Cista Velika, August, locality of Zadužbina
The bond between Croatia's North and South
With ganga and bukara
There is no such thing as perfection, there is specificity
The area of Cista Velika is full of historical localities: early Christian necropolis, tombstones-stećci, ruins and wells.
Crkvine-early Christian necropolis. Before World War II, don Lovro Katić started with first research which was ended by the War. In 1993, a team led by dr. Neven Cambi continued this research.
They found remains of five early Christian Churches. The oldest one was with the longest apse. On that apse, a lot of frescoes that were a part of its decoration, were found.
A lot of pillars from altar rails, fragments of late ancient ceramics and graves were also found.
Crljavica is a place well- known for its abundance of well-preserved tombstones. They are all mostly decorated with simple ornaments. In the whole territory, there are 16 sarcophagus tombstones, 56 cases and 15 boards.
The main road connecting Imotski and Sinj, goes through Cista Velika. It’s interesting that it goes the same route as the ancient roman via that, at the time, was a very important road in the Salona- Narona direction.
Construction of the first school started at the initiative of priest don Lovro Banovic. He concluded the agreement on the construction in the amount of 10500 Austrian krones.
The construction was finished on 25 June 1911.
Cista Velika is located in the heart of Dalmatian Zagora, in the Imotski region. Traces of settlement date back far into the past, which we can see in many historical sites: tombstones, forts and wells from the Ottoman times. In this area, many civilisations have changed and left many traces visible even today. Some of the traces are being explored today. A few localities are under protection of UNESCO.
The most valuable thing left in oral tradition is ganga singing, protected by UNESCO as non-material cultural heritage that needs urgent protection and continuity.
In Cista Velika, every year the festival “The bond between Croatia's North and South" - "With ganga and bukara” is held and tries to water all those thirsty of cultural-traditional expression and fun.
It is designed in the way that it uses audio visual research to make a small history of the identity of one community. It is focused on revitalization and revalorisation of the traditional Croatian culture and way of life, with performances of singers of traditional singing styles (ganga, rera, ojkalica, bećarac),players of traditional instruments, performances of amateur theatre groups staging traditional way of life, literary and poetry evenings of Croatian writers and ethnographic heritage workshops. The first festival was held in 2007, in hamlet Rojnice and since 2009, it takes place every August at Zadužbina locality, on the occasion of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders.
Zadužbina is a village 500m south of Saint Jacob Church where we can see one tombstone sarcophagus with plinth, six stands of tombstones and two stands without tombstones. Almost all were decorated.
This is a natural arena in the surrounding of tombstones, wells, stone dry walls, ashes and immortelles. The festival is organized by Cista Velika and Friends of Zagreb Club and Croatian Homeland War Volunteer Veterans Association.
The last two days of the festival the competition in traditional sports and games is held. While the final evening of the festival includes traditional music with special emphasis on young singers and players (under 25) who will be specially rewarded. Thereby we ensure the continuity of our tradition.
Club Cista Velika and friends Zagreb, Kozarčaninova 9, Zagreb
Savings account number for payments:
Zagrebačka banka Zagreb
žr.r.: 2360000-1101888516
IBAN: HR5623600001101888516
MB 2028174 OIB 37394572990
Our current activities and plans for the future can be found at:
Contact: Frane Rojnica
Mob.: 098 236 237
e-mail. klubcistevelike @ gmail.com
rojnica@sfzg.hr