Stolac.info – The one and only

Stolac — the name means “stool” in the South Slavic dialects – is a beautiful village on the river Bregava, which cuts through the bleak, limestone mountains of Hercegovina, about 20 miles southeast of Mostar, the region’s main city.

It is sacred to Bosnians of all faiths, and was proposed as an international cultural site by the Bosnian government. The village’s surroundings include a massive deposit at Radimilje of pre-Islamic Bosnian burial monuments, or stecci, of inconceivable value for the world Bosnia is a country with five historical

identities: Muslim, Sephardic, Serbian, Croatian, and Gypsy.
Read the rest of this entry »

1978

Students escaping the smog of Sarajevo, we stepped out into the little valley
town late in the afternoon. The driver snapped off the skirting pop-kolo, climbed
down the coach steps and headed cafewards. Quiet -flowering lime trees round
the square, the rush of a river over a weir.
Read the rest of this entry »

Your Eminence,

We regard the persistent endeavours of Don Rajko Markovic, parish priest in Stolac municipality, to affirm and maintain the effects of the crimes perpetrated against us through his demand that a church be built on the site of the Carsija mosque in Stolac, as an extreme form of threat to our human dignity and rights.
Read the rest of this entry »

THE DEATH of Franjo Tudjman, the president of Croatia, reported recently in
the Sentinel, was probably unnoticed by most of your readers. In spite of the
presence of many Croatian Americans in Santa Cruz County-particularly in the
Watsonville area and Croatia’s involvement in the Balkans war, most Santa Cruzans
and probably most Americans would be hard-pressed to find Croatia on the map.
Read the rest of this entry »

From Mostar to Stolac is only 30 kilometres but it seems much longer. You head
south from Mostar following the river valley, then turn abruptly upwards into
the mountains. Here you find a strange, desolate landscape of grey granite and
dead twisted trees. Clusters of houses in various stages of destruction or repair
line the road; most fly the distinctive blue and red Croatian flag. In the distance,
are further clusters of villages – many also half destroyed and deserted. It is
only when the road descends to Stolac that you glimpse the fertile river valley
that produces the best tobacco in Bosnia.
Read the rest of this entry »