BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards

Postcard sent in a direct swap by Adam. 
Sent 07/09/2023.

INSCRIPTION/INSCRITO: 2016

This serial property combines 28 sites, located in Bosnia and Herzegovina, western Serbia, western Montenegro and central and southern Croatia, representing these cemeteries and regionally distinctive medieval tombstones, or stećci. The cemeteries, which date from the 12th to 16th centuries CE, are laid out in rows, as was the common custom in Europe from the Middle Ages. The stećci are mostly carved from limestone. They feature a wide range of decorative motifs and inscriptions that represent iconographic continuities within medieval Europe as well as locally distinctive traditions. The serial property of 28 component sites includes a selection of 4,000 medieval tombstones (stećci) on the territory of four states: Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia, Montenegro and the Republic of Serbia. These monolithic stone tombstones (stećci) were created in the period from the second half of the 12th century to the 16th century, although they were most intensively made during the 14th and 15th centuries. The stećci are exceptional testimony to the spiritual, artistic and historical aspects of the medieval cultures of southeastern Europe, an area where traditions and influences of the European west, east and south entwined with earlier traditions. The stećci are notable for their inter-confessionality, used for burial by all three medieval Christian communities, including the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church and the Church of Bosnia (which lasted for about three centuries until the second half of the 15th century). The characteristics that distinguish stećci from the overall corpus of Europe’s medieval heritage and sepulchral art, include the vast number of preserved monuments (over 70,000 located within over 3,300 sites), the diversity of forms and motifs, the richness of reliefs, epigraphy and the richness of the intangible cultural heritage. The selected components represent a range of graveyard scales and settings.

My first card from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The stamps are awesome! I´d love to visit some of these tomb, all this kind of stuff related to the death poses an interesting element of study.