Stones of the Past from Mostar

This weeks theme on the Friday My Town Shoot out blog, is about things that make you stop, and draw you in. In my city, that's definitely the Old Bridge, but since I posted already about it, I thought about something else. There is a small garden nearby the Old Town, that houses a couple of interesting artifacts I want to talk about more.

click on the images for a bigger view

First there are relicts of the old Old Bridge. During the war at the beginning of the 90s the Old Bridge was destroyed by enemy forces, and then rebuild. The garden houses parts of the old cobblestone that made out the walking path of the bridge.

On a plaque it says: Original Cobblestone of the old Bridge from 1566 - Exhibit from the World Museum Exhibition "The Old Bridge - The Monument of Peace" - Center for peace and multiethnic cooperation Mostar - Mostar 2004

The Garden also houses a different form of Stones from the past: Stecak.  A Stecak is a monumental medieval tombstone, that dates back to 11th century. The word itself is a contracted form of the older word stojećak, which is derived from the verb stajati (stand). It literally means "the standing thing".

Their most remarkable feature is their decorative motifs, many of which remain enigmatic to this day. Spirals, arcades, rosettes, vine leaves and grapes, suns and crescent moons are among the images that appear.

This the new cobblestone on the Bridge. You can see that its new and shiny, and that the old stones had more history and life behind them. Nonetheless, they were recreated to look like the did a long time ago.

I hope you enjoyed this short trip into Bosnian History, and for more weaknesses in other people towns and cities, make sure to visit the group blog.