Stećak

Stećak (: IPA| [stěːtɕak] ) is common name for medieval tombstones in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and western parts of Serbia. It is also called "bilig" (bilizi), "kami" (kamenovi), "mramor" (mramorovi) etc. They are characteristic of the medieval Bosnian Kingdom and neighboring states. There are over 66.000 tombstones organized in large necropoli all over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The most famous necropoli of stećak are in Radimlja near Stolac in Herzegovina. The stećak necropolises are a mysterious aspect of Bosnian and Herzegovinian history. The most intriguing are their origin, to whom they belonged – who was buried under them, as well as engraved symbols, and mystic messages on them. For historians the most important are engraved words and names (in Cyrillic writing), but they are found only in small numbers of tombstones (around 350) since they were firstly decorative and monumental. Those engravings inform us of social differences of those that were buried under them, but also of religious differences. The tombstones were associated with the Catholic and Orthodox churches, as well as the native Bosnian Church.

The most famous and decorated stećak (and maybe the last) is from "Zgošća" near Kakanj from 15th century. Since it has no engraved writing, but it was immaculately decorated, it is suggested that it belonged to King Stjepan II Kotromanić. Today it is placed in the garden of Natural History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.