Višegrad bridge
Višegrad bridge, bridge that entered the legend, endowment of grand vizier Mehmed- Pasha Sokolović, who was as a boy, in name of tradition called “danak u krvi” (Turkish tradition of unwillingly taking young Balkan boys to Istanbul to become Ottoman soldiers, transl. note) taken to Istanbul, and became a vizier. Bridge was built in period from 1571 to 1577 by the most famous Turkish architect at the time, KodžaMimar Sinan. It was built in oriental style and represents masterpiece of construction of that period. In 2007 bridge was enlisted in UNESCO list of world cultural heritage. It was taken to legend directly because of our famous novelist IvoAndrić, rewarded with Nobel Prize for literature in 1961 for his novel “The Bridge on the Drina” also known as “Višegrad Chronicles”.
Zmijanje embroidery, cultural heritage of the Republic of Srpska, BiH
It is considered the oldest hand embroidery in the Balkans, specific for the cross-technique and it is always in blue colour; since 2014, it has been found on UNESCO representative list of intangible cultural heritage. Even today, it is kept from oblivion by the skilful hand of the Krajina’s embroiderers, all with an end to preserving and cherishing the tradition and culture of their region. That same embroidery embellishes women and men shirts, dresses, wedding dresses and shawls.
“A woman shirt embellished by the embroidery from Zmijanje was proclaimed the most beautiful at the Folk Costumes Fair in Paris back in 1936′.
The folk costumes and games from Zmijanje are kept and publicly represented by the Cultural-Artistic Society ‘Ribnik’ from DonjaPrevija, as well as other similar associations of the Banja Luka region.
Following the heritage „STEĆAK“ – Herzegovina, Republic of Srpska
In the Middle Ages, too, and in Turkish time traders and diplomats and armies and caravans were traveling through Herzegovina. It had been a ‘road corridor’ of the East and the West, from Cavtat to Dubrovnik via Trebinje, Bileća, Gacko, Foča, Goražde and Višegrad, for the Drina river valley towards various places. They left numerous silent evidences, settlements and towns, medieval fortresses and tombstones known among the people as STEĆAK-s.
Stećak-s, tombstones, form a unique spiritual, artistic and cultural phenomenon. They represent medieval art, they discover the way of thinking and sensibility of the whole era, and their size and ornamental elements testify the strength, position and influence of those above whose remains they were erected. Stećak-s and marbles with epitaphs tell us whether or not they were erected by their wish or in their honour!?
Necropolises, site of stećak-s from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, thirty of them, have been on the UNESCO list of cultural heritage since 2016. Most of these necropolises, as many as twenty-two, are located on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina – in the country with the largest number of stećak-s, approximately 60,000.
Nevesinje (BiH) is the municipality with the largest number of stećak-s tombstones in the former Yugoslavia, and with the largest necropolis of stećak-s in the village of Krekovi in the Kalufi site. Some of the stećak-s are decorated with symbols of Christian art, pagan times, but also other cultures.
