An open-air museum, which would speak about medieval Bosnia, may be located at the site of the crowning and burial of the Bosnian kings in Milimi, near Visoko.
The rich history of medieval Bosnia is insufficiently presented to the public, despite the fact that it was the period of the greatest development of the Bosnian state. Numerous architectural and written cultural and historical monuments are arguments in of themselves that the professional and wider intellectual public should begin to deal with medieval Bosnian history in a more serious and more structured way history, reports Aljazeera Balkan.
The Visoko valley is a special place in the history of medieval Bosnia, because of the very important religious, political and cultural institutions of medieval Bosnia were located in that area. The fact that the crowning and burial of the Bosnian kings were in Milimi was the reason why Ilma Sirce decided to create a preliminary design for the “Museum of Medieval Bosnia – Mili”. She says that in 2013, the Commission for the Preservation of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaimed a national good, but that there are no concrete plans for its “exploitation”. These were the reasons why she decided to create a museum project.
Milli, the center of medieval Bosnia.
“Such a museum – open air – doesn’t exist in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it is necessary to create one such museum, where in one place visitors could find out all about medieval Bosnia, where everything would be chronologically arranged, because the correct understanding of the past is a key a factor in culture. In the Mili and the entire valley of Visoko during the Middle Ages, an intense religious, political, economic and cultural life was taking place. Archeological excavations have shown that in the Visoko valley there were centers of medieval Bosnia and the Bosnian nobility, and there were also the most important political organizations, including the royal, table and communal place of the Bosnian state and the crowning place and grave of the Bosnian kings, the necropolis of stecak tombs, and according to some researches, it is said that it was the oldest university in Europe.”
Sirce says that Mili, undoubtedly, was the center of the medieval Bosnian state and that it was a place of turbulent political and spiritual life. Archaeological excavations confirmed the assumptions of the historians, because a large number of extremely valuable artifacts were found at the site. The museum would be informative and would speak about the rich past of the site, because it is the site where the skeletal remains of Bosnian kings were found.
“In Mili, at the site of the church, many artifacts of gold and brocade fabrics, golden rings and many other things were found, and the skeletons of the Bosnian kings were found. Mili and Visoko are one of the most interesting and most desirable places to make a museum of this type. The primary motive is to return all found artifacts and everything that was excavated in that place. That is a lot of materials, because when they started digging, they could not believe what it all had. The museum would say that Bosnia had a significant history, and in the Middle it was one of the strongest states in this part of Europe, the time of Ban Kulin. We are very poorly informed about our past and the museum would also offer schools the history of the Bosnian state.”
(Source: Klix.ba/ photo visoko.ba)
