A NATO-led troop deployment ended the devastating war in Kosovo in 1999, but in the 25 years since then, attacks on Christian heritage have altered the cultural landscape of the region.
Photos taken in August show that several damaged churches and monasteries have been restored while others have disappeared completely.
A Kosovar man walks in front of the ruins of an Orthodox Serbian church in Gjakova, western Kosovo in July 1999 after an explosion destroyed the building. No trace of the church remains today.
This church was one of scores of Serbian cultural sites that have been vandalized or destroyed since the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) arrived in June 1999 to end fighting between ethnic Serbs and Kosovar Albanians.
Spanish peacekeepers walk past a damaged church in Osojan in May 2000.
The restored Osojan church in August 2024
Much of the destruction of Kosovo's Orthodox churches was viewed as revenge for the Serbian targeting of mosques and other Islamic buildings used by Kosovars in the months of fighting before KFOR's arrival.
The Church of the Holy Trinity in Petric was attacked shortly after Italian KFOR troops arrived in the region in 1999.
The remains of the Petric Church as seen in August 2024
In recent years, KFOR has been credited with stamping out the destruction of churches that peaked in a wave of anti-Serb violence in 2004.
Since the 2004 unrest, the European Union, the United Nations Development Program, and other organizations have worked to restore many Serbian Orthodox churches inside Kosovo.
The Church of St. Elijah in Podujeva, near Pristina, was photographed in March 2004 after it was targeted during anti-Serb violence.
St. Elijah Church in August 2024, after it was restored after the 2004 destruction, vandalized again in 2006, then again restored.
A representative of the peacekeeping operation told RFE/RL that as of summer 2024, "KFOR has gradually handed over the responsibility for the security of religious sites in Kosovo to the Kosovo Police."
A Norwegian KFOR soldier photographs the ruins of an Orthodox church on the outskirts of Pristina that was destroyed by an explosion in July 2000.
The KFOR spokesperson noted the peacekeeping group still maintains a 24/7 guard of the Serbian Orthodox monastery in Decan, which has been described as one of Europe's most endangered heritage sites.
The smouldering remains of the Church of St. Nicholas in Pristina as photographed in March 2004
The restored Church of St. Nicholas in Pristina, photographed in August 2024
In the immediate aftermath of the 1999 KFOR intervention, some peacekeepers were accused of standing by as churches were targeted.
British writer Tim Judah witnessed French KFOR troops looking on as crowds looted a Serbian priest's home in Vushtrri in June 1999. The commander told Judah that his orders were "to let them pillage," while admitting to the journalist that such a command was "crazy."
KFOR troops pass the Cathedral of St. George in Prizren in March 2004 after it was severely damaged. The graffiti shows support for the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK).
The Cathedral of St. George in August 2024
Judah, who reported from the ground throughout much of the 1998-99 Kosovo War and its aftermath, says the attacks on Kosovo's churches are often misconstrued as an Islamic attack on Christianity.
"Religion does not come into this dispute, as some would like to claim. It is an issue pitting Albanians against Serbs -- it is not a religious issue at all," Judah told RFE/RL.
A Serbian Orthodox church in the northern town of Mitrovica burns in March 2004.
The Mitrovica church seen in July 2024.
"When Orthodox churches have been attacked and vandalized it is because they are seen as symbols of Serbdom not of Christianity," the writer said.
"When Serbs attacked mosques in Kosovo, it was because they were Albanian not because they were Muslim," Judah added.
In recent years, however, some attacks on churches within Kosovo have been explicitly Islamist in nature.
The gutted remains of the Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren after it was attacked in March 2004. Four years earlier, one of the monks of the isolated monastery was kidnapped and beheaded.
The restored Monastery of the Holy Archangels seen in August 2024
According to KFOR, attacks on churches have dropped off in recent years, though in 2024 the peacekeeping group says some minor attacks were recorded.
"Some graffiti were written on the [Pec] Holy Trinity Church walls," a KFOR spokesperson told RFE/RL about a May incident. "Graffiti were also found in March on the remnants of an Orthodox church in Dojinice, where gravestones were damaged."
The spokesperson added that KFOR "stands ready to contribute to the security of cultural and religious heritage sites, if required."