Site visited July 2016. I visited two newly inscribed stećci sites in Serbia, Mramorje – Rastište and Mramorje – Perućac. Both sites are quite near each other in the vicinity of the border town Bajina Bašta which is also a good hub for visiting Tara national park (tentative site).

Mramorje in Rastište site actually consists of two separate graveyards in the areas of Gajevi and Uroševine that are located 500 meters of each other on the slopes of mount Tara. Finding these places was a bit of an adventure itself but I like challenges when searching for the world heritage sites. I left my hotel early in the morning and took a taxi towards Rastište church which is 22 kilometers from Bajina Bašta. It was a hot day so I had to take lots of water with me. The first graveyard was quite easy to find using Google Earth as my reference. From the church I walked the serpentine road uphill about one kilometer. Then I turned right to a path that is heading to a small farm. The Gajevi area graveyard is just along the path. In this graveyard there are 35 tombstones. The stones are placed next to each other in three or four long rows of east-west orientation. There is very little spacing between the stones. It was difficult to take photos because the white polished tombstones shined so brightly in direct sunlight. I didn’t find any decorations although there should be crescent reliefs on three tombstones. Nearby the graveyard there is a quarry where the stone blocks used to be taken from.

The second graveyard in the Uroševine area was much more difficult to find despite of being near the first graveyard. At first I chose two wrong paths before I found the right one. Actually these detours were quite nice because there were beautiful views to a mountainous farming landscape with haystacks, sheep herds, farm houses and plum trees. I kept on searching and a finally I found the right way that was a small grassy path under the trees. I followed the path downhill and there was the graveyard surrounded by thick forest. In Uroševine graveyard there are 33 tombstones. Some of the stones have typical east-west orientation but surprisingly some of them have north-south orientation. I noticed that the tombstones in Uroševine area are in bad condition. Some of them had crumbled in small pieces. So that wasn’t very spectacular sight. After I have visited Uroševine graveyard I realised that it is just 100 meters from the Rastište church so the best way to visit it is to walk small path uphill from the church. After I have visited both these Rastište graveyards I walked nine kilometers downhill to the Perućac village.

Mramorje in Perućac is very easy place to visit because it is located in the center of the village of Perućac just beside the main road to Bajina Bašta. There are 88 tombstones at the graveyard. Most of them are in a good condition but none of them are decorated so you can't find any specific details. While the graveyards in Rastište are quite unspectacular, I found Mramorje in Perućac quite imposing and pleasing place to visit.

I think these two stećci graveyards in Serbia doesn’t show the best that this nomination could offer. These Serbian sites seemed to be more of a curiosity compared to some other examples. So I look forward to see some of the better graveyards especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina.