DRAGOVIJA

Dragovija

(Marušića hillfort, prehistoric mounds, stećci and the church of St. John, Greek well and traditional architecture) (Enclosure wall of the church of St. John)

Dragovija is located on the right side of the Neretva River, deep in the karst hills and hinterland of the town of Vid, to which it gravitated when it was inhabited. The earliest remains of human habitation in this area date back to prehistoric times, and are stone burial mounds located in several locations, dating from the Bronze and Iron Ages. Chest-type graves were found in them, as well as a large number of grave goods and fragments of ceramic vessels that are considered to be the remains of posthumous feasts. Late medieval graves were also found on most of the mounds. A smaller settlement or fortification on Marušića Gradina probably dates back to prehistoric times, which, according to the fragments of ceramic vessels found, existed from the Bronze to Roman times. It is interesting that the old name of the location is Dragova Gradina , after which the entire settlement was named, and it is believed to come from the word dragon. From the late Middle Ages, the 14th or 15th century, there are seven monolithic stone tombstones, i.e. stećak tombstones, at the church of St. John. It is believed that there was a necropolis under the chest-shaped stećak tombstones on the site of the church, none of which were decorated, and only one is in its original position. On the site of the necropolis of stećak tombstones, in the late 17th or early 18th century, at the very beginning of the Venetian administration of the Neretva valley, a small single-nave church dedicated to St. John the Baptist was built. It is a small church with a square rectangular vaulted apse at the back and a door with a simple lunette and a simple stone bell tower on a distaff on the facade. The village also has several interesting examples of traditional stone architecture, which are most often residential single-storey or two-storey buildings together with associated outbuildings such as stables, grain storage and rainwater cisterns, as well as numerous dry-stone boundaries, paths and the like. However, the most interesting is known among the people as the Greek Well, for which it is not possible to determine with certainty the time of its creation.