GROTTE DJEVOJAČKA

The so-called "Cave of the Young Girl" (Djevojačka Pećina) is one of those strange places of which the Balkans seem to have the secret: a place of worship since Neolithic times, it became in Ottoman times a Muslim pilgrimage site linked to the Christian martyr St. George. The cave is 200 meters deep and easily accessible through a triangular entrance 10 meters high. It owes its name to a legend from the seventeenth century: a young girl from the neighboring village of Brateljevići died of fright when she went there at night, trying to prove her courage. Shortly after the entrance, the left wall bears 15 m of engravings that could date back to 8,000 BC: men on horseback, three women, a hunting scene, deer and triangular shapes incorporating phalluses, men or points. Further on, among a field of stalagmites, white concretions evoke the shape of a stele where the tradition wants the young girl of the legend to rest. Two tombs were also recently installed near the entrance, one of which bears the inscription "Djevojaka" ("Young girl") and on which are deposited votive objects: carpets, scarves and tasbih (Muslim rosaries). Considered a prophetic figure in several Islamic texts, St. George is the subject of a pilgrimage here in which tens of thousands of Bosnian women participate. The cycle begins in July with the celebration of the prophet Elijah, reaching its climax at the end of August with the Kišna Dova ("prayer for rain").