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Archaeological site

The Archaeological Site of the Cemetery with Stećci next to the Church of St. Martin in Cepikuce

Čepikuće is a small village in the municipality of the Dubrovnik Primorje near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, 35 residents live in it, who keep three groups of stećaks alive with their daily lives. There are a total of 362 stećaks on the Dubrovnik Primorje. Stećci are tombstones from the Middle Ages, which were made from the 12th to the beginning of the 16th century. Then they completely disappear from use. They are mostly carved from limestone, they are rectangular in shape and can be found upright or lying down. Stećaks were often decorated, and since the artist made the stećak according to his personal wishes, they were often decorated with shorter inscriptions or different visual representations – arches, stars, animals, religious symbols, and as the most famous motif, a man with his right hand raised.

There are three groups of stećaks in the area of the village of Čepikuće. The first is around St. Martin's Church, which is located in the local cemetery, the second is in the Dobrštak locality and the third is Novakovo greblje. It is believed that Čepikuće have such a large number of stećaks because they are located on the road from the coast to the interior, and it is an ancient custom since prehistoric times, then antiquity and all the way to the Middle Ages, that cemeteries are placed along the roads in order for the dead to guard travelers and the roads themselves as access points settlements.

Novakovo greblje is one of the best-preserved cemeteries from the Middle Ages on the Dubrovnik Primorje. The first serious preparatory research was done in 2011. The cemetery contains six stećaks in the form of slabs, boxes and gables. The gable is a stećak in the shape of a rectangular house with a roof on two sides. Four stećaks are decorated with shield and sword motifs, hunting scenes, birds, arcades and trefoil. All were preserved and restored and returned to their original location. Novakovo greblje was created in the period from the middle of the 13th to the middle of the 15th century. That was the time when the Republic of Dubrovnik bought this area from Bosnia and annexed it to its territory.

Novakovo greblje is located very close to the other two localities. The location of Dobrštak is 200 meters away, while the stećci around the Church of St. Martin are a little more than 300 meters away.

 

Fun fact: There are 34 localities with stećci on the Dubrovnik Primorje. Novakovo greblje is one of the most preserved, most valuable and most beautiful localities on the Dubrovnik Primorje.

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