Franjevacki samostan Zaostrog

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The most significant and well-known monument of the village of Zaostrog and the entire Makarska coast and beyond is the Franciscan Monastery of St. Mary, which - according to a Turkish record from 1671 - "has existed since time immemorial, on the threshold of the seven kings, on the sea coast in the administrative unit ("Nahija") Fragustin", as this upper coastal municipality was called during the Ottoman rule (1474-1684).

The monastery was founded at an unknown date, probably no later than the beginning of the 15th century, by the friars of the "Hermits of St. Augustus", called Augustinians, who abandoned it after the fall of Bosnia in 1463 and settled on the islands withdrawn.

Thanks to the merit of the above-mentioned feudal rulers, the Vlatkovi?-Jurjevi? brothers, in 1468 Franciscans from the then Franciscan province of Bosna Srebrena (from 1735 the province of the Most Holy Savior) moved into the abandoned monastery and have managed it to this day, so that in 1968/1969 the 500th anniversary could be celebrated, as evidenced by a plaque with 500 different colored sea pebbles at the entrance to the monastery (1468-1968).

The Franciscans, in defiance of the otherwise unsympathetic Turkish rulers, advanced their monastery to such an extent that in 1640 the Visitor General sent from Rome described it as the most beautiful of all the monasteries in the then quite extensive province of Bosna Srebrena. A small but significant testimony of the religious, economic and cultural level of the monastery from the period of Turkish rule is the monumental inscription carved in stone, in Croatian language and script, which still towers above the main entrance to the church.

However, only after liberating itself from the Turkish yoke in 1684 did the Zaostrog Monastery experience its golden age (18th century). This is not only recognizable from its archive fund and the important personalities who emerged from the monastery at that time, but also from the lively building activity at that time. While the plan of the monastery around 1700 was square with a cloister in the middle formed by three monastic wings and the church, this characteristic shape of the old Catholic monasteries was expanded by two new wings in the first half of the 18th century : around the west wing (1727) and the south wing (1753), and later came the east wing (1874). In 1864 a new bell tower was built on the east side in place of the collapsed bell tower on the church front. This is how the floor plan of the monastery took on its final, almost fan-like shape. The enlargement of the premises went hand in hand with the increasing role of the monastery in the field of pastoral activity and formation.

For all these reasons, the Franciscan monastery in Zaostrog was declared a cultural monument in 1953 by the Dalmatian Conservation Institute from Split. In 1962 the monastery in Zaostrog was included in the list of immovable cultural monuments of the Makarska Municipality by the same institute.

pastoral activity

Since its founding, the monastery has primarily played a spiritual, religious role among the people entrusted to it. When there were no monasteries in Makarska (founded in 1502) and in Zivogosce (1612), the scope of the Zaostrog monastery was much wider. In 1599 it included the area from Drvenik to the mouth of the Neretva, then the entire area of ​​the Vrgorska and Neretvanska Krajina on the right bank of the Neretva and Herzegovina with Tihaljina, Veljaci, Grljevici, Ljubusko, Medjugorje and Citluk.

The monastery of Zaostrog, with its church dedicated to Our Lady, was once a world-renowned place of pilgrimage, included in the register of Marian places of pilgrimage worldwide. For example, in 1633, when the sea captain Nikola Resti from Dubrovnik died in Madrid, he bequeathed 200 gold ducats to Our Lady of Zaostrog.

The pastoral activity of the monastery includes the following ten Franciscan parishes: Drvenik, Zaostrog, Podaca, Brist, Gradac (stari Lap?anj), Bacina, Stablina-Plina, Vrgorac, Stasevica and Metkovic on the left bank of the Neretva (St. Elias).

schooling

During each of the 500 years of its existence, a school for the education of young clergymen and monks operated in the monastery, albeit with frequent interruptions. During the Turkish rule there was also a primary school and a humanistic school, which had six clergymen and fourteen students in, for example, 1640; the teaching program consisted of "reading, writing and some grammar as well as Christian teaching in Latin and Croatian".

Later the schools alternated: from grammar school and novitiate to philosophy and theology. As is known, the well-known Classical Franciscan Gymnasium in Sinj, which celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding in 1989, had also worked in other monasteries before it was merged into Sinj in 1854, for fourteen years in Zaostrog as a lower secondary school (1838- 1852), and for a year as a high school (1852/53). In our 20th century the following schools were active in Zaostrog: theology (1908-1911), philosophy (1911-1927), novitiate (1930-1934) and institute for friars (1968-1975). In recent years the monastery has been used for spiritual exercise, various seminars and recreation.

According to recent research, the public elementary school of Zaostrog existed in the monastery there in the years 1819/1820 and was attended by schoolchildren from Zaostrog, Drvenik and Podaca. At that time the school was headed by Fr. Jeronim Jujinovic, who was born in Kozica. The school functioned until 1858. The state primary school for boys ("scuola maschile") was founded in Zaostrog in 1871 and had 46 pupils at that time. We do not know where the lessons were held in 1871. Sixteen years later, as we saw above, Father Fr. Mate Simic built a two-storey building in the center of the village with church materials, which served as a school, which is still evidenced by a stone plaque with the inscription: LJUBAV I PRIGOR SEOSKOM NAPRIDKU 1887 ("