MEDIEVAL NECROPOLIS OF BOLJUNI

This site (Nekropola Stećaka Boljuni) is among the twenty-two medieval necropolises in the country listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016. To get there, follow the M17.3 road towards Neum for 9 km, then turn right towards Bjelojevići. The site is located on the left. It houses 274 stećci, 90 of which are decorated with a wide variety of motifs: hunting scenes, swords, fleur-de-lis and roses, spirals and rosettes, heraldic symbols (crescent and dots), kolo (circle dance), etc. Some are very rare: woman holding a child in her arms, lion, mythological animals (dragon...), clan chief riding a deer. Boljuni was the main center of artistic production of stećci between the mid-14th and early 16th centuries. About twenty stećci are signed by master sculptors, including Grubač, active in the years 1440-1460, and considered the best artist in this field. Also included is the name of his disciple, Semorad.

Necropolis of the elite. The site is distinguished by its high concentration of burials belonging to a local elite composed of Bosnian nobles and wealthy Aromanian shepherds and merchants (Latin people of the Balkans) trading with Ragusa (Dubrovnik). The cost of making the bas-reliefs was in addition to the cost of cutting the stone, and only the wealthiest families could afford such an expense. On the best decorated tombs are the names of the deceased written in the Bosančica alphabet. There are, for example, Bogavac Tarah Boljunović, a shepherd, who died before 1477, Radić Vladisalić, a member of the court of the king of Bosnia, or, again, the lords Herak and Radoslav Heraković, ancestors of the Petrović-Njegoš, the royal family of Montenegro. The most famous person buried here is Vlatko Vuković (died 1392), Duke of Herzegovina and Grand Duke of Bosnia. It was he who led the Bosnian detachment in the great battle of Kosovo Polje (near Pristina, in Kosovo) which saw the victory of the Ottomans, on June 15, 1389. About twenty meters from the necropolis, there is a neveš, a round and splayed dry stone well typical of the Stolac region. Used until the 1960s, it is reminiscent of the lavognes of the Larzac plateaus. Two old limestone quarries are also located nearby, one 200 m to the east, the other 200 m to the west. This is probably where the stones used to make the stećci come from.