Kosovans agree deal on road to bypass historic monastery

The Serb Orthodox Monastery of Visoki Decani in western Kosovo (Visar Kryeziu/AP)

Italian mediation helped resolve a long-running dispute between Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian government and the Serb minority, allowing a road project that will bypass a historic Christian Orthodox monastery listed as an endangered World Heritage site.

Serb Orthodox leaders long protested works to greatly widen a road brushing the 14th Century Visoki Decani Monastery, one of Kosovo’s top Serbian monuments.