Trebinje is one of the most visited destinations in Bosnia and Herzegovina this summer as well. In order to improve the tourist offer and content, the Tourist Organization of Republika Srpska in cooperation with the Tourist Organization of Trebinje launches the project “Free Tourist Tours in Trebinje”, where tourists get acquainted with the tourist offer and attractions of Trebisnjica River, Avaz news portal reports.
On the other hand, the goal is to support the work of tourist guides in this way. The first tour started today in front of the Info Center of the Tourist Organization, and the tours will be organized every weekend, starting from September 13.
The number of places per tour is limited, and all those interested can register in advance, every day in the premises of the Tourist Information Center Trebinje. And all those who want to explore the city on their own, can get all the instructions in the TO info center.
What tourists can visit are Monastery Duži, a Serbian Orthodox monastery dedicated to the Intercession of the Theotokos, located 10 kilometres west of the City of Trebinje in southern Republika Srpska. It is situated in the Popovo Plain, not far from the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It was first mentioned in historical sources in 1694, when it served as a refuge for monks from the nearby Tvrdoš Monastery which was then destroyed by Venetians during the Morean War. That year the see of the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Zahumlje and Herzegovina was transferred from Tvrdoš to Duži, where it remained until 1777, when the see was relocated to Mostar.
The Monastery was a pillar of Orthodoxy around which the Orthodox population had been gathering for centuries. 25 metropolitans were elected from Tvrdoš and Duži, even the last one, before the fall of the Patriarchate of Peć, Stefan Milutinović was buried here, behind the altar.
During the latter half of the 19th century, the monks of Duži supported the uprisings of Herzegovinian Serbs against the Ottomans, who therefore damaged and looted the monastery in 1858, 1861, and 1877. Mićo Ljubibratić, a leader of the Herzegovina Uprising of 1875–1877, had his headquarters at the Duži Monastery. In 1878, after the Congress of Berlin, Bosnia and Herzegovina were occupied by Austria-Hungary. The monastery was severely damaged in a fire on 6 September 1886. Its renovation was supported by the Austro-Hungarian government of Bosnia-Herzegovina with the fund of 200,000 guldens. A bronze plaque was placed in the renovated church, with text in Serbian expressing gratitude to Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph.
After World War I, the monastery was inhabited by Russian monks who fled from Russia in the wake of the October Revolution. In 1935, they painted the walls of the church with frescoes in a Russian style. In 1959, it became a nunnery, and the nuns gradually restored the dilapidated monastery.
A particle of the Holy Cross, brought from the Holy Mountain in 1989 by the abbot Lazar Ostroški and the monchs, is kept in the monastery, as well as a part of the bones of Saint Nectarius.
Today, the economy of the Duži Monastery involves beekeeping and the production of wine, rakija, and dairy products, the Srpska Times reports.
