Stecci Medieval Tombstones

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Location

Dalmatia, Dubrovnik
Croatia
43° 29' 4.9272" N, 17° 12' 15.318" E
HR
General info: 

Some real oddities that are present in Croatia, (and also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia) are the Stecci. These medieval tombstones are unique in the world and are closely following the borders of the medieval Bosnian Kingdom. There are a total of 70,000 Stecci spread in the area between the above mentioned countries and several thousand of them are in Croatia. The decorative motifs featured on the tombstones are enigmatic, spirals, rosettes and crescent moons being part of the recurrent motifs on the monuments.

Stecci contain epitaphs written in Cyrillic Bosnian and the oldest one dates back from the 12th century. Larger numbers of Stecci can be seen in both Imotski and Dugopolije, border areas of Croatia. Stećci have been nominated to the UNESCO World Heritage List as Joint Cultural Heritage by the four countries in 2009.

Getting there: 

Most of them are located in the areas of Dalmatia and Dubrovnik. An easily accessible location is Cista Provo, only half an hour away from Split.

Costs: 

Free for all

Interesting places nearby

The main Champorcher ski area below Rosa dei Banchi is accessed by a cable car to Laris followed by the 2km Cimetta Rosa drag lift. The village itself has five hotels and a discotheque.

The main village of Valmalenco is situated at 1000 m above the sea level; surrounded by forests and streams flowing close to it since it is the meeting point of two of them: Lanterna and Mallero.

Chur, the oldest city of Switzerland, possesses an own winter sports area on the local mountain. The high plateau (1600 metres above sea level) is achievable by ropeway, directly from the city.

In the ski- region Lenzerheide the wintersport fans can expect the sedate but challenging ski-area Churwalden. Here you can find not only interesting ski-areas but furthermore the, with 31 bends, longest rail based chute in Europe.

Chyrowa Ski Resort-Ski is located in the Beskid in Chyrowa near Dukla. Skiers can take advantage of 4 trails and 3 lifts with a length of 900, 400 and 100 meters.

An attractive small resort located at one end of the Fassa Valley, with it's own ski area on Sella Brunech and easy access to the Sella Ronda via the nearby lift access at Canazei.