tećci
history of stećci
These are the tombstones of those who lived between the 11th and 15th centuries and refused to swear allegiance to any kingdom but their own or to be swayed by any influence. Instead they stayed true to themselves and to what they could find only within themselves and in Bosnia. Made as a work of art, as a sculpture, with an intention to make a memory of the deceased immortal, as well as an organic component of the European funerary practice, medieval tombstones - stećci represent a specific phenomenon and a specific synthesis of language and script, religion and custom, history and chronology, culture, art and aesthetics.
Their primary interpretative context is Central and South-Eastern Europe as a transitional area of the European culture, marked by intertwining and blending of cultural influences of Eastern and Western Christianity, placed between the medieval West and East. Although its origins are within the Bosnian Church, all evidence points to the fact that Stećci were erected in due time by adherents of the Orthodox, Catholic and Islamic faith alike. Appearing in the 11th century, the tombstones reached their peak in the 14th and 15th century, before disappearing during the Ottoman occupation.