in 1952, the yugoslav government founded the "institute for the protection of cultural monuments of kosovo" tasked with dealing with issues relating to cultural heritage in kosovo. during post-war communist yugoslavia, only one ottoman era monument the tomb of sultan murad i was listed as a "cultural monument", while state protection status was given mainly to serbian orthodox church architecture in kosovo. the criteria for listing mosques as "historic monuments" was much more restrictive than for serbian orthodox architecture. buildings who had protection status received funding for historical preservation, while unlisted mosques, many from the ottoman period that were renovated during this time was done without the institute’s supervision often resulting in damage or original architectural elements being destroyed. on the eve of the kosovo conflict, only 15 mosques out of the 600 or more mosques had been awarded the status of historic monument, unlike 210 orthodox serbian churches, gravesites and monasteries that had been awarded the status of protected historic monument.