 12 November 2016. It was inaugurated by Past Rotary International Director and Rotary Foundation Trustee Örsçelik Balkan and club president Hamijeta Myftari, with Rotarians from Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Sweden and Turkey.

  5. 2022
    Guests at the inauguration of the 9/11 memorial

    “Memory and Friendship” 9/11 Memorial

    Built around an authentic steel beam from the Twin Towers, donated by the Fire Department of New York, this is the first 9/11 memorial in Southeast Europe. Every year on 11 September, at 14:46 (8:46 in New York), the club rings the Rotary bell here for a minute of silence.

    Read the full story

  6. “Eja në Pejë – Eja në Rotary”

    Peja is sung about for its beauty; the city is called the flower of Dukagjin. It is also sung about for Rotary. In thanks for sponsoring their club, the Rotarians of Prizren gave Rotary Club Peja a song, “Eja në Pejë – Eja në Rotary” (“Come to Peja – Come to Rotary”). Its lyrics are adapted from Rotary’s Four-Way Test by the late Prizren Rotarian Agron Shporta, and it is performed by Prizren artist Naxhi Kuqani.

  7. The Rotary flag

    The Rotary flag flies with pride in Peja, a reminder to residents and visitors alike of the city’s place in the Rotary world.