Filip Visnjic is one of the most famous Serbian minstrels and creators of Serbian folk songs.
He was born in 1767 on Majevica, in the village of Gornja Trnova, near Ugljevik. He was from a wealthy family Vilic. His father died young. His mother married again into the village's Medjasi and she took her four-year son with her. In her nickname - Cherry - Filip will receive a name. In the eighth year Filip Visnjic has suffered a smallpox which left scars on his face and he became blind.
In the old hearth was no more bread for Philip, but not new after his mother died. Having learned to play the fiddle, the young man left the Medjasi, wandering the roads and begging bread with the song. He travelled for years after going around Bosnian pashadom, Herzegovina, and came to Skadar. In the villages around the monastery he sang to Christian people, and stopped by the courts of the Muslim League who had received him with respect. Our minstrel had a song for ordinary people and masters.
The most important moment in the life of Filip Visnjic was his move to Serbia in 1809. Until that moment, he did not make any new songs. Direct contact with the insurrectional events was the moment of his birth as a poet. Sometimes he wandered the earth, singing old songs, and now there is a place where history was created. He associated with uprisings captains, received awards and honors. He mostly lived close to the Drina battlefield. Sometimes he was in the middle of fire.
He was also an editor of the old songs, and the creator of the new songs, of which the most famous is "The death of Prince Marko". He died in 1834 in the Grk. The villagers buried him in a village cemetery and carved his fiddle in the oak.
Author: Nebojsa Djumic
Publisher: Poste Srpske a.d. Banjaluka
