Podvelezje history and pictures

[RandoBloom]

So let me introduce to you, Podvelezje - The most awesome place to live.



Lets start by history. In middle ages, prior to conquest of the area by Bosnian banate, the inhabitants of Podvelezje were mostly Vlachs, with shepherding and guarding caravans being the main source of income. After conquest, the population changes to a great degree. Bosniaks move in, and bring Bosnian church, and catholicism with them. Those migrants to Podvelezje raise the Church of St. Peter. Several Bosnian church followers move in and start families as well.

Spoiler!

Krstaca (A monument built by Catholic Bosniaks)


Stecak (A monument built by members of Bosnian church)


Those families are primarily: Gosto (Gost was a title of ordinary Bosnian church priest, literal meaning visitor), Spago, Puce, Juklo, Dedic (Djed was a title for higher ranking priests) Jelovac, Pintul, Boskailo, Brkan, Voloder, Tojaga and Zlomuzica (Most awesome name ever, meaning evil husbands XD)
Catholic Bosniaks were: Coric (Blindmen), Pekusic (Bakers), Nozic (Knifers) Kolcic (Stakers)
From these people new families formed. Those families can be recognised by the patronim IC at the end of the last name and last name is usualy formed from ancestors first name. Some of those families are: Maric (Sons of Mary), Macic (Sons of Maca), Milisic (Sons of Milis)
And some families formed following acceptance of Islam (Different sons of same family adopted Islam at different times, leading to splits: Crnalic, Feriz, Smajkic, Husnic, Fazlic, Fajic, Memic, Zuhric, Begovic, Musinovic

Some families, like mine, were formed by old family falling apart due to Islamization into several new ones, and then later uniting again.
The Milisic family divided into 5 Clans - Ibrukic, Hamzic being the first to convert, while Cuma, Cucilo, Jerkovic staid Catholic. Later, as the entire former Milisic family converted, a prominent figure reforged the old family, under new name, Husic. That was the case with several of the families that were numbered previously.

Podvelezje under Kosaca rule:

In medieval period, the area of Podvelezje was covered by Oaken forrests acording to historical documents, which were heavily deforested when the lumber was exported to Dubrovnik for shipmaking. No fortresess were built due to isolation and relative closeness of Blagaj castle.

(A look towards Podvelezje from Blagaj castle)

On 15th february 1444 Podvelezje area became part of Aragon, when Stjepan Kosaca swore fealthy to Alfonso V, King of Naples and Aragon.

Ottoman rule:
Podvelezje came under Ottoman rule when son of Herzog Stjepan Kosaca, Ahmet Pasha (Formerly Stjepan) ocupied the area at around 1480 for the Ottomans. He also granted religious freedom to Bosnian church who were persecuted up to that point, as was agreed by Alfonso V and Stjepan Kosaca.

Due to nomadic nature of the inhabitants and isolation, the area didnt have any Ottoman officials or Sipahi's who would own the land.
The inhabitants remained free, and were in fact granted several documents granting them freedom to move and pass trough lands without harrassment, some of them which are preserved and are valuable documents to the families, since it allows a glimples into the past.
After Battle of Lepanto, the area was completely deforested, and remains as such to this day.




Culture, jobs and behaviour:

As previously said, the inhabitants were semi nomadic, moving during summer to highlands, and to the lowlands during winters. They also served as Caravan guards for those going to Dubrovnik. As such horses were highly valued and even special breeds were created, including Podveleski konj (Podvelezhian horse - a subspecies of Bosnian highland horse)




The homes were built mostly out of stone, with specific hovels in the hills, while proper houses were built in the lowlands.





Unlike the deforested lowlands, the highlands were well preserved, since they were out of reach of both Kosaca, and Ottomans thus preserving the previous biomes



Every year since the war, a celebration is held, drawing in thousands, to celebrate the heroes of Podvelezje who died defending it, and those who liberated it, which includes old dances and various form of entertainment, and all kinds of traders arrive to sell their produce there.


(No thats not Albanians at 9:10 XD)



To be continued later

[Dzihadovic]

Some families, like mine, were formed by old family falling apart due to Islamization into several new ones, and then later uniting again.
The Milisic family divided into 5 Clans - Ibrukic, Hamzic being the first to convert, while Cuma, Cucilo, Jerkovic staid Catholic. Later, as the entire former Milisic family converted, a prominent figure reforged the old family, under new name, Husic. That was the case with several of the families that were numbered previously.

Is that your family name? Husic.

[RandoBloom]

Is that your family name? Husic.

Yes

[Dzihadovic]

Yes

Cool. I wish I knew some history behind mine. All I know is is that there are a lot of them in Bosanska Krajina(I think), so the opposite side of the country of where I'm from.

[RandoBloom]

Cool. I wish I knew some history behind mine. All I know is is that there are a lot of them in Bosanska Krajina(I think), so the opposite side of the country of where I'm from.

I know almost everything. The name of the guy who united the family. The one who converted first and when he did it. Where we came from before Podvelezje etc..

[Marusya]

I enjoyed this post very much and hope you will post more. Fascinating history, beautiful culture, costumes, dancing and landscapes. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.

[Mraz]

Hrulj is there a way to get the song names?

[RandoBloom]

Here is a chapter from a book on Podvelezje done by historian Tvrtko Kanaet:

Some of their traints were touched upon earlier. The most important one is certainly hospitality, a trait developed due to their nomadic lifestile and constant movement from mountains to valeys as seasons change.

The other traits are: sobriety, discernment, abruptness and restraint. The hard conditions of life required them to make quick decisions, and finding the best solution for geting out of a dificult situation. That forced an outlook of life that has no illusions. They dont expect help from anyone, since they never got any. Everything they have, they got by hard work, and fighting the harsh conditions that dont exist anywhere else in a large area. They fought everyone, nature, poverty, Ottoman officials, debt enforcers, tax collectors. No one ever visited this place to give them something, so that makes them extremely suspicious of strangers.

Their women are more open and energeting than women of other muslims.
They never covered their face, or refused photographing. Quite the opposite.

The male and female relations are extremely patriarchal. Man is always older than a woman, and thus always garners respect, no matter how old he really is. Even a youngest boy can take the lead in the community, or in the mosque rather than even most educated woman. When man walks into the room, even if he is a boy, women stand up and dont sit down until they get permission.

Only men are allowed to discuss openly, and only men attend public gatherings, such as funerals.

A woman will refuse to speak to a stranger. She wont speak at all, instead she will pretend not to see him. But that is also a male trait. You can walk by them and they will keep working and not acknowledge your existance. If you dont greet him first, he will not greet you. But even so, he will follow your every step, trying to figure out why you came, since no one ever comes there, without wanting to take something.

Oldest male child, in case his father died, becomes the "head of the household", and no matter how old he is, he is called housefather.

Their marriage customs are also unique.
During the wedding, a contract is made, which lists everything the woman is bringing into the household - land, cattle, clothing, money and equivalent value of everything. In case of divorce she gets everything back.

They also have their own unique customs, not related to any religion I know.

On New Years day the housefather patrols his land along with the children. holding a rope and forming a ring, they imitate wheat threshing, while uttering prayers that suposedly have magical powers in their native language

When starting the work on the land the housefather throws a hanfull of wheat "for good luck".
Also a cake is made, with part of the cake being burried into the ground "for better future"

When wheat is collected, the housefather visits the field and collects any remaining wheat ears and makes a bundle and hangs it in the barn. Every time when flour is made, a few grains from that bundle is mixed in. What remains, is used for planting next year.

In case of hail they throw out a sadzak with its legs up in the air which they believe will cause hail to stop (I cant translate it, its a metal stool without center, that is used to poot pots on it, and holds them over the fire)

On St. George's Day they make special pastries without yeast and organize festivities, with horse races and dance. They only dance on 3 ocasions, during Eid, during St. George's day, and during St. Elias's day. They form a circle, with men on one side and women on the other. Women face the men they like in that circle.

On Monday and Friday they believe you need to utter a prayed when pasing the local tumuli.

They have two types of songs, male and female. The female contain much romanticism and gentleness as well as rhymes.
The man songs are vulgar, and I cant write them here.

The inhabitants of cities and local area see Podvelezans as always serious , glumy, not to be joked with or pranked. The previous book by Popovic also treats them as such.

The interesting aspect of this, is that during songs they speak in Ikavian, but in regular speech they speak Ijekavian.

I touched on marriage customs before, but I will continue here. Before the wedding, the young men engage the girl, usualy with ring or money, and girl gives him a necklace, or something similar.

Most wedings are aranged with both families agreeing to them. In marriage they take great care ti investigate the other family's history, especialy their behaviour, ancestry as well as if there are any diseases that they suffer from.
In case parents dont agree, the young people elope. Kidnapings are extremely rare.

If the wedding was aranged, the parents meet each other and the head of the households give gifts to each other. The groom's family give money to the bride's father, no doubt remains of old custom of buying women.

During the weding women get tattoo's. The tattoo's cant be made by widows, barren women, or divorced women. They believe that custom brings good luck.
The wedding receptions last 2 days, and involve about 30-100 people on average. Every visitor is expected to bring gifts, in form of cattle, money or clothing. The couple retires on the first night after evening prayer, and dont leave until the feast is almost over. On that ocasion, groom goes back to men, and bride to women, where they present them with gifts again.
Races are also organized, with prizes being presented to the best.
The mother of the house also takes care to check if the bride arrived in the household as an honest woman (virgin).

Although specific in customs and outlook, they are still considered a part of the same people as most other muslims here. They look unhappy or grumpy to an outsider, as well as indiferent or careless in some cases.

But as I lived among them for such a long time, I started seing their true behaviour as natural nobles, nice mannered, smart and wise.
They do have their own bad traits, dont get me wrong.
They like to wear ragged clothing and look poor when visiting cities. Its a residual custom, since they would often have tax officials coming to the village whenever they looked nice.
They are also not revolutionaries. During world war they refused to join Partisans, and now after the war they refuse to go to work actions, or participate in any type of community labor. They dont understand that people are one front, and that their people's government is another. They refuse to accept Yugoslavia as their own, or to participate in the government.
When there are work actions, such as road building, or railroads, they leave and retreat into the mountains. The ones who cant leave, claim they dont need that.

In between themselves, they add an extremely high value to a custom they call "besa" which is some sort of promise, that when given will under no circuimstances be broken. For that reason they are extremely rarely giving besa to anyone.

Women become old very early. At 40 they are already considered old. Hard work, which most women do influences early aging.

Men and women never show signs of excitedness. In case of death they show no sadness. I believe that is influenced by religion, and that is an aspect that should be killed in order to develop a revolutionary spirit in them, since it offers so much resistance.

I felt compelled to write about their customs or outlooks, since many outsiders misunderstand them, or feel prejudice and thus dont present them in true light.

Tvrtko Kanaet, Podvelezje i Podvelesci, 1955, page 214 - 224

[Dzihadovic]

A woman will refuse to speak to a stranger. She wont speak at all, instead she will pretend not to see him. But that is also a male trait. You can walk by them and they will keep working and not acknowledge your existance. If you dont greet him first, he will not greet you.

They look unhappy or grumpy to an outsider, as well as indiferent or careless in some cases.

I think I may have ancestry from Podvelezje.

[Kabul]

the inhabitants of Podvelezje were mostly Vlachs

the inhabitants of Podvelezje were mostly Vlachs

the inhabitants of Podvelezje were mostly Vlachs

the inhabitants of Podvelezje were mostly Vlachs

Hrulj=Slavovlach confirmed