MEDIEVAL NECROPOLIS OF RADIMLJA

This site (Nekropola Stećaka Radimlja) houses 133 stećci from the 14th and 15th centuries, typical late medieval tombstones from Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the most prestigious listed site among the twenty-eight medieval necropolises in the Balkans (22 of which are in Bosnia and Herzegovina) listed as Unesco World Heritage Sites in 2016. What makes the place exceptional is its richness in terms of decorations. One motif in particular catches the eye: "the man with the raised hand". It is one of the great icons of Bosnian tourism along with the Old Bridge of Mostar, declined in the form of multiple souvenirs. Easily accessible, Radimlja is also the only medieval necropolis in the Balkans under surveillance and for which a fee is charged. At the entrance of the site is the main office of the tourist office of Stolac. It offers guided tours of the necropolis of Radimlja, but also that of Boljuni, also listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

History

The necropolis is located along the Radimlja River, a tributary of the Bregava. The site is part of an area marked by the presence of several burial grounds from different periods: an Illyrian necropolis under the walls of the ancient city of Daorson, a cemetery from the Ottoman period next to the church of Saints Peter and Paul, and the former Jewish pilgrimage site (19th-20th centuries) of the tomb of Moshe Danon. It is also located not far from the Badanj cave which houses the oldest traces of art in the country.

An illustrious family. The majority of the stećci in the Radimlja necropolis date from the years 1380-1500, as evidenced by an epitaph mentioning Radoje Hrabren-Miloradović. The men of this family were voivodes, military leaders in charge of the territory between Stolac and Mostar. Their descendants were to be found in Ragusa (Dubrovnik), at the court of the sultans and in the imperial palaces of Vienna and St. Petersburg. Originally, the Hrabren-Miloradović were Orthodox and belonged to the Aromanian community, an old Latin-speaking Balkan people who lived from trade and the transhumance of huge goat herds to Greece.

A multi-faith cemetery. According to the sources, Radimlja is considered the family cemetery of the Hrabren-Miloradović. This tells us something about the culture of stećci, which are often incorrectly referred to as "Bogomilian gravestones". The use of stećci was in fact widespread among various components of late medieval Bosnian society, both among the Bogomils (a Christian movement comparable to the Cathars in France), members of the Church of Bosnia (a schismatic Christian church influenced by the Bogomils), Catholics, and Slavic or Aromanian Orthodox. The dating of the site also corresponds to the heyday of the Aromanians in Bosnia. A text indicates that Radosav Hrabren, the last voivode of Stolac, is buried here in 1381. Then, between 1386 and 1456, the region came under Ottoman control. Most of the Herzegovinian Aromanians quickly converted to Islam and the necropolis of Radimlja was abandoned.

A destructive road. Abandoned from the beginning of the sixteenth century, the stećci will be respected by the following generations, at least preserved intact. However, in 1882, the Austro-Hungarian authorities undertook to create a new road connecting Stolac to Čapljina. Now, this one passes right through the necropolis. About twenty stećci are used as building material, while eleven others are found isolated to the north of the roadway. It is from the 1950s that the site will be the subject of the first research and conservation measures, before being placed under the protection of Unesco in 2007 and, finally, classified as a world heritage site in 2016.

Visit

The limestone used here comes from a quarry located 800 m northwest, under the archaeological site of Daorson, near the former residence of the Hrabren-Miloradović. Cleaned and restored since the 2000s, they are significantly lighter than the stećci in other necropolises in the area.

Orientation. Cut in two by the M6 road, the site is distinguished by various features. First, the stećci face southeast, whereas they usually face west in other necropolises in the area. In addition, they are not aligned as is usually the case, but constitute small disjointed lines or various concentrations.

Forms. A very wide range of forms can be seen here, offering a summary of four centuries of evolution of stećci throughout the Balkans. We find both "slabs", the most widespread form from the twelfth century, "chests", which appeared in the middle of the fourteenth century, "gabled roofs", used from the beginning of the fifteenth century, rare "anthropomorphic crosses", a model adopted in the middle of the fifteenth century, as well as "pillars", the last evolution of the genre in the late fifteenth century. This great variety is further accentuated by very variable dimensions and also by the use of a pedestal for 61 stećci or by a very careful style for twenty of them.

Ornamentation. Almost half of the stećci (63) are decorated with bas-reliefs and/or engravings. This makes Radimlja one of the most "decorated" medieval stećci necropolises in the Balkans. As in Boljuni, this testifies to the rank occupied by the deceased in local society. The most finely carved stones are the "chests" and, above all, the "gabled roofs". The latter, also called "eternal houses" are nine in number, five of which are placed on a pedestal. They are decorated with vegetal friezes or twisted ribbons, as well as a wide variety of symbolic motifs: suns, stars, crescent moons and stylized crosses, shields, swords, bows and arrows. Throughout the necropolis, figurative representations are also very numerous: men and women in scenes of games or dances (kolo), knights fighting or hunting, horses and wild animals, not forgetting enigmatic men with their right hand raised.

Man with raised hand. This is Radimlja's most famous motif: a male figure holds out his open, oversized right hand as if greeting us from beyond, while a bow and arrow are depicted on the left side. This almost cartoonish figure is found only here and only on six anonymous stećci: one large "chest" stećak, another in the shape of a cross, and four "gabled" stećci. In all, the same figure appears seven times in the necropolis, including twice on the same stećak. Since the gesture of the right hand is usually interpreted as a sign of allegiance of a lord to his suzerain, the motif is nicknamed the "voivode" (vojvoda). However, some historians suggest another hypothesis: it could be a representation of St. Vitus(Sveti Vid), the patron saint of the Orthodox in the region. Quite logical when one knows that the local Aromanian elite was Orthodox. Other more esoteric theories have also been put forward, but in the absence of reliable sources, the mystery of the "man with the raised hand" remains unsolved.

Inscriptions. The necropolis is quite poor in this area, especially compared to the nearby site of Boljuni. Only five stećci have epitaphs. They are very short and written in the Bosančica alphabet (derived from Cyrillic). At least four relate to local lords. In addition to that of Radoje Hrabren-Miloradović, there are the patronyms of the Vuković (Bosnian governors of Croatia in the fourteenth century), Vlahović (Aromanian nobility), Napetović (Serbian nobility) families as well as a single name, Stipan, probably that of a member of a wealthy Croatian family. The same five tombstones also bear the signatures of three sculptors: Bolašin Bogačič, Miogost and Ratko Brativonič (or Brativojevič). They have a common style that will be perpetuated by their followers in other necropolises in the region until the mid-sixteenth century.