Cross of Gradac, Gradac

Cross of Gradac Градачки крст Gradački krst
Religion
Leadership	Institute for Cultural Heritage Preservation Kraljevo
Location
Location	Gradac, Ivanjica, Serbia
Geographic coordinates	43°23′3″N 20°19′13″E
Website
Official website

Cross of Gradac is a cultural monument located in the village of Gradac on the property of Ćurčić Dragutin.

It is not known when the cross was built, for any reasons, but it is assumed that it was built in honor of an important event or a distinguished personality. Later, it was found that cross was built in the year of 1662 and served as a village record.

Architecture

Its size is rather unusual. Since that stands out in relation to the environment and that there is no presence of the cemetery, it is considered that this monument is not designed to be part of graveyard. The reason for raising the cross has not been determined, but it's presumed that had been built in honor of an important event or a distinguished personality. Cyrillic text, which is shallowly incised, is very hard to read because it was badly damaged.

Studies have shown that for more than a century this cross was used as a village record. This is confirmed by a large number of small crosses in its vicinity, whose leaving is part of the ritual practice around records. This subsequent ornamentation had the biggest contribution to the damaging of the original. Partial description shows that the symbols are from period of Early Christianity and they were inscribed by letters 1662.

External links

• Bike route Janko's Stone - Cross of Gradac - Milici
• Republic Institute for protection of cultural Monuments - Belgrade
• Immovable Cultural Heritage
• List of monuments