Corridor: Diagonal Road
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Foca
Type: Cultural Landscape
Epoch: Middle Ages
Theme:
World Heritage:

At the top of the village Rataje is an isolated limestone rock rising vertically from relatively level ground. About 150 meters to the south-west is the tower of the Chengich-Ratajac family who were at the height of their powers in the late 17th and first half of the 18th century. The rock, which is more than 6 meters high, with a hollowed-out cell and a tomb, is the central feature of the entire complex. There was an inscription in Bosnian Cyrillic above the eastern corner of the entrance to the cell. The only word that could be deciphered with certainty was the name Radoslav. In the north wall of the cell there is a bench, and above it a shallow triangular niche has been carved out. The tomb, which is hollowed out in the form of the human body, is in the centre of the cell and lies along the west-east axis. The cell and the tomb are from the medieval period. To the south of the rock are the foundations of two buildings. The easternmost is the ruins of a mosque, demolished in 1875. To the west of this are some insufficiently studied remains of an older building, of which there remain above ground the entrance and a bench cut into the rock. There was a wall around the entire complex, also encompassing the whole area north of the rock with a burial ground and a turbe and the remains of the foundations of some smaller structure. To the south of the rock there was another burial ground with a surrounding wall, known as the Ibrahim-beg burial ground. Local tradition has it that both these burial grounds belonged to members of the Chengich-Ratajac family.

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