Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards

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Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards: A Unique Cultural Legacy in Southeastern Europe

The Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016, constitute a remarkable cultural legacy in southeastern Europe. Spanning across Bosnia and Herzegovina, western Serbia, western Montenegro, and central and southern Croatia, this serial property encompasses 28 sites, each featuring regionally distinctive medieval tombstones, or stećci.

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UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site

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.

Encyclopedia Record: Stećak

Stećak is the name for monumental medieval tombstones that lie scattered across Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the border parts of Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. An estimated 60,000 are found within the borders of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina and the rest of 10,000 are found in what are today Croatia (4,400), Montenegro (3,500), and Serbia (2,100), at more than 3,300 odd sites with over 90% in poor condition. They are cut in a variety of recognizable stećak forms, with a certain percentage being richly decorated and some individual stećci also containing inscriptions in form of epitaphs.

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