The tales of necropoli, their creation, development, single monuments, associated with amazing occurrences and unfortunately, some stories of their destruction, actually represent oral history of each one necropolis. For the most part, they are completely opposite of the verified historical facts.

On the other hand, oral tradition as a guideline proves to be extremely useful when solving certain historical questions.

Passed on from one generation to the other, secretly kept and deeply planted in folk's subconscious mind, legends are by all means an extraordinary sign of the immaterial wealth of our people.

Greek cemeteries

The legends and tales of tombstones are numerous, with the dominating story of stećci as the Greek cemeteries. It is quite simple: once upon a time the Greeks had lived here. The long cold winter came and it lasted for full seven years. Not used to such severe conditions, the Greek left and the tombstones remained as an eternal reminder of their life.

The story continues as Šefik Bešlagić writes it: the severe cold and heavy snowfalls, as much as their Emperor's order, caused the Greeks to move away. The only one who disobeyed the order was a princess. She lived in a cave and every spring came out, appeared and then returned to her eternal palace.

Wedding Cemeteries

There is specifically interesting question of a so called „wedding cemeteries“, spread all around Bosnia and Herzegovina. The story is largely universal: once upon time two hostile weddings met. The place they clashed is a place of their death. Two groups of tombstone stećci that are found near one another is believed to be of those slaughtered at the wedding.

Healing Dust

It is widely believed that tombstone stećci possess healing powers. Women of some Bosnian villages, who could not conceive, used to gather the tombstone dust, hoping it had power to help them give birth. There was also a widespread belief, that tombstone stećci were healthful for animals, too.

The cattle was brought around one specific stećak in Rastičevo near Kupres, believing it would have made them fat and healthy, and when horses had troubles urinating another specific stećak has been believed to be the remedy. The similar tradition was performed near Zenica, too.

The Curse of the Moved Stećak Tombstone

Generally, the widespread belief was that any kind of moving tombstones stećci would cause extreme natural disasters or their household members and cattle to get sick and die. Moving tombstones and shattering marble was strictly refrained. The legend of Polipci near Jajce tells a story of locals who started to incorporate the stećak tombstones into their barns and then the cattle began to die. It never stopped, not until they got the tombstones back in necropolis.

Hidden Treasure

The tombstone stećci frequently got crashed and the graves under them dug due to a belief that they hide treasure in them. This same misfortune stroke the most beautiful and the most famous Zgošćanski sljemenjak stećak . Crashed with iron axles by some people from Vareš who believed there was gold hidden inside its „tinkling” walls.

Protection from Natural Disasters

There are some villages where folks paint tombstones stećci in order to protect their village from hail, drought or any other natural disasters. The old Muslim gravestones, usually on a so called martyr graves, are painted in the same manner. Both cases note gravestones that no local people could be associated with. They are believed to protect village from all kind of troubles and therefore should be treated with deep respect and piety.