Vrančići: Stećci, Memorial Sites and Landscape

If you also choose a travel destination based on its historical themes, Vrančići offers several distinct points of interest: the Borak landscape area, the Vrančići–Grivići stećak necropolis, burial sites in today’s Vrančićko greblje, and memorial sites. The landscape, archaeological findings, and remembrance each offer a different focus. When choosing a destination, you can therefore consider which of these themes interest you most.

Landscape and Place Names

The Borak landscape area lies about 300 metres southwest of Vrančići, in the direction of Mount Ormanj. It covers around 15 dunums of meadow and woodland. The information combines its approximate location with a description of the area: the direction and distance locate Borak in relation to Vrančići, while the meadow and woodland describe the character of the landscape area. For your travel plans, this offers a different perspective from the burial sites and stećci described below; Borak is primarily about the landscape and its extent. The distance is approximate.

The name Igrišća holds a different historical clue. In the newer settlement of Vrančići, Igrišća is a prehistoric place name. It refers to a place for games, socialising, and gatherings of the village community of that time. The name thus draws attention to communal activities and adds a social perspective on earlier village life to the material evidence of burial sites and stećci.

The Vrančići–Grivići Stećak Necropolis

The Vrančići–Grivići stećak necropolis comprises 15 stećci. The largest measures 250 × 147 × 65 centimetres and weighs over five tonnes. Its upper surface bears a cross ornament with circular ends; a small cross is carved into one of the circles at the southeast end. This brings together information about the necropolis as a whole and details of a single monument: the number describes the size of the collection, the dimensions and weight describe the size of the largest stećak, and the ornament adds a specific design feature to its description. Both the collection and the characteristics of this largest piece are relevant to understanding the site.

Burial Sites and Remembrance

Today’s Vrančićko greblje contains a tomb made of upright stone slabs, covered by a single slab that is now broken into three pieces. It is thought to be a late medieval tomb of a type found in cemeteries with stećci. The description combines a specific structural layout with a cautiously worded historical interpretation: its late medieval dating and classification as this type remain probable.

Several old nišani in Vrančićko greblje document continuity in burial traditions from the era of the stećci to that of the nišani. The focus is therefore not only on the form of a single tomb, but also on a longer sequence of burial traditions. The two aspects complement each other: the tomb’s stone-slab construction and its presumed typological classification on the one hand, and the broader continuity indicated by the old nišani on the other.

The Vrančići memorial cemetery commemorates Midhat Drina and Ejub Drina, who were killed during the attack on Vrančići on 21 June 1992. Remembering these two people by name is a different historical focus from the archaeological evidence of stećci and older burial traditions. During the traditional Dan šehida observance, a šehidsko mezarje and a memorial site were visited in Vrančići in 2025 and 2026.

Grivići in Historical Context

Three necropolises containing a total of 97 stećci are recorded in the area of present-day Grivići. This number refers to the three necropolises in the area of present-day Grivići and should be distinguished from the figure of 15 stećci at the Vrančići–Grivići necropolis. The figures describe different named points of reference. It is also thought that Grivići, Drozgometva, and Vrančići formed a territorial unit called Drozgometva in the Middle Ages. This historical connection is a hypothesis. For travel planning, this clearly distinguishes the details of a single necropolis, the collection in the area of present-day Grivići, and the cautiously worded medieval interpretation.

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