Stolac () is an ancient city located in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in the region of Herzegovina. Stolac is one of the oldest cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the World.
Stolac is situated in the area known as Herzegovina Humina on the tourist route crossing Herzegovina and linking the Bosnian mountainous hinterland with the coastal regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dubrovnik, and Montenegro. The road, running from Sarajevo via Mostar, Stolac, Ljubinje, and Trebinje, enables one to reach Dubrovnik in less than 4 hours.
Thanks to the town's favourable natural environment, geological composition, contours, climate, hydrographic and vegetation, Stolac and its area have been settled since antiquity. Its rich hunting-grounds along with other natural benefits attracted prehistoric man, and later the Illyrians, Romans and Slavs, all of whom left a wealth of anthropological evidence.
In 2022, a new modern road consisted of 36 km that connected the heart of Herzegovina with the sea, Stolac with Neum, was completed. The road helped the development of tourism between Neum, Stolac and Mostar.
History
The area has been settled for at least 15,000 years, as evidenced by the markings in Badanj Cave, which experts have dated 12,000–16,000 BCE. Three kilometres west of Stolac is the Radimlja stećak necropolis, dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries, the mainstream belief says that Daorson is 2500 years old, but some geological studies confirm that the ruins below the site date back 7000 years.
These stećak tombstones are carved with epitaphs, detailed portraits of the deceased, and motifs such as grapevines, hunting scenes and wild animals. Five of the Radimlja tombstones are thought to mark the graves of members of the Hrabren Miloradović Vlach family.
Ali-paša Rizvanbegović (1783–1851), the semi-independent ruler (vizier) of Ottoman Herzegovina from 1833 to 1851, was born in the Begovina neighbourhood of Stolac.
Architecture
Containing, in one small area, unique cultural and aesthetic values, Stolac's historic core is an example of a complex cultural-historical and natural environmental ensemble.
Nine historical layers compose Stolac's architectural ensemble: pre-history, Illyrian-Roman period, the early Middle Ages, advanced and late Middle Ages, Ottoman period, Austro-Hungarian period, and the time of the first and second Yugoslavia. A multitude of various influences on the architecture of the town, in which contrasts and similarities are frequently evident as well as planning and full spontaneity, lend this town a complex image. Despite its unusual history and inclusion into four empires (Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian), three kingdoms (Bosnian, Hungarian and Yugoslav), three world's monotheistic religions - Christianity (Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism), Islam, and Judaism, the historical core of Stolac is still a coherent and harmonious cultural-historical monument with individual properties grown together into one ensemble.
During the Yugoslav Wars, a number of monuments were demolished by Croat extremists as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing, including the town's four mosques, dating from the 16th to 18th centuries, and the Orthodox Church of the Holy Assumption of Christ.
In 2003 the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina designated Stolac Old Town as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Article 3 of that decision provides that “only research and conservation work and rehabilitation and restoration works, shall be allowed to be carried out, including the works aimed at promoting the National Monument” and “no buildings or any temporary and permanent structures shall be allowed to be constructed and erected at the site of the national monument unless their sole purpose is to protect and promote the monument.”
"Way of the Cross"