Goršić polje, Goražde

In a shade of an ancient forest, in the settlement Hrančići near Vranci village, stands one of the largest necropoli of the tombstones stećci. Situated on the Goršić polje or Kučarin, around 15 kilometers west from Goražde by airline distance. Today there are 325 stećak tombstones, asuuming that the number was much greater earlier. This perfectly depicts how fast and to what extend our national medieval treasure is perishing. The local road cuts the necropolis in two, separating the tombstones. The larger group counts around 300 tombstones and the smaller one around 30 examples. Most definitely, this led to devastation of some stećci and the graves beneath them. Many of those have just sunk into the ground and some of them are still under the threat of slipping below the road, far away from the necropolis. The large number of the tombstones stećci suggest that a great and significant medieval settlement had been laying in its vicinity.

Out of the total number of 325 tombstones stećci, most of them are slabs and only a few gabled tombstones, generally oriented west-east direction, arranged in a straight line on a fairly flat hill. The decorations are recorded to be found on four tombstones, with a motif of a lilium appearing twice, on the upper and side surface, both of them carved in a high relief. The third decorated stećak is the most interesting one. It is made in a form of a crate, with the whole upper surface decorated in a high relief image of a watermill bordered with a spirally twisted ribbon, apparently used for certain occult purpose. There is a cross with circular endings inside the sphere on the west front, and a motif of a deer on the south side surface. The east front side is decorated with three four-pointed stars. The fourth tombstone stećak is decorated with a sickle motif.

There is a short inscription on the front side of one gabled tombstone, the only inscription in this necropolis. Divided into ten rows, transliterated it reads:

† Se leži Njegoš (?) Vidojević, zemlja mu na Obrju. Počrljeno Mastanom (?).

It is hard to tell who Njegoš Vidojević was, presumably one prominent and wealthy member of a medieval society.

The necropolis Goršić polje mainly preserved its authenticity, untouched for the most part. The locals obviously took good care of this necropolis. They even used to paint tombstone ornaments in red, still unclear for what reason. No new burials nor diggings never occurred. The nearest Muslim cemetery lays only a few hundred meters away. This necropolis, seated in the natural ambience of high woods, offering wonderful panoramic view, serves as an idyllic place for the ones searching for some rest. The silence breaks only by the soundless stories marbles speak of a centuries old life and death of the Medieval Goražde and surroundings. The necropolis is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.