Travel Guide for the Sokolac Municipality

TRAVEL GUIDE FOR THE SOKOLAC MUNICIPALITY Sokolac 2018. TRAVEL GUIDE FOR THE SOKOLAC MUNICIPALITY Publisher: Public Institution Tourism Organization “Sokolac“ For the publisher: Brankica Bašić Texts: Milica Vuković Brankica Bašić Mirjana Simović Ana Koprivica Translation in English: Milica Vuković Graphic processing: Grafid d.o.o. Banja Luka Print: Grafid d.o.o. Banja Luka For Grafid: Branislav Ivanković Circulation: 1909 TRAVEL GUIDE FOR THE SOKOLAC MUNICIPALITY There are few regions of the European continent that have such untouched na- ture in its full glow as these areas do. Beautiful and gentle hills and mountains, high plains, clear mountain rivers and streams give hikers, hunters, fishermen, passers-by, visitors– tourists not only great horizons and panoramic views of the large number of other mountain ranges, but are themselves extraordinarily attractive, which, especially in the summer time, attracts people who live in the big cities crater. BASIC INFORMATION Area 700 km2 Population 12.607 Density around 22,4 residents/km2 Relief Municipality of mountainous area, altitude 800-1.300 m Climate continental, mountain ADMINISTRATIVE DATA State Bosnia and Herzegovina Entity Republic of Srpska Municipality Municipality of Sokolac City East Sarajevo GEOGRAPHICAL DATA 43° 56’ 14” north longitude Geographic coordinates 18° 47’ 54” eastern longitude Time Zone Central European: UTC+1 OTHER DATA Zip code 71350 Area code +387 (0) 57 LOGISTICAL CONNECTIONS Passenger Tuzla – 93,9; Banja Luka - 253 traffic Distance from Passenger airport(km) Sarajevo – 51,4; Beograd (RS) -241; and cargo Zagreb (RH) – 429; Split (RH) -315 traffic 3 Šamac (rijeka Sava) – 184 (04h08); River ports Distance from Brčko (rijeka Sava) – 165 (03h43) river and sea Neum (BiH) – 247 (04h59); Ploče (RH) – 250 (04h47); ports (km) Sea ports Split (RH) –305 (05h59); Rijeka (RH) – 585 (07h52); Bar (CG) – 304 (06h22) Bosnia and Sarajevo – 42 (00h49); Banja Luka – 239 (04h06); Distance from Herzegovina Bijeljina – 128 (02h55); Trebinje – 225,5 (03h53) major cities Beograd – 283 (04h57); Novi Sad – 230 Serbia in the country (05h08);Šabac -163 (04h08) and the region Podgorica – 253 (04h54); Budva – 310 (05h59); Tivat (km) Montenegro – 298 (05h57); Croatia Zagreb – 427 (06h23); Ljubljana (SLO) -565; Beč (AUS) – 747; Budimpešta Distance from European cities (MAĐ) – 525; Bukurešt (RUM) – 841; Sofija (BUG) – (km) 566; Minhen (NJEM) – 973; Rim (ITA) – 1.313: Pariz (FRA) 1.815 Source: www.viamichelin.com Position of the Municipality of Sokolac in Bosnia and Herzegovina 4 TRACES OF HISTORY If you ever visit Sokolac, a place that gladly welcomes guests, you will find traces of diverse and rich cultural and historical heritage. There are churches that radiate Holy Spirit of peace, more than seven centuries old ruins and the very area of the municipality of Sokolac has been inhabited for over 2000 years. For us, history is what sets us greatly, and it is still part of our modern life. 5 BARROWS AND HILL FORTS Glasinac culture is the most distinctive group of Bronze and Iron Age, with a set of local features, which spread in the eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, southwestern Serbia, northern areas of Montenegro and northern parts of Albania, where it developed into Mati- culture. Excavations at Glasinac discovered that an Illyrian tribe called Autariates lived in this area for centuries and that it had a very advanced culture. The flourish of Au- tariates civilization was suddenly interrupted. The reason for them leaving Glasinac will probably never be determined with certainty. It is possible that there was a great natural disaster or the reason could be the Celts, a warlike people from Western Eu- rope, who at that time flooded the Balkans, heading to Greece. Due to the large number of hill forts and barrows it is known that at the era of Au- tariates Glasinac was densely populated. Autariates lived in houses made of brushwo- od and mud, and their settlements were surrounded by walls of stone and soil. There are still many remains of these settlements on the hills of Glasinac field, and they are called hill forts. People used to believe there was buried treasure under those rocks, so they dug looking for it. One time a most peculiar thing happened. A ghost appeared in front of the people who dug near the village Kusače. The ghost rose from the tumulus so that “his head touched the sky”. The diggers passed out, and once they woke up the ghost was gone, but ever since then people were afraid of digging the barrows. The barrows have various shapes and sizes, some of them are up to 20 meters in diameter. Group graves are most commonly found in them. Only the rich deceased Barrow above the houses of Bajagićs’ 6 ones were buried with weapons and personal items. Some of the graves contain ske- letons, others urns only, while some tumuli contain only items. The most famous tumulus in both its size and content was Arares barrow at Ćava- rine. Judging from the remains that were found in it, it was the tomb of a noble lord, since no previously searched tumulus was so richly filled with objects of bronze. Ea- stern part of it was full of tiny pieces of coal and ash, and crushed bones were half devoured, which proves that the dead man was burned at the stake. They also found an amazing Corinthian helmet made of bronze in this tumulus, like those worn by the ancient Greek heroes. This helmet was crushed at its scalp under the weight of the barrow, but the facial protection is very well preserved. The helmet was made around the fifth century before Christ. The objects found in the tumuli and hill forts are preserved as part of the perma- nent exhibition “Bosnia and Herzegovina in Ancient History” in the National museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. GLASINAC CHARIOT Austro- Hungarian lieutenant and amateur archaeologist Johan Lexa, during con- struction of the road Sarajevo –Rogatica –Višegrad, opened the first tumuli in Glasi- nac and it was in one of the tumuli in Bjelosavljevići, near the Rešetnica River, where he found the famous Glasinac chariot made of bronze with water bird figurines from the early Iron Age. The chariot was delivered to the museum in Vienna, where it is still located. Ritual purposes are attributed to the chariot of this type with figurines of water birds and are usually associated with solar deity. By style and motif, they belong to the tradi- tion of the previous late Bronze Age, when the water birds were the dominant symbol of the Urnfield culture. The famous carts were probably made in the area of the Gla- sinac plateau, and cer- tain details indicate the similarity to the chariots in the Danube area and Car- pathian Basin. Motif of water birds through figurines or protons was frequent since the beginning of the Iron Age; we can find them on objects of ritual purposes, ceramic and bronze pots, decorative items and parts of costumes as an important religious symbol. This famous chariot is a unique sample from the Glasinac area due to the fact that this type of dis- covery was not found in more than a thousand more tumuli that were explored. 7 STEĆCI Stećci is the name for the medieval tombstones which are a unique spiritual, ar- tistic and cultural phenomenon specific to Bosnia and Herzegovina and neighboring countries. Complex art of stećci is reflected in the interpenetration of pagan and Chri- stian motifs and phrases. Those are medieval tombstones decorated with rudimen- tary graphics, depictions of people and plant motifs and carved epitaphs with a very interesting content. Large numbers of medieval tombstones are located in Glasinac area. They are made of stones and represent either recumbent or standing type stone monoliths. Most ta- ke the form of the gabled tombstone, the rest are mostly in the shape of “a stone” and “wide panel”. Among them there is one “on šljeme” with especially fine scale, without letters and patterns, but with a carved cross studded with a ring. Part of a stone obelisk from Crkvina at Gla- sinac is built into the floor of the bell tower of the Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah. Necropolis in Luburić field Necropolis in Luburić field, Sokolac municipality, is on the list of 30 medieval necropolises that are declared a World Heritage by UNES- CO in 2016. Necropolis is a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are two necropolises with tombstones located in the village Košuti- ca, about 6 km away from Sokolac in the direc- 8 tion of the northeast on the large area of the Luburić field. They are 150 m away from each other. The first necropolis is at the site of Ploče and the other one is located at Bare. The first necropolis- site Ploče has 51 tombstones, while the second necropolis- site Bare has 83 tombstones. There is a square shaped indent that can be assumed to be the place of a medieval object in the center of the tumulus of the first necropolis. Necropolis Crkvina At Glasinac The archaeologists found foundations of a medieval church which was fresco-painted at the site Crkvine, one of the most important medieval sites at Glasinac near Sokolac. The church was made of tufa, stone and covered with shingle. The wooden architecture of the tombs was also preserved. The archaeologists found silver Dubrovnik coins and remains of the former ethno costume. The first church was built in the 14th century. During the 14th and 15th century, a large necropolis of tombstones was built around the church. Today more than 300 tombstones are visible, but during the 15th century their number was over 500.

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