Museum of Herzegovina

The Museum of Herzegovina was founded in 1935. The idea came from the notable Trebinje poet and diplomat Jovan Dučić who contributed the first collection. Today, the museum, located at Banj vir in the Old Town of Trebinje, is the central museum institution for the Homeland Museum in Nevesinje, the Homeland Museum of Old Herzegovina in Foča, the Museum Collection in Bileća, the Museum Collection in Gacko, and the Museum Collection in Ljubinje.

There is a legend of Old Trebinje that Banj vir was named after a ban who drowned in the deepest whirlpool of the Trebišnjica river. There are no historical sources to support the legend, but it will persist until new discoveries of historical documents can offer a different interpretation of the name. There is also a folk legend that underneath the urban settlement in Kastel (Old Town), there is a yet undiscovered network of tunnels, and a tale has been passed from generation to generation that one tunnel leads under the Trebišnjica river to its left bank and comes up next to where Hotel Leotar is located today. Another legend bears witness to the long historical context of this site situated on the cliffs above the Trebišnjica river, next to the Museum of Herzegovina. Namely, there are some bold claims that the same founder founded Ragusa, establishing what is today Karmen, the oldest part of Old Town Dubrovnik, situating the fortress on the cliffs above the sea. According to Bosnian-Herzegovinian literary author and scholar Safvet-beg Bašagić, the fortress in Trebinje was built in the spring of 1706 and the city of Trebinje was officially named Banj vir. The claim is based on the original firman kept at the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo. The fortress was later referred to as Ičhisar (Ićesar) or ‘inner city’. Archaeological excavations around and inside the museum show that this elevated plateau had been favoured for settlement and defence purposes since time immemorial. The archaeological excavations revealed a stone fragment with Latin script and whole sections of walls from various time periods. The Museum of Herzegovina and the surrounding structures are designated national monuments of BiH.

The museum has an archaeological, historical, art, ethnological and natural history department, each with its permanent collection. In addition, the museum has a library with 13000 books and various journals in the arts and sciences. The museum publishes catalogues, brochures, monographs and the scientific periodical Tribunija. The first issue of Tribunija was published in October 1975 with a circulation of 1000 copies, and marked thirty years since victory over fascism.

The archaeological collection includes artefacts from the oldest neolithic settlements to those found in medieval fortresses.

The pre-historic section displays flint knifes from the Neolithic, as well as jewellery, dishes and tools from the Metal Age found in Illyrian fortifications, hillforts and tumuli, and imported materials from Greek emporia on the Adriatic coast (needles, pins, fibulae, dual needles, beads, swords and knives).

A special finding are five displayed helmets from Illyrian graves found in Kačanj near Bileća. Epigraphic monuments, tombstones, milestones, stelae and parts of sarcophagi from the Roman period are also displayed, as well as parts of mosaics, frescoes, fragments of clay and glass dishes, and jewellery. .

Some of the most significant exhibits in the medieval section include two Cyrillic inscriptions on stećak tombstones, one dating from the second half of the 12th century and bearing the inscription of Župan Grd, where the name of the city of Trebinje is first mentioned, and one bearing the inscription of Župan Pribilša from the 13th century. The art section holds over 1000 items.

The museum also manages a number of legacy collections from famous artists of Herzegovina:

The Jovan Dučić Legacy Collection was a gift to the museum by this notable poet and diplomat from Trebinje;
The Atanasije Popović Legacy Collection includes 44 of his works that were left to the museum in the last will and testament of the artist’s brother Uroš Popović, as well as dozens of his paintings and drawings later collected by the museum;
The Milena Šotra Legacy Collection has more than a hundred paintings by one of the first Herzegovinian female painters from her cycles Motifs from Herzegovina and Travels in Russia and Ukraine;
The Legacy Collection of Milorad Ćorović, the first dean of the Fine Arts Academy in Trebinje, includes 57 paintings from his cycle Trebinje Portraits and his cycle of bull motifs;
The Mirko Kujačić Legacy Collection includes paintings and graphics of this artist donated to the museum by his wife;
The Branko Šotra Legacy Collection includes 15 graphics of this famous graphic artist and founder of the Applied Arts Academy in Belgrade; the works were done in linocut and depict striking and psychologically complex portraits, city motifs and landscapes from the Trebinje area;
The Ksenija and Vladimir Gaćinović Legacy Collection comprises 13 paintings and drawings by Milena Šotra; 29 graphics by Branko Šotra; a graphic by Mihail Petrov; a drawing by Ivanka Lukić-Šotra; a bust sculpted by Luka Tomanović; a bust sculpted by Marko Brežanin;
The Beloved Trebinje Collection of Artworks was donated by the National Museum in Belgrade and includes 45 artworks (Momo Kapor, Milan Konjović, Ljubica Mrkalj, Zoran Pavlović, etc.);
The World of Stone Legacy Collection of works by Radovan Ždral, writer and sculptor from Herzegovina, includes 120 sculptures made of minerals and semiprecious stones, mostly found in Herzegovina.

In addition to the above art collection items, the depot of the Museum of Herzegovina contains more than 400 art paintings, graphics, sculptures and objects. For the most part, these are works by local artists, works from guest exhibitions, as well as works created at the Art Colony "KOLO", which has been held in the Museum of Herzegovina Trebinje since 2015 (works by Beta and Risto Vukanović, Roman Petrović, Mića Popović, Vladimir Veličković, Jefta Perić, Tom Petrović, Virgilij Nevjestić...)

The permanent historical exhibition on the Cultural and Historical Development of the Trebinje Region from the 10th to the First Half of the 20th Century showcases the development of Trebinje and today’s East Herzegovina, while the permanent exhibition of the ethnological department features village and city life in this region from the late 19th and early 20th century.

http://muzejhercegovine.org/

The permanent exhibition on Natural Riches of the Trebišnjica River Basin includes minerals, fossils, flora and fauna from the Trebišnjica river basin. The museum Gallery is located on the ground floor and used for exhibitions, book promotions and readings, chamber music concerts, academic and professional seminars and other events, making the museum recognisable as a cultural and artistic meeting point open for visitors and providing cultural and educational content.