Stolac // Slabs of Shapes and Sizes
© John Bills
It was a pretty easy walk. A straight line, to tell you the truth. When I informed the hotel receptionist of my plan to walk out to the famous Radimlja necropolis, she didn’t seem overly convinced. She went as far as to tell me a story about when she had done it, albeit in summer, and the trek had left her out of breath. I wasn’t too worried about this fate, I’m generally out of breath by default, so I assured her that I was a hardy soul and would have no trouble getting there and back in one piece.
After all, it was only three kilometres. Three kilometres in a straight line, no less.
It took me a good half an hour, standard pace for such a stroll, and I’d be lying if I said there was much to see along the way. A collection of houses here, the decaying remains of a factory there. All I cared about was that there were no stray dogs to be found, no feral pups waiting to growl at me for having the temerity of stepping into their territory. All those years of wrestlers claiming to be the biggest dog in the yard finally made sense.
© John Bills
Of course, a couple of dogs made themselves known, but they were too preoccupied with not getting run over to worry about me. So I walked on, in a straight line, from modern-day Stolac to the medieval tombstones that have made this place famous, keeping my stride true to not, you know, stumble into oncoming traffic.
The Radimlja Necropolis just outside Stolac isn’t huge, but its presence in the cultural landscape of Bosnia and Herzegovina is. In fact, these medieval tombstones may well be the biggest such thing from those times, the lasting legacy of the long-lost Bosnian kingdom, curious examples of a different way to remembrance that also happen to be all sorts of picturesque too. The walk came to an end, but the strolling was to continue, this time around the 135 stones found at Radimlja.
A little bit of history, which is a kind way of saying a lot of history. Stećci is the plural of stećak, the local lingo word for monumental medieval tombstones erected between the late 14th and 16th centuries (more often than not, they had been around earlier, but those centuries were probably the peak). These slabs come in a variety of shapes and sizes, albeit a variety that ends at seven and renders my previous use of the word ‘slab’ a little premature. For the record, those shapes are slab, chest, chest with pedestal, ridge, ridge with pedestal, pillar and cross. They say McDonald’s chicken nuggets come in five different shapes, but I only see one. With the stećci, the differences are clear.
© Pero Mihajlovic // Shutterstock.com
More often than not, these tombstones are decorated with various motifs, from scenes of hunting and competition to produce, nature, weapons and traditions. The most famous motif is found on the so-called voivode stećci, where a male figure with a massive hand is raising the appendage, either in welcome or restraint. Most of the inscriptions were little more than decoration, although the symbolism of others is clear to see. It is all religion, morality, heroism, singing the praises of the dead while hoping for respite from the Gods. It sure beats ‘Here Lies Geoff’, that’s for sure.
There used to be more of the stećci here, but the damn Austro-Hungarian Empire decided to build a road right through the middle in 1882, destroying some tombstones during the construction. Of course, that road allows saps like me to travel to Stolac, but that isn’t the point. Respect the dead, especially when they happen to be commemorated with seriously awesome medieval tombstones decorated with cool motifs.
Like many places where the dead are respected, Radimlja was serene in its tranquillity. Not even the presence of the aforementioned road could disturb the peace of wandering around the tombstones as the sun prepared to clock off for the day, flirting with the mountains in the distance before making its way to the other side of the globe. I still had to walk back to Stolac and had no great desire to do that in the dark, so I considered the stećci one last time before heading for the exit. A truck beat me to it, before the driver animatedly motioned towards me, telling me to shut the gate behind me.
