2012Myths and Flora - Diva Grabovceva and hornbeam - Miniature Sheet

Folk tradition says that in Kedzara, on the slopes of the mountain Vran, a martyr Diva Grabovceva was buried, a girl from the Croatian people, the Catholic faith, who lived at the time of Turkish rule. A young Tahir-bay Kopcic fell in love with her and wanted to marry her. Diva rejected him, and her family, fearing of his revenge, tried to hide her and sent her to the mountain Vran with flock of sheep to pasture. Tahir-bay found her and when she rejected him again, he murdered her. Since than many pilgrims visit her grave and come to honor her.
Dr. Ciro Truhelka, archeologist and the art historian, published the book about Diva and her grave. In the early 20th century he was invited as expert to Franciscan monastery in Šćit to evaluate and examine the grave. He found that the girl, aged 16 or 17, has been buried there, whose skull is proper from which he concluded that she was remarkable beauty and tenderness. Ciro Truhelka says that he heard details about the girl from Arslanaga Zukic, a friend and the godfather of the Grabovac family, who avenged the death of Diva, killing the Tahir-bay Kopcic.
Diva’s surname originated from the deciduous tree hornbeam (Carpinus betulus), which grows in Herzegovina and which evokes the strength and toughness. People of this region always said that nothing can stand in this area except snakes and hornbeam, and that this area is only inhabited by powerful people who don’t need much for life.