Mirilo

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Mirila in Ljubotić near Starigrad-Paklenica

A mirilo or Počivalo is a very simple kept dead memorial which in a wider edge zone along the Croatian Adriatic Sea is found. Mostly one speaks in the plural of Mirila , in German also of Totenraststeinen , since these memorials usually do not occur individually.

Mirila were built by the Roman Catholic mountain population in the Karst of the inaccessible Velebit Mountains until the 1950s along mountain paths at certain “resting places” where the corpse bearers were allowed to interrupt their arduous transport of the deceased to rest. Mirila are found in particular on the coastal mountain slopes of the southern Velebit and in the upper layers of the northwestern part of the Ravni kotari in the Zadar County .

The respective Mirilo was first marked with stones and then later made up as a memorial to the dead with horizontal stone slabs and head and foot stones.

etymology

Mirilo

The two expressions Počivalo and mirilo are obviously parallel formations by means of a l -Suffixes which u. a. Can denote places , from the verbs počivati 'rasten' and miriti , which means 'calm' in today's Croatian standard and is derived from me 'rest, peace' (see Mir ). Accordingly, the original meaning of both words is 'resting place, resting place'. The obvious explanation is that the funeral procession takes a break at Mirilo, but also the deceased “rests” here one last time in physical form before the burial, and after the burial the soul of the deceased “rests” according to popular belief only the body is buried in the cemetery.

In the ikavic dialects widespread on the Adriatic coast , this mirilo coincidentally coincides with another word mirilo 'measure, measure', which corresponds to mjerilo in standard ( Ijekavian ) Croatian . Derived from the above-mentioned l suffix from mjeriti (or ikav. Miriti ) 'measure', this word could also be understood as 'place of measurement, measuring place'. Since the corpse of the dead is actually recorded with the help of the stones, which also allows the "measuring" of the body length (although this is never done with a tape measure or folding rule), according to folk etymology the staking out of the body length with a head and foot stone is "authentic" Remembrance of the physicality of the deceased and as a preventive protection against curses and evil forces ”became a central element of the ceremony.

history

Origin and customs

Mirila originated in the period from the 17th to the 20th century, when the inhabitants (ranchers-nomads) of the Velebit Mountains lived mainly from livestock farming and mainly kept sheep . The deceased had to be carried from the often very remote hamlets and farms on mountain paths to the village church and on to the village cemetery . It was customary for the porters to rest only once on the way and to put the dead person on the ground. In such, certain places “the deceased said goodbye to the sun for the last time”. This is how family rest stones were created, which preserved the memory of the deceased and were more important than the grave itself, because it was believed that the grave "only" contained a body without a soul, which remained on the Mirilo. The bodies were wrapped in an ordinary linen cloth and transported on a wooden stretcher. The Mirilo, d. H. the place where it was laid was marked with stones as follows: “Flat stones were placed under the corpse, which corresponded exactly to its length and width. A stone was placed at the foot, which was naturally rounded or later shaped accordingly, and a similarly shaped but somewhat larger so-called cobblestone was placed at the head. ”The ritual of the Mirilo building took place at sunrise, and the corpse lay with his head to the east, to the sun. Laying out in the wild could take up to three days.

Mirila in Ljubotić: on the right three cobblestones with simple treatments, on the left a footstone
Mirila in Ljubotić: Two headstones, each with a cross motif and an inscription

Simple symbols and sometimes inscriptions were carved into the headstone . The motifs of the cobblestone decorations are very diverse; they range from symbols from prehistoric cultures (e.g. solar circles, rosettes, spirals, hooks of four) to Christian cross motifs (Latin, Greek) to inscriptions from modern times. Anthropomorphic (human-like) symbols are rare. The headstones of the youngest Mirila contain the same inscriptions as the gravestones. The limestone , which is abundant in the landscape and was only slightly processed, served as material .

The origin of this custom has not yet been adequately researched. The earliest mirila date from the time of the resettlement of immigrants from the southeast after the area was depopulated in Ottoman times . Similar funeral rituals are known from northern Greece and Wallachia . Lore from Illyrian and Roman traditions may also play a role.

Often several Mirila of a family are arranged side by side in descending size. In memory of the dead, the Mirila were more important than the actual grave in the cemetery of the more centrally located village church. The mountain population of Velebit was very poor, which is why you had to be particularly humble in the cemeteries. Very often burials took place directly in the ground in common graves. It was believed that in the grave there was only “a body, without a soul , which remained on the Mirilo”.

A collection of several Mirila is located in specifically selected areas directly in the barren landscape. In memory of the deceased, gifts, flowers or fruit were brought later. On commemorative days - especially on All Souls' Day , when the souls returned to earth, to the Mirilo, according to popular belief - people ate and drank together with the deceased on the Mirilo, similar to what happens with Orthodox on the grave. According to the belief of the Velebit people, a mirilo was the place where the souls of the deceased shepherds rested in the company of the souls of their sheep. It is characteristic of the Mirila areas that they lie in the middle of the landscape and are connected to it without a separating wall or enclosure.

Decline in customs

The custom of building Mirila was alive until shortly after World War II. With the increasing expansion of the roads and the relocation of the place of death in the course of better medical care to hospitals etc., it was no longer necessary to carry the deceased from remote homes to the cemetery, so that the custom largely disappeared and only until the end of the 20th century seldom practiced.

Mirila von Vukić, the largest preserved locality with more than 300 Mirila

Present occurrence (selection)

Signposted hiking trails to Mirila areas now exist at the following locations, among others:

  • In the center of Starigrad-Paklenica , a one and a half hour circular route to two Mirila locations begins.
  • The most extensive areas, some with more than 300 Mirila, are located above the village of Tribanj Kruščica (on the Adriatic highway ) near the hamlet of Ljubotić , about 12 kilometers from Starigrad-Paklenica. The hiking trail leads to six Mirila areas. The largest preserved locality is the Mirila of Vukić between the hamlets of Bristovac and Ljubotić with more than 300 Mirila.

literature

  • Milovan Gavazzi: death rest stones. In: Swiss Archives for Folklore. Half-yearly publication . Swiss Society for Folklore, Basel, ISSN  0036-794X , Vol. 57 (1961), pp. 37-46.
  • Milovan Gavazzi: On the megalithicism of Southeast Europe. In: Paideuma. Communications on cultural studies . Frobenius Institute at the University of Frankfurt am Main, Steiner, Wiesbaden, ISSN  0078-7809 , Vol. 9 (1963), pp. 125ff.
  • “Mirila”, in: Hrvatska enciklopedija , vol. 7, Zagreb 2005, p. 346 f.
  • Josip Zanki: Mirila. Zagreb 2002, ISBN 953-6100-82-7 [catalog of an exhibition in the Mimara Museum in Zagreb from March 5 to 18, 2002, pp. 5–38 in Croatian, pp. 39–45 in English, description of images and artist biography in two languages].

Web links

Commons : Mirila  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Milovan Gavazzi: On the megalithicism of Southeast Europe . In: Paideuma . Wiesbaden, Vol. 9 (1963), pp. 125ff.
  2. ↑ Milovan Gavazzi: Death Resting Stones . In: Swiss Archives for Folklore . Basel, Vol. 57 (1961), pp. 37-46.
  3. ↑ Cf. Petar Skok, Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika , Vol. 2, Zagreb 1972, p. 427, the mirilo beneath me 'world without comment ; Peace '.
  4. ↑ a b See Hrvatska enciklopedija , Vol. 7, Zagreb 2005, sv mirilo , p. 347.
  5. ↑ Josip Zanki, Mirila , Zagreb 2002, p. 15, explains the etymology of počivalo : “Na Velebitu predaje govore da tamo počiva duša, koja je blizu dušama stada, a da je tijelo u grobu. Odatle i drugi naziv za mirilo - Počivalo "(" In Velebit is reported that there the soul. Tranquility that is the souls of the herd near, and that the body in the grave was therefore the second term for. Mirilo : resting place . " - Italics in the original, underlining added).
  6. ↑ "kao autentična uspomena na pokojnikovu tjelesnost te kao preventivno zaštitno sredstvo od uroka i zlih sila" ( Hrvatska enciklopedija , vol. 7, Zagreb 2005, sv mirilo , p. 347).
  7. ↑ a b Paklenica Rivijera: Mirila - Starigrad Educational Trail - Ljubotić Educational Trail ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rivijera-paklenica.hr
  8. ↑ "Ispod tijela stavljale su se ravne pločaste stijene, koje su točno odgovarale dužini tijela i njegovoj SIRINI. Do nogu stavljao se kam s prirodno oblim završetkom ili bi poslije bio preklesan u tu formu, a do glave takozvani zaglavni kamen, slične forme, ali malo viši. "(Josip Zanki, Mirila , Zagreb 2002, p. 14)
  9. ↑ Josip Zanki, Mirila , Zagreb 2002, p. 14.
  10. ↑ a b c Josip Zanki, Mirila , Zagreb 2002, p. 15.
  11. ↑ Information board on the hiking trail in Ljubotić.