Stećci

In June, during my trip through the Balkan, I was wandering around Belgrade, Serbia searching for an interesting souvenir. I happened to stumble across a book on the Stecci, published in 1982 and written in Serbo-Croatian (Title: Umetnost na tlu Jugoslavije; Stecci). As a WH traveller I of course immediately recognised the topic as being one of the (relatively close) WHS. Such an interesting find and I bought it without thinking twice; this was the souvenir I had been looking for. 

Early August 2023, I visited Mostar (a WHS) in Bosnia & Herzegovina. A review of my visit to Mostar is forthcoming. Of couse, I had added a visit to one of the Stecci sites to my (/our) itinerary. Basing my choice on the reviews on this website and some basic research on the internet, I decided that I should visit the Radimlja Necropolis, as this is by far the biggest and best preserved Stecci necropolis. Furthermore, it is relatively close to Mostar, which is on the usual itinerary of both regular and WH travellers to Bosnia & Herzegovina. 

I had done some research on how to visit Radimlja from Mostar by public transport, but this seemed nearly impossible (unless you take a bus to Stolac, a tentative WHS, and then take a taxi). I decided to just go to Mostar and see if I could arrange a tour with some company. Luckily, the host of our apartment in Mostar generously offered to take us to whatever place …

I visited 3 locations of this WHS in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2022, namely Radimlja (the most important and best preserved location), Mramorje (just opposite, on the other side of the road) and Boljuni Necropolis I and II a few kilometres away from Stolac (also worth a visit if you have time to spare).

Mramorje is a mere continuation of Radimlja with very minor stecci compared to the ones in Radimlja, in terms of size, quality and quantity. At first I visited Radimlja in the morning and I wasn't happy with the lighting on most of the embossed engravings of the stecci. Afternoon light is much better, so I decided to head towards Boljuni Necropolis I and II. These stecci here are 100 meters apart from each other in the middle of a number of tobacco fields with lots of cattle grazing around in the fields and a circular open well nearby. There is no visitor centre or parking lot near this location so it really was a fun experience. I wouldn't skip Radimlja but if you have a car and don't mind driving in narrow winding country roads, a visit to Boljuni is highly recommended to enhance your overall stecci visit in Bosnia.

All in all, the main deterrent in Radimlja is the busy Stolac-Mostar main road passing right nearby the site. The petrol station and commercial buildings nearby have been quite a concern recently and the location is under UNESCO's radar. Hopefully, in the future the location of …

I visited two of the properties of this serial site in July of 2019 on the way from Mostar to Dubrovnik. One of the best preserved and best known of the stećci cemeteries, Radimlja, is well signposted and located directly on the main road leading into the town of Stolac, making it an accessible and easy stop. I was the only visitor on that afternoon. The two staff members at the visitor center were clearly excited that someone decided to stop by. Having paid a nominal fee for entrance, I got a 5-minute lecture from one of them on the origins of stećci tombstones and their place in local history.

There are over 60 decorated limestone slabs at Radimlja. Quite a few are impressive, especially the ones showing the figure of a man with a raised hand. The girl at the visitor center intimated that there is no clear consensus on what the picture represents, which I found a bit strange given that the cemetery is only 500+ years old - I would expect some definitive explanations to survive from that time. I declined the offer of a guided tour, and simply spent the next 15 or so minutes roaming around the field. A true connoisseur may need more time, but a layman visitor will see all there is to see in that time. After I had taken what I thought were enough pictures, I lingered at the outdoors “café” area by the entrance with a cup of espresso, …

The Stećci Medieval Tombstones Graveyards are made up of 28 sites across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia.

22 of the sites are located in Bosnia and Herzegovina and we stopped at the Radimlja Necropils located about 30 drive minutes from Mostar. The Radimlja Necropils is one of the most well preserved sites and contains decorated tombstones dating back to the 1480s.

The site was quiet and had a small entry fee amounting to a few euro. We were among two sets of visitors there at the time.

We commenced our “stecci search” across Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia with a fair degree of enthusiasm, having identified 8 out of the 28 locations which were on or close to our planned general route which was primarily designed to pick up other unvisited WHS.

Our first location was 1504-023 Velika and Mala Crijivika, situated just west of the village of Cista Provo some 11kms north of the main Croatian motorway. The main area of stecci straddles the road and is marked with a Croatian flag - a smaller one lies around 200 metres further west which might as well be seen. A notice board describes the site but, unfortunately it has been used for target practice by local hunters! There are around 90 tombstones which exhibit a nice variety of carving and the entire site is of interest for having remains (tumuli and cisterns) of human habitation going back to prehistoric times. If you only wanted to take in 1 stecak site, then in my view, this would do very well, being close to the coastal towns of Split etc.

Our next location was 1504-006 Dugi polje at Blidinje in Bosnia. If you are wanting to go inland from the Split area to Sarajevo then this can be nicely taken in for the cost of a few kms of small/rough roads from it to Jablanica. Blidinje is on Bosnia’s T List for its mixed values and is also a skiing area. The T List cultural aspects include …

Site visited July 2016. I visited two newly inscribed stećci sites in Serbia, Mramorje – Rastište and Mramorje – Perućac. Both sites are quite near each other in the vicinity of the border town Bajina Bašta which is also a good hub for visiting Tara national park (tentative site).

Mramorje in Rastište site actually consists of two separate graveyards in the areas of Gajevi and Uroševine that are located 500 meters of each other on the slopes of mount Tara. Finding these places was a bit of an adventure itself but I like challenges when searching for the world heritage sites. I left my hotel early in the morning and took a taxi towards Rastište church which is 22 kilometers from Bajina Bašta. It was a hot day so I had to take lots of water with me. The first graveyard was quite easy to find using Google Earth as my reference. From the church I walked the serpentine road uphill about one kilometer. Then I turned right to a path that is heading to a small farm. The Gajevi area graveyard is just along the path. In this graveyard there are 35 tombstones. The stones are placed next to each other in three or four long rows of east-west orientation. There is very little spacing between the stones. It was difficult to take photos because the white polished tombstones shined so brightly in direct sunlight. I didn’t find any decorations although there should be crescent reliefs on three tombstones. …

The Stecaks or Stecci will be a transboundary and serial nomination for 2015, and I think it has a good chance to get inscribed. It's kind of ironic that former enemies Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro have joined hands to submit a series of cemeteries and tombstones. As if there aren't enough modern cemeteries around (especially in Mostar) to remind of the 1990's war.

Stecaks are monolithic tombstones, dating from the late Middle Ages. I visited the same site as Assif (see his review below): the Radimlja necropolis in Stolac. This site is one of the largest and most important among the 22 Bosnian parts of the serial nomination. At first sight, it is just a collection of white stones in a field. But when I came up close, I noticed all the different decorative carvings that cover most of the tombs. There are crosses of course, and a kind of flowers or trees. But also men on horseback with bows and arrows. And the most enigmatic ones: knights holding up their right hand as if to wave hello.

I spent about half an hour at the site, looking at each tomb from the back and front. I was really enjoying this visit more than I had expected. Sometimes you'd only see the carvings when you're right in front of it. I had arrived by bus from Mostar, some 35 kms and 45 minutes away. The site is signposted, both 5km before and when you're there. It's …

Radimilja is a small cemetery near the road leading to Stolac. It is the most famous Mediaeval cemetery in Herzegovina and has some nice tombstones. It often features on touristic prospectuses of the area. The graves belonged to the Bosnian church, a branch of the Orthodox church which died out when Herzegovina became predominantly Muslim with the Ottoman conquest. Nonetheless, local Bosniaks still relate to this church as a symbol of their national (or better ethnic) identity.

The cemetery is easily accissible by car. It is, however, very small and you can finish seeing all of it in about 15 minutes. Nearby Stolac is also on the T-list and atop the hill you can visit the Illyrian town of Daorson.