Stećci
Encyclopedia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, and the border parts of Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
and Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. An estimated 60,000 are found within the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
and the rest of 10,000 are found in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, and Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
. Appearing in the 11th century, the stećci reached their peak in the late 14th to 15th centuries, before dying away during the Ottoman occupation.Stećci - tombstones belonging to the medieval Bosnia and the Bosnian Church (Bosnian heretics), who was part of the European rebellion against the Vatican. Symbols of the tombstones indicate Gothic-Celtic origin of Bosnians and the largest Bosnian king Tvrtko Kotorman (Kotromanic) derived from Kotorman the Goth.Epitafier on the tombstones are written in Bosnian alphabet (bosančica) and the alphabets belonging to the Bosnian church and medieval Bosnia. The largest collection of stećci are outside the city Radimlja in Herzegovina.
The Stećci have been nominated to the UNESCO World Heritage List as Joint Cultural Heritage by the four countries in 2009.
Etymology
The word itself is a contracted formContraction (grammar)
A contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters....
of the older word stojećak, which is derived from the verb stajati (v. stand). It literally means "the standing thing".
Characteristics
Their most remarkable feature is their decorative motifs, many of which remain enigmatic to this day. Spirals, arcades, rosettes, vine leaves and grapes, suns and crescent moons are among the images that appear. Figural motifs include processions of deer, dancing the kolo, hunting and, most famously, the image of the man with his right hand raised, perhaps in a gesture of fealtyFealty
An oath of fealty, from the Latin fidelitas , is a pledge of allegiance of one person to another. Typically the oath is made upon a religious object such as a Bible or saint's relic, often contained within an altar, thus binding the oath-taker before God.In medieval Europe, fealty was sworn between...
.
History
Although its origins are within the Bosnian ChurchBosnian Church
The Bosnian Church is historically thought to be an indigenous branch of the Bogomils that existed in Bosnia during the Middle Ages. Adherents of the church called themselves simply Krstjani...
, all evidence points to the fact that stećci were erected in due time by adherents of the Orthodox, Catholic and Islamic faith alike. Today many stećci are displayed in the garden of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina is located in central Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was established in 1888, having originally been conceived around 1850...
in Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
.
On November 2, 2009, the government ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro agreed to nominate the stećci as their shared cultural heritage to the UN World Heritage List.
Controversies
Some historians have argued that the Bosnian Church was related to BogomilsBogomilism
Bogomilism was a Gnostic religiopolitical sect founded in the First Bulgarian Empire by the priest Bogomil during the reign of Tsar Petar I in the 10th century...
of Bulgaria or other dualist groups. Others have asserted that the church was actually founded by Franciscan monks
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
from the Catholic Church. However, Marian Wenzel, the world's leading authority on the art and artifacts of medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina, concluded that the stećci tombstones were a common tradition amongst Catholic, Orthodox and Bosnian Church followers alike. Wenzel's conclusion supported other historians' claims that the stećci reflect a regional cultural phenomenon rather than belonging to a particular faith.
Famous Stećci
- The oldest stećak is that of GrdešaGrdešaGrdeša or Grd was a 12th-century Serbian Lord of Trebinje under the Rascian Grand Prince Uroš II Prvoslav.It is believed he was born around 1120...
, a 12th-century Duke of TrebinjeTrebinjeTrebinje is the southernmost municipality and town in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is administratively part of the Republika Srpska entity and is located in southeastern Herzegovina, some from the Adriatic Sea....
.
- The medieval MramorjeMramorjeMramorje or Bagruša is a medieval necropolis, located in Perućac, Serbia, and is among the best preserved necropoli of the region. The necropolis was built in the 14th century, and extends between the Drina river and the main road that follows its course, at the entrance of the settlement...
necropolis in SerbiaSerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Monument of Culture of Exceptional ImportanceMonuments of Culture of Exceptional Importance (Serbia)Cultural Monuments of Exceptional Importance are the monuments in the Republic of Serbia that have the highest level of the State protection, and some of them are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites....
contains large number of Stećak tombs.
- Vlatko Vuković's grave lies marked near the village of Boljuni near StolacStolacStolac is a town and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in the southern part of Herzegovina. Administratively, it is part of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from late 14th century. Inscription on the grave was written in Bosnian CyrillicBosnian CyrillicBosnian Cyrillic or Croatian Cyrillic, widely known as Bosančica, is an extinct Cyrillic script, that originated in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was widely used in Bosnia and Croatia . Its name in Bosnian and Croatian is bosančica or bosanica, which can literally be translated as Bosnian script...
Script (bosančica or bosanica) in ikavian dialect.
- The most famous and decorated stećak is from Zgošća near KakanjKakanjKakanj , is an industrial town and a municipality in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, located north of Visoko and southeast of Zenica. It was built along the slopes of wide hills on either side of the Zgošća river...
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 15th century. Although it has no engraved writing, since it was immaculately decorated, it is suggested that it belonged to Ban Stjepan II Kotromanić.