Mramorje in Perućac, Bajina Bašta
Stećci – Medieval Tombstones Graveyards, UNESCO World Heritage List
By Archeological Sites of Serbia
Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Serbia
Archaeological Site Mramorje in Perućac (14th–15th century) by Republic Institute for the Protection of the Monuments of Culture – Belgrade and Maja DjordjevicArcheological Sites of Serbia
The medieval cemetery Mramorje is located at a high bank of the Drina river in Perućac. There are 88 stećci at the cemetery. The tombstones are placed in regular rows with the west-east orientation. According to their shape, there are slabs, gabled roof monuments and horizontal tombstones with or without a stand and amorphous tombstones.
The headstones are made of limestone and their surface is well processed by polishing and use of coarse-grained hammer. Only one horizontal tombstone is decorated by a solar symbol, a circle, while the rest of the tombstones are with no decorations and with no inscriptions.
In Serbia, the stećci have been recorded in all the areas of Serbia’s municipalities that nowadays border Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, as well as in the neighboring areas of western and south-western Serbia, at approximately 200 locations. The outspread of these medieval graveyards with the stećci is not uniform. The highest number of cemeteries with the stećci has been recorded on the territory of lower Podrinje, with the center in Krupanj, and in middle Polimlje (Prijepolje and its environs).
The stećci – medieval tombstone graveyards were inscribed in the World Heritage List in 2016. This serial cultural property consists of 28 sites, 20 of which are in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2 in Croatia and 3 each in Montenegro and Serbia. The stećci are a unique phenomenon in the medieval European artistic and archaeological heritage. The development of medieval states in these regions, establishment of feudal regulations and vassal-type of relations, appearance of higher and lower layers of nobility, strengthening of the role of different church authorities, socio-political and economic connections are all reflected in the creation, development and end in the making of this type of tombstones.
Archaeological Site Mramorje in Perućac (14th–15th century) by Republic Institute for the Protection of the Monuments of Culture – Belgrade and Maja DjordjevicArcheological Sites of Serbia
Ever since the times when they carved to be made until present, the stećci have been deeply rooted into different customs and beliefs. Such processes exist despite certain interruptions in the historic memory, mostly caused by migrations during the late Middle Ages and the early modern period.
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For centuries, the folk tales and fairy-tales have been extracting motifs from the medieval knightly setting that is found on the surface of the stećci ascribing their chiseling and installation to fantastic beings, fairies, giants and other mythical guardians linking them to the legendary wars and conflicts.
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Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Serbia
Republic Institute for the Protection of the Monuments of Culture – Belgrade
The narration was provided by Republic Institute for the Protection of the Monuments of Culture – Belgrade.
