Stolac

The Story Behind the Place

The Stolac area preserves evidence from prehistoric, Illyrian/Hellenistic, Roman, medieval, Ottoman and later periods, making it one of the most layered heritage landscapes in Herzegovina. The fortified Hellenistic-era centre of Daorson, associated with the Illyrian Daorsi near Ošanići, is the clearest surviving expression of the prehistoric and Illyrian/Hellenistic layer, with its megalithic stone walls. The fortress above the town, Vidoški grad, was a medieval stronghold associated with the Bosnian state and the Kosača lords, guarding the Bregava valley and the route from the interior to the sea. Under Ottoman rule from the 15th century the town grew at the foot of the fortress, gaining a čaršija, a mosque, a clock tower and the stone houses of its prominent families, including the fortified Begovina complex. The Radimlja necropolis, with its richly carved stećci, dates from the 15th and 16th centuries and is a component of the UNESCO-inscribed transnational serial property “Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards”, inscribed in 2016; the inscription covers the necropolis, not the whole of Stolac. The old town suffered heavy destruction during the 1990s conflict, with the loss of a number of its historic buildings, and a process of reconstruction followed in the post-war period, including the rebuilding of the Čaršija mosque. The historic urban ensemble of Stolac is protected as a national monument.