ZBORNIK INSTITUTA ZA

ARHEOLOGIJU
SERTA INSTITUTI
ARCHAEOLOGICI
KNJIGA
VOLUME 10

Sacralization of Landscape
and Sacred Places

Edited by Juraj Belaj, Marijana Belaj, Siniša Krznar, Tajana Sekelj Ivančan and Tatjana Tkalčec

INSTITUT ZA ARHEOLOGIJU
INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY
Sacr alization of Landscape and Sacred Places

Proceedings of the 3rd International Scientific Conference of Mediaeval Archaeology of

the Institute of Archaeology
Zagreb, 2nd and 3rd June 2016

Zagreb, 2018
ZBORNIK INSTITUTA ZA ARHEOLOGIJU
SERTA INSTITUTI ARCHAEOLOGICI
KNJIGA / VOLUME 10

PUBLISHER
Institut za arheologiju / Institute of Archaeology
Zagreb, Croatia

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF AND MANAGING EDITORS

Juraj Belaj
Marijana Belaj
Siniša Krznar
Tajana Sekelj Ivančan
Tatjana Tkalčec

REVIEWERS
Ana Azinović Bebek
Katja Hrobat Virloget
Luka Šešo

TRANSLATIONS AND TEXT EDITING

Signed below the text or translated/edited by the authors

DESIGN and LAYOUT

Hrvoje Jambrek

PRINTED BY
Tiskara Zelina d.d., Sv. I. Zelina

CIRCULATION
200

COVER PHOTO BY
Karlo Lolić

Financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia

©Institut za arheologiju u Zagrebu. Sva prava pridržana

©Institute of Archaeology Zagreb. All rights reserved.

CIP zapis dostupan u računalnom katalogu Nacionalne i sveučilišne knjižnice u Zagrebu pod brojem
001012819
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available in the Online Catalogue of the National and University
Library in Zagreb as 001012819
ISBN 978-953-6064-36-6
FOREWORD 4

Andrej Pleterski
Mythical Landscape. What is it? 5

Mia Čujkević-Plečko, Silvija Lasić, Ivor Karavanić

Aspects of symbolic behaviour at Croatian Palaeolithic sites 19

Mitja Guštin, Alja Žorž

Nova tabla at Murska Sobota. Burial site as a sacred area 33

Anđelko Đermek
The Distribution of pre-Christian Sacred Sites in the Zaprešić area 45

Vitomir Belaj, Juraj Belaj

Around and below Divuša: the traces of Perun’s mother arrival 69
into our lands

Marko Smole
Sacred Slavic triangle in the Upper Kupa and Čabranka Valley: 93
a story about pre-Christian and Christian landscape sacralisation

Jelka Vince Pallua

A Newly Discovered Figurative Representation of the Mythical Baba – 105
“Old Baba Vukoša” in St. Mary’s Church of Gračišće in Istria

Lidija Bajuk
Over the Mountains High, across the Waters Deep (astroethnological 117
contributions)

Marina Milićević Bradač

Passing through the Countryside : How to Recognize a Sacred Place? 143

Vesna Lalošević
Examples of pagan sacralisation of Sirmium and Salona landscapes in the
early Christian legends 165
Ehsan Shavarebi
The Temples of Anāhīd at Estakhr (Southern Iran): Historical Documents 179
and Archaeological Evidence

Silvia Bekavac, Željko Miletić

Castles of Petuntium, Neraste and Oneum: 195
Sacral centres of pagi in the territory of Salona

Dražen Maršić
Sacralization of the Salonitan rural landscape on the example of 205
“Gradina in Uvodići”

Olga Špehar
Changing Sacred Landscape: 211
Christianization of the Central Balkans in Late Antiquity

Ana Jordan Knežević

Contribution to the Study of Development and Function of Sacral 221
Buildings in Zadar Area (4th–9th Century)

Vladimir Peter Goss

Sacralization of the Vertical 237

Ivana Peškan, Vesna Pascuttini-Juraga

Forming of Cultural Landscape through the Network of Ecclesiastical 251
Buildings in the Valley of the River Bednja

Jela Duvnjak, Marija Marić Baković

Continuity of the Sacral and Actuality of the Cult on the Cemetery of St. 259
Ivo in Livno

Maja Cepetić Rogić

Patron Saints and Naming of the Landscape St John and Ivanić. Ecclesia, 277
Villa, Comitatus, Insula

Rosana Ratkovčić
Continuity and Discontinuity of the Holy Sites of Christianity and Islam 287
in the Examples from the Sufi Tradition

Andrea Rimpf, Dražen Arbutina

Ilok Ottoman Mosques and Ideal Reconstruction of Mehmed Agha Mosque 299
Karen Stark
From Holy Objects to Sacred Places: 325
Making Marian Sanctuaries in 14th c. Hungary

Silvija Pisk
Our Lady of Garić 335

Marijana Belaj, Mirela Hrovatin

Cultural Practices in Sacralisation of Place: 343
Vows in the Shrine of Our Lady of Marija Bistrica

Antonia Vodanović, Ivan Huljev

Houses and Paths from Podgora: a Case of Landscape Sacralization 353

Merili Metsvahi
The Europeanisation of Estonia and the Folktale Connected with Lake 367
Valgjarv

Cornelia Florea
Petrila Mine – Sacred underground 375

Sandis Laime
Offering Cave of the Livs in Latvia – from Sacred Place to Tourist Destination 383

Ivan Majnarić
The Uses of the Past – the Case of Maksimir Park Mogila 393

Antonija Zaradija Kiš

Saint Martin Space and Its Cultural Perspective 403

Neda Kulenović Ocelić, Igor Kulenović

New “Sacred” Places: Heritage Practices on Heritage Sites 415

Sandra Križić Roban

Displacement in the space of art 423

Suzana Marjanić
The Sacralisation of Landscape in 433
Contemporary Art Practices: Croatian Scene Case Study
FOREWORD

Human settlement of landscape raises the question of marking the landscape with one’s own religion. Changes of
religious systems or their coexistence documented in the landscape raises further questions, particularly those pertaining
to broader socio-cultural phenomena and dynamics. Even if such processes are not documented in written sources, they
could often be recognized in toponyms, folklore, archaeological finds and in contemporary religious practices.
Keeping this in focus, the Institute of Archaeology organized the 3rd International Scientific Conference of Mediaeval
Archaeology, entitled Sacralization of Landscape and Sacred Places. The Conference took place on the 2nd and 3rd June
2016, at the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, Croatia.
This is the third in a series of conferences designed to thematise mediaeval archaeology. However, for this third con-
ference we have conceived a much broader framework – our intention was to stimulate an exchange of experiences and
knowledge among participants with different research perspectives and disciplines and from different geographic areas
and chronological periods.
As many as 74 participants took part in the conference, coming from Croatia, Hungary, Estonia, Slovenia, Romania,
Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany and Iran. All in all they contributed a total of 57
presentations.
Introductory plenary lecture “Sacral spatial arrangement of landscape” was given by prof. dddr. Andrej Pleterski, Rese-
arch Advisor at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The Conference was divided into the following panels: Human and sacred landscape: paradigms; Traces of sacred sites:
prehistory; Myth in landscape; Sacred place - the arena of religious discourses; Social realities in the sacralization of space;
Narratives and practices in the sacralization of space; Reading of holy places and sites in Islamic tradition; Traces of sacred
sites: antiquity; (De)Sacralizations: spatial biographies; Christian spatial symbolisation.
Most of the presenters at the conference readily adapted their presentations into papers. This publication presents
analyses of sacred landscape from the perspective of: archaeology, folklore, ethnology, cultural anthropology, literature,
architecture, history, art history, mathematics etc., and at the same time covers the period from prehistory, through an-
tiquity and Slavic period and the Middle Ages to the modern period and contemporary times. In addition to this, it also
compares different processes from different regions and times, by and large from Europe.
All the contributions were separately reviewed by carefully selected experts from the international academic com-
munity according to their particular discipline or research perspective. By publishing a book in English, we have tried to
provide to the authors the widest visibility in the international scientific community.
I would like to thank once again all the participants of the conference for excellent cooperation, as well as to the in-
stitutions that helped make it a great success. Special thanks are reserved for the reviewers of individual papers and the
proceedings on the whole for their effort, expertise and contribution, as well as for the colleagues from the Institute of
Archaeology for their help in the organization of the conference and the publication of these proceedings. We are grateful
also to the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb for their support in the organization of the conference. We sincerely hope
that the contributions gathered in this publication will encourage colleagues from various scientific disciplines, especially
researchers of younger generations, to engage further with the sacralization of landscape and sacred places.

Juraj Belaj
 Jelka Vince Pallua

A Newly Discovered Figurative Representation of the

Mythical Baba – “Old Baba Vukoša” in St. Mary’s Church of
Gračišće in Istria

Scientific paper

Two unique figurative representations of the mythical Baba – from Grobnik and Gračišće, Croatia – are discussed in this paper. They are
the only ones in figurative form found until today. The author introduces a newly discovered figurative representation of the mythical
Baba in St. Mary’s church in Gračišće, Istria. It is a drawing of a fat old woman accompanied by an inscription written in Gothic Latin
letters that reads Stara Baba Vukoša/Old Baba Vukoša. Contrary to the opinion that this is a sarcastic comment about some fat woman
from Gračišće, it has for the first time been placed and interpreted in a mythological context. In the inscription of Stara Baba Vukoša the
author reveals the well known connection of the Baba with the supreme Proto-Slavic goddess Mokoš, as well as with Mati syra zeml’a/
Damp Mother Earth, the oldest deity in Slavic mythology. On the basis of several indicators discussed in the paper, the author conclu-
des that the drawing of a fat woman, accompanied by this inscription, must have been inscribed into still wet plaster by some infertile
woman, or a woman in need who, having preserved the “old faith”, still in the 15th century prayed for help (also) to the pagan goddess
Mokoš (i.e. the primal goddess Mati syra zeml’a/Damp Mother Earth) in the votive church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the most com-
mon Christian substitute for Mokoš.

Key words: Slavic mythology, Slavic goddess, Mokoš, Baba, Mother Earth, monolith, figurative representation, Istria, Croatia

An increasing number of areas in Croatia are being identified as sites where anbaptized Croats left vestiges of their
most sacred mythical events. In this paper I will focus on the mythical character of the Baba.1 I will address two unique figu-
rative representations of the mythical Baba that I found in Grobnik (in 1994) and in Gračišće (in 2012) in the southwestern
part of Croatia. To my knowledge, they are the only ones in figurative form found until today.

1. Introduction
The first part of this contribution builds upon my previous research on monolithic Babas published in 1995/1996 and
2004. My interest in the topic arose during field-work I conducted on the island of Krk in 1994, in Istria and on the mountain
of Velebit where I found some interesting traditions connected with monolithic amorphous rocks shaped by nature called
Babas. My field research began on the island of Krk in Croatia, one of the most archaic Adriatic islands. Many ancient tra-
ditions still live there, including the legend that I found in connection with all the Baba-stones – the legend of kissing the
Baba. My informants told me about Vela baba/the Great baba in Vela draga and the Baba in Pucunel. The first is a large rock
that looks a bit like a woman in profile, jutting out from a cliff above a chasm. The second Baba was more difficult to locate
because it was not easy to single out among the rocks and dry-stone walls and deserted sheepsteads. The third Baba on
the island of Krk is situated on the way to Baška. My informants told me about the legend that this rock had to be kissed
when someone passed by it for the first time. 2 There is another Baba-monolith on the coastal slope of the mountain of Ve-

1 Besides the meaning old woman/grandmother, Baba in many Slavic languages means also a hag, an ugly old woman.
2 Recently I was informed not only about the need of kissing the Baba-monolith on the way to Baška, but of the need of kissing the wet (!) Baba.

Sacralization of Landscape and Sacred Places, ZIA Vol.10, 2018, 105 –115
 106 Je l k a V ince P a l l u a

lebit, also in Croatia. On a certain day shepherdesses/planinke (Gušić 1973: 14) used to leave fruit or some gift for the Baba
on this rock, or scatter wheat and oil on it for health, good pasture, fertility of earth, livestock and infertile women. 3 Ano-
ther Baba is known as šmrkava Baba/snotty Baba. This is a stone head on a well in Istria. Children were frightened by being
told that they would have to kiss the old woman’s behind (staru babu v rit cekit) when they pass by it for the first time.4
When I began my investigation twenty years ago the Baba was not understood and proven as an aquatic goddess
with water being one of her main aspects so it took me some time and effort to discover that these Baba-stones in most
cases were linked with water in whichever form. Namely, little by little it came out that all “my”5 Babas, except the one on
Velebit, were situated by the water (by wells, streams etc.) and that they all were accompanied by the legend about kissing
the hag/ugly old woman and by the need of donating her fruit, wheat etc. Besides, the attributes wet, slimy, snotty, damp,
mucous, no doubt, also pointed to the element of water and humidity – the precondition for fertility. The aquatic nature
of all “my” Babas is additionally confirmed by the hydronims that I found on Krk: Pucunel from the Italian pozzo, a well and
Potočina that was named after the stream/potok that runs there.

2. The first figur ative representation of the Baba – the Grobnik Baba
I had to ask myself6 what these Baba-stones personify and what the meaning of the mentioned legends and practises
was. After a while I was thrilled to have found the most illustrative answer during my 1994 field-work when I discovered
the first figurative representation of the Baba – a very unique Grobnik Baba near Rijeka (a Croatian town situated at the
meeting-place of Istria and Primorje) which is not an amorphous stone shaped by nature but a grotesque female figure
carved out of live rock with a large head and emphasized feminine attributes (wide hips and big breasts) no doubt symbo-
lizing fertility and abundance. The shape of this unique Grobnik Baba I had in front of me was a crowning confirmation
that “my” amorphous monolithic Babas found on Krk, Velebit and in Istria (with the established omnipresence of water,
as well as the legend about kissing the Baba and donating to her) really do represent the female figure – the female cultic
substrate of fertility and well-being.

Fig. 1 The Grobnik Baba (1994, taken in Grobnik by J. Vince Pallua)

3 I am thankful to M. Trošelj who was born in this region and who recently has certified that it was only women who offered gifts to Baba.
4 For more detailed reading about the field-work on the Babas that chronologically preceded the first figurative discovery of the Baba – the one from
Grobnik, cf. Vince Pallua 1995./96., 2004. Due to that, I am not mentioning here other precious discoveries of Babas that were written about and
interpreted later on and that were found in other areas, especially in Slovenia and in Macedonia. This is going to be done hopefully in the near future.
5 The adjective "my" ("my" Babas) throughout the paper is under quotation marks in the figurative, somehow familiar context as "my" Babas since the
four babas from Istria, Krk and Velebit chronologically, as mentioned in footnote 4, preceded the discovery of the first figurative Baba – the one from
Grobnik. These four Babas provided the reciprocal interpretation of the designated attributes and accompanying rituals associated with them. All
other Babas after the year 1994 when the field-work was carried out, as well as the Babas out of this geographical framework, are not being cited in
the paper since they were not relevant for it. An adjective "my" is used here figuratively likewise an adjective "detective" ("detective" work – footnote
10) and the notions "identity card"/"photo"/"portrait" of the Baba used throughout the article.
6 This research was carried out twenty two years ago at a time when my colleagues were not dealing with this topic so it was quite difficult to answer
such questions and with no internet to make the research easier.
 A Ne w ly D i s c o v e re d F igur at i v e Re p re s e n tat i on o f t he M y t hi c a l B aba – “ Ol d B aba V uko š a” in S t. M a r y ’ s Church of G r a či š će i n I s t ri a
107
Fig. 2 The Grobnik Baba (1994, taken in Grobnik by Z. Barbarić)

I was positive that this really is the same pheno-

menon at the moment when my informants told me
about exactly the same traditions that accompanied
the Grobnik Baba as well. Namely, the Grobnik Baba
must also be kissed when one comes to Grobnik for
the first time and she too is slimy and snotty, also lin-
ked with the ever-present water being situated under
the well with water pouring over her – the precondition
for fertility, as already pointed out. Besides, this Baba,
who has to be kissed too, is situated at the entrance (!)
to the town of Grobnik being Katičić’s “Gazdarica na
vratima”/”Mistress at the Gates”. Radoslav Katičić ga-
ve this name to his book published in 2011 using the
“name” for Mokoš in Latvian women’s songs daine-s –
“Mistress at the Gates” who stands at the crossing point
from one area to another, from the celestial to the ch-
thonic world, from life to death, summer to winter.
In the same context I have presented arguments
to support my thesis that the statue of Eve on the old
town hall in Ljubljana in Slovenia, a symbol of town ad-
ministration, is a Christianized form of “our” Baba (Vince
Pallua 1995/1996: 289). Like the Grobnik Baba, Eve was a genius loci (of Ljubljana), she also had to be kissed when the town
was visited for the first time.7 Besides, there is also the well situated in front of the town hall. It can be said that Eve is also
the “Mistress at the Gates” (of Ljubljana), the Christianized form of that same first mother, great-grandmother, which really
is the main attribute of Eve in Christianity.

3. The second figur ative representation of the Baba – the Baba from Gr a-
čišće in centr al Istria
What I would like to present to you now is my second discovery of the figurative representation of the Baba. It is si-
tuated in “St. Mary’s church on the square”/”Crkva sv. Marije na placu” (in the local idiom “Majka Božja na placu”/”God’s
mother on the square”), in the historical centre of Gračišće in central Istria being one of the most significant examples of
Istrian Gothic sacral architecture built in 1425. In February 2012 I came across an internet page8 with the information that
there is a drawing on a church wall representing a fat woman with long hair accompanied by the inscription Stara Baba
Vukoša written in Gothic Latin letters in the Croatian language. This piece of information was just mentioned without any
interpretation of what it might represent.9 Gračišće, close to Pićan, was the centre of the diocese of Gračišće, the summer
residence of the bishops of Pićan.
Before exploring the matter further, let me first stress that to our mythologists the little town of Gračišće is not an
unknown site within the context of “Sacralisation of landscape and sacred places”, the name of our June 2016 conference
in Zagreb. On the contrary, the 500 meter high plateau Perunčevac close to Gračišće (with mythological Slavic god Perun’s
name in it) has already been recognized (Katičić 2008; Belaj 2009). Recently Radoslav Katičić (2008: 304–305) pointed to
the need of a sacral interpretation of this holy site with Perunčevac situated on the slope abruptly lowering to the water
below, opposite to Dol below it where the chthonic god Veles is seated. He also noticed the opposition of up and down

7 I am refering to it in the past tense since in the 18th century the town hall was destroyed and the statue (made by Janez Lipec, a 15th century sculptor),
although somewhat ruined, was put in the town hall museum and it is still possible to see it today.
8 Available at: http://swirl.bloger.index.hr/default.aspx?tag=gra%E8i%B9%E6e
9 As indicated at the end of the blog, it is taken from Štrk–Snoj 2004: 182.
 108 Je l k a V ince P a l l u a

between Gologorica and Gologorički dol (gora meaning a mountain and Dol the site situated below it). Katičić identified
the nearby Lug as the site of the sacred divine wedding of Perun’s son and daughter. Furthermore, within the Liburnian
system of triangles, Vitomir Belaj and Juraj Belaj dedicated a whole subchapter of their book “Sveti trokuti”/”Holy triangles”
(2014: 173–181) to the so called Middle Istrian triangle positioned in the vicinity of Gračišće and many nearby mythologi-
cally important sacred toponyms.
There is no doubt that the oronym Perunčevac close to Gračišće, like some other toponyms, points to the traces of the
oldest Croatian migration wave in this region. Gračišće was devastated during the outbursts of Avars and Slavs (594–611)
and is mentioned for the first time in the Barban documents in 1199 as Galegnana. Zupanus Drasicha de Galegnana/District
prefect Dražiha of Gračišće is also mentioned there (Milotić 2010: 114–116). The church of St. Mary’s, as already mentioned,
was built in 1425 at the time when Gračišće was one of the wealthiest small towns of the whole county. But, being at the
frontier between the Venetian Republic and the Habsburg Empire the town was destroyed by wars and epidemics so in
the 16th century the Habsburgs populated it by 108 families of refugees from Bosnia, Dalmatia and Lika, as we can read in
a written source left by the bishop of Pićan. He even wrote that these refugees were “in majority ancient Croats”/”mahom
drevni Hrvati” (Regan, Nadilo 2012: 859).
This second discovery – the Baba from Gračišće, is two dimensional, not three dimensional like the one from Grobnik.
It is a drawing of a fat old woman with a big head engraved by a finger or a stick in the wet plaster of the church wall.10
But, what is fascinating about it is that this time we were supplied by the Baba’s, let me call it, “identity card” – her
“photo”/”portrait” as well as her name. Namely, beside the drawing there is an inscription that reads Stara Baba Vukoša/
Old Baba Vukoša, both carved in the 15th century at the time
when the plaster on the wall of St. Mary’s was still fresh, as it
is visible and also testified by the academician and professor
of history of art Branko Fučić (Fučić 1982: 165). Besides, the-
re is another “identity card” left in the wet plaster below the
mentioned inscription – the prints of two palms as an illiterate
person’s signature known from prehistoric times.

Fig. 3 The drawing of Stara Baba Vukoša in St. Mary's church in Gračišće
(2016, taken by I. Žorž)


This graffito is just one among many on the frescoes in
Istrian churches where the faithful left their most intimate, af-
fectionate comments. Fučić managed to find many precious
frescoes and graffiti under the layers of plaster in an innume-
rable number of churches in Istria. He considered the frescoes
to be the “sacred picture-books of the Middle ages for small
illiterate people”, the “sources for ‘small history’” (Fučić 2006:
190). The following fresco from Beram can be used as an illu-
stration. Namely, in the scene where St. Michael steps upon
the devil, Fučić discovered a graffito with strict instructions
of a believer: Udri, Miho!/Hit, Mike! (Fučić 2006: 303). Let us
mention another graffito in Rakotule showing a desperate cry

10 The pursuit for the photograph of Stara Baba Vukoša from Gračišće lasted several years – from 2012 when I started to exchange e-mails with Miroslav
Sinčić, the editor of Franina and Jurina. Namely, it was Maja Štrk-Snoj's merit, the author of the article published in this Istrian almanac (2004: 180–183)
who, among other topics, mentioned and described the figure of Stara Baba Vukoša and who, as it turned out later (also on the basis of her letter to
the editor), sent him the photograph of the Baba which unfortunately was not published and was lost. It couldn't be found either in several institutions
in Rijeka, Pula and Pazin, the ones responsible for the restoration and conservation of cultural monument. Edvilio Gardina, a museological advisor
from the Museum of Koper, a friend of Viktor Snoj, the late husband of Maja Štrk-Snoj, who was working together with Branko Fučić and Viktor Snoj
during the 1983 restoration of the frescoes in St. Mary's, was not able to find this photo either. I would like to thank them all for their kindness and
effort to help me in this "detective" work. Namely, several years ago this church was renovated (as was the square it is situated on) after which the
figure of the Baba became hardly visible. But, Mrs. Štrk-Snoj managed to get an expert photographer, mr. Istog Žorž, to photograph the Baba as best
as possible. I would like to thank them for this too.
 A Ne w ly D i s c o v e re d F igur at i v e Re p re s e n tat i on o f t he M y t hi c a l B aba – “ Ol d B aba V uko š a” in S t. M a r y ’ s Church of G r a či š će i n I s t ri a
109

Fig. 4 The inscription Stara Baba Wchossa in St. Mary’s church in Gračišće
(2016, taken by I. Žorž)

Fig. 5 The author of an article in front of the inscription Stara

baba Wchossa in St. Mary’s church in Gračišće (2016)

aimed at St. Nicholas – Dai meni niki soldin, Miko, tako ti Boga!/Nicholas, for God’s sake, give some penny to me! (Fučić
2006: 308). The graffito in the votive church of St. Mary’s in Gračišće, as we will see, is also the reflection of an intimate and
desperate plea for help. Later we will clearly see what kind of help.
On the epigraphic monument incorporated in the upper right side of the facade of St. Mary’s church in Gračišće we can
find an inscription written in Latin that the church was built and then consecrated on August 5th in 1425 by Gregory, the
bishop of Pićan. It was commissioned by Petar Beračić and built by Dento, a local builder (Fučić 1960: 10).

Some experts and historians of art, mostly Branko Fučić, identified three layers in St. Mary’s church. On the first, the
oldest layer of the plaster, the unpainted one, we can find consecration crosses, a graffito of a 15th century trading ship
and an inscription in Gothic Latin letters in the Croatian language STARA BABA WCHOSSA engraved in the wet plaster. On
the second layer there are some patterns on the blue background. Finally, on the third and youngest layer we can find the
frescoes painted after the church was built (and we know it was in 1425), but before 1437 when on the eastern wall on the
upper red dividing ribbon under the fresco presenting the Adoration of the Magi, the glagolithic graffito of this year was
engraved11 (Fučić 1982: 165–166; Šiklić 2002: 171).
Seeing the evidence about the Baba from Gračišće was quite exciting. When I saw it, I immediately questioned the
interpretation of the inscription Stara Baba Vukoša/Old Baba Vukoša as a “sarcastic comment about some fat woman from
Gračišće” (Fučić 1982: 165; Fučić 2006: 191). I was thrilled to realize that this Middle Istrian inscription Old Baba Vukoša must
in fact be Old baba Mokoša, the supreme goddess Mokoš of the ancient Slavs. Mokoš is the mother of the children of the
Slavic supreme god Perun as the Virgin Mary is the mother of the son of God to whom the church of St. Mary’s in Gračišće
is dedicated – “Majka Božja na placu”/”God’s mother on the square”.12 For, as we know, Virgin Mary is the most common
Christian substitute for the Proto-Slavic goddess Mokoš.
The inscription I had in front of me – Old Baba Vukoša – is a blend of old Baba and Vukoša. Old baba is our Baba, a hag,
11 1437, miseca maja 5. dan. Domenig pop z Boljuna/In 1437, the 5th day of the month of May. Abbot Domenig from Boljun (Fučić 1982: 166). This glagolithic
graffito is one of the testimonies that Gračišće was one of the centres of glagolithic culture and literacy in Istria.
12 Mokoš as the protector of parturient women and the conductor of child-birth appears in fact as the mother (Toporov 2002: 49).
 110 Je l k a V ince P a l l u a

Fig. 6 St. Mary's church in Gračišće – Majka Božja na

placu (2016, taken by J. Vince Pallua)

ugly old woman from the first part of the paper and Vukoša must be Mokoša, goddess Mokoš! But, can Vukoša – writ-
ten with “u” instead of “o” and with “v” instead of “m” – be Mokoš(a)? Katičić mentioned several toponyms and oronyms
which in the sacred Slavic landscape preserved a testament to the Slavic goddess Mokoš: Mukoša – a mountain peak close
to Mostar and a part of the town of Mostar; Mukoš – a peak in Rama valley; Mukušina – a hill in Popovo polje in Eastern
Herzegovina etc. (Katičić 2012: 11). Therefore, Mukoš(a) is a relic form of the oronym dedicated to the Proto-Slavic goddess
Mokoš. But what about the change from “m” to “v”? It is highly possible that the inhabitants of Gračišće, after the passing
of centuries, were not very familiar with the name Mokoša/Mukoša and therefore changed it to Vukoša which was more
articulate to them, being based on the wild animal vuk – the wolf.13 It is not difficult to change the two labial sonants – “m”
to “v”. Besides, not only her name Stara Baba Vukoša, but also the figurative representation of Mokoš with big head, big
breasts and long hair (Toporov 2002: 47, 48) suits the traditional perception of the goddess Mokoš. Let us remember that
our Grobnik Baba also had a very big head, big hips and breasts (cf. Fig. 1 and 2).14
But, there is another more important element connected with the goddess Mokoš that can be found right next to St.
Mary’s church as well as with “my” Babas – the element of water.15 Namely, one meter from its northern wall there is water,
now covered by a stone plate. All my informants16 told me that here the water never dried up (“vajka je bilo vodi”) and that
women used to come to it to fetch water for their laundry, most often on donkeys. As I was informed, this lovely church
had to be often repaired because of a lot of humidity in it, obviously because it was built right by the water. Besides, in the
cellar/konoba of the house that stands closest to the church (where one of my informants lives now), “water was always
coming out”.
13 Giving the names of strong animals to children in order to give them strength is a well known folk practice, therefore also the name Vukoša.
14 I would like to thank my colleague, linguist and etymologist Alemko Gluhak for his retrospective examining of the credibility of such etymology that
he finds "very plausible". His additional contribution to such an etymological derivation is the dual character of both Mokoš and the wolf representing
good and evil.
15 As can be noticed throughout the paper, one of the main reasons why water (and not the two other fundamental forces of nature – sun/fire and
earth also related to the Baba) is mostly mentioned in this article is the fact that the newly discovered Baba of Gračišće, as well as the first one from
Grobnik presented in it, is also situated by the water that never dried up.
16 Four informants: 74, 85, 86 year old women and a 76 year old man (data collected on two different occasions).
 A Ne w ly D i s c o v e re d F igur at i v e Re p re s e n tat i on o f t he M y t hi c a l B aba – “ Ol d B aba V uko š a” in S t. M a r y ’ s Church of G r a či š će i n I s t ri a
111
Fig. 7 Water by St. Mary's church covered by a stone plate (2016, taken by J.
Vince Pallua)

Water/moisture/wetness is the crucial element closely connected

with the great goddess Mokoš whose name is derived from the same
Slavic root *mok-, *mokr- meaning wet/damp/moist. Besides the ap-
parent etymological connection with water, Mokoš, like Baba, stands
close to water, an element so much needed for the fruitfulness of
the agrarian cosmic cycle, but also for infertile women. Both Baba
and Mokoš stand close to water, their wetness is life giving, the pre-
condition of fertility. It is known that Mokoš was believed to be the
protector of female labors, particularly spinning and weaving (with
wool that has to be soaked in water). She stands by the water in the
aquatic area which marks the boundary between the earthly and
otherworldly, between the world of the living and the world of the
dead. Thus, Mokoš is the mistress of the two worlds, she is the “Mis-
tress at the gates”. In Katičić’s book Gazdarica na vratima/Mistress at
the Gates (2011), in the section “Mokra Mokoš na močilu”, we shall find
that the Russian term mokosja means “a woman of easy virtue” and
that wetness associated with a woman is a sign of “slatternliness,”
irresponsible sexual behavior (2011: 209).17 It should be noted that
slatternly, i.e., vulgar, promiscuous behavior is also encountered to
a considerable extent with Baba in the comic play Baba Went Mush-
room Picking that I wrote about several years ago (Vince Pallua 2013: 231–252).
It is a well known fact that after the adoption of Christianity Mokoš most often was superseded by the Virgin Mary. On
the religious holiday of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on August 15th before dawn, women used to make their way
from the city gates to St. Mary’s church on their knees, a custom which was carried out until 1930 (Milićević 2002: 210).
This evidence was confirmed by all my informants: it was always done “early in the morning, when it was still dark so that
people wouldn’t see them”; “they would also make several rounds around the church praying stealthily not to be seen”.
My informants, when asked, could not explain why this was done in secrecy. We can assume that they didn’t want other
people to know about their infertility problems. 18
What is more, in the outer walls of this little church even today we can see the so called “nails of the infertile women”/”čavli
nerotkinja” (mostly on the side of the wall where the drawing of the Baba and her “name” can be found and at the entrance
to the church on the same side19). These have, according to legend, been driven in between the stone blocks of the build-
ing by bare hands in order to cure infertility. The custom with nails existed until the end of the 19th century (Milićević 2002:
210). My informants, as they remember being told either by their mothers, or by the mother-in-law, told me about women
who went kneeling around this church and “drove in the nails with stones”/”zabijale su cveki z’ kamikom”. One of them
stressed that these were not ordinary nails, but ones of great quality, often used for shoeing donkeys, therefore obviously
forged, as is clearly visible.

17 But, already in 1998 V. N. Toporov pointed to such a meaning of this appellative (Toporov 2002: 48, 49).
18 I guess it would not fit the truth to assume that such folk piety, even in modern times, was directed not only to the Virgin Mary, but to some remnant,
vague idea of the former fertility aspect of the pagan female patron. This, of course, would require further investigation.
19 Could this fact also be taken as an indicator that they were directed to her?
 112 Je l k a V ince P a l l u a

Fig. 8 "Nails of the infertile women"/"Čavli nerotkinja" (2016, ta- Fig. 9 "Nails of the infertile women"/"Čavli nerotkinja" (2016, ta-
ken by J. Vince Pallua) ken by J. Vince Pallua)

4. Conclusion
The inscription Old Baba Vukoša was obviously written by a literate person. It is nicely written in calligraphic letters and
not in a hurry and crudely like the figure itself. But, upon more detailed scrutiny two palms as the "signature" of the prayer
are to be found beneath the inscription.
My opinion is that the drawing of Stara Baba Vukoša on the church wall in St. Mary’s church in Gračišće must have been
engraved by some infertile woman, or a woman in need who, having preserved the “old faith”, still in the 15th century
prayed for help (also) to the pagan goddess Mokoš in the votive church dedicated to the Virgin Mary who had substituted
her. We can validly assume that the 15th century Croats must have kept alive the memory of the supreme Proto-Slavic god-
dess Mokoš as a helper and consoler on the very spot where Mokoš was worshipped (by the water) and where in the 15th
century St. Mary’s church was built. It is understandable that it was women who remained especially faithful to the pre-
Christian remnant of the cult of Mokoš since she was their patron.
It has been scientifically proven that the identity of Mati syra zeml’a/Damp Mother Earth, the oldest deity in Slavic my-
thology, later blended into that of Mokoš and the Baba. What is more, we can state that within the phrase Stara Baba
Vukoša/Old Baba Vukoša it is possible to trace Mokoš’s identity blending into that of the Baba.20 Therefore, in the inscription

20 Monika Kropej (2010: 178) mentioned some specific successors of Mokoš: Pehtra/Pehtra Baba, Zlata Baba, St. Lucia, Torka, Četrtka, Petka/St. Paras-
ceve, St. Nedelja, Kvatra etc. On the other hand, Andrej Pleterski in his monumental book Kulturni genom among many other conclusions, assumes
that the name Baba must be the oldest one (2014: 104).
 A Ne w ly D i s c o v e re d F igur at i v e Re p re s e n tat i on o f t he M y t hi c a l B aba – “ Ol d B aba V uko š a” in S t. M a r y ’ s Church of G r a či š će i n I s t ri a
113
Old Baba Vukoša written on the wall of St. Mary’s church in Gračišće both characters – Baba and Mokoš – can be found.
In fact, Mokoš, as well as the Baba, are not real personal names but attributes or appellatives which mark the oldest
deity in Slavic mythology – the mentioned Mati syra zeml’a who shouldn’t be mentioned by name. This principle can also
be found in the inscription STARA BABA VUKOŠA that should also not be understood as a name (which shouldn’t be men-
tioned), but rather as the inscription with three attributes that describe her nature. STARA BABA, the first part of the inscrip-
tion, describes her as being old, very old since she is stara baba/old baba (and both “old” and “baba” denote antiquity).21
She is therefore the first and the oldest mother, the great-grandmother. 22 VUKOŠA, its second part, informs us that the
personality drawn on St. Mary’s is Vukoša/Mukoša/Mokoš(a) and that, like Mati syra zeml’a, she is Mok(r)oša – mokra (wet/
damp) and therefore fertile – she is Mother earth. Let us remember here the discovered element of water as the precondi-
tion for fertility that accompany the Babas on Krk, in Istria and in Grobnik (presented in this article in sections 1 and 2). Their
aquatic nature was revealed not only by the “wet” attributes (slimy, snotty, mucous) that accompany these Babas, but also
by the fact that they are situated by the water – by wells, streams, puddles also reflected by the hydronims like Pucunel and
Potočina (Vince Pallua 1995/1996; 2004). It is clear that also the Stara Baba from Gračišće, like others we were dealing with
before, is linked with the ever present element of water. Namely, St. Mary’s church, as we have seen, also positioned by the
water (cf. Fig. 7), must have been built, as already stressed, on the pre-Christian worshipping spot of Mokoš – by the water
where this Goddess is meant to be.
All the personalities substituting Mokoš like St. Petka, St. Parasceve, Pjatnica etc. are situated by the water. Sergej Tok-
arev testified that Russian women worshipped Pjatnica (the eastern Slav equivalent of St. Petka) as the substitute for Mokoš
in the 20th century (1957: 119–120). Our small group that participated in the 2011 conference in Kosiv, Ukraine, had a chance
to see some of the spots in western Ukraine with such practices even in the 21st century. If it is still going on in the 21st cen-
tury, why shouldn’t it have been possible in the 15th century middle Istria?
On the basis of the “wet” aspect of the Babas, Katja Hrobat Virloget continued with their wet qualification paying a lot
of attention to the connection of the element of water in the form of atmospheric elements with the Baba’s bodily liquids
in context of fertility. On the basis of two very similar testimonies from Kras/Slovenia and from Liguria/Italy (about children
who were told that they kissed the snotty Baba or la vecchia maimunna when they fell to the ground) she came to the im-
portant conclusion that the snotty Baba can be nothing but earth itself (Hrobat Virloget 2010: 220; 2015: 79). In a similar
watery-terrestrial context, in the ninth chapter of her newest book (2012), Emily Lyle connects the story about birth with
the hero who defeats the dragon, thus releasing the waters.23 Expanding the topic, Lyle has argued that “the dragon who
withheld the waters is actually the dragoness who can be identified as the primal goddess, Earth” (2012: 105–107; 2015: 1, 3).
If the Baba can be conceived as the earth itself (Hrobat Virloget 2010: 220; 2015: 79), and if “the dragon who withheld
the waters is actually the dragoness who can be identified with the primal goddess, Earth” (Lyle 2015: 1, 3), then we have
more arguments to say that Baba is the earth itself, the primal goddess – Mati syra zeml’a/Damp Mother Earth.24 Therefore,
the previously mentioned unique “nails of infertile women”/”čavli nerotkinja” (Fig. 8 and 9) can be considered as votive
nails connected with the Baba, the earth itself, like the clay female figurines of similar oblong shape that used to be implan-
ted into the earth for the same purpose – fertility.25
The two Babas from Grobnik and Gračišće are, as far as I know, the only two figurative representations of the Baba
found until today. Besides, the Baba from Gračišće is the only one introduced to us by her “identity card” – her “photo”
and her signed name. Contrary to the opinion that Old Baba Vukoša is a sarcastic comment about some fat woman from
Gračišće, this figure, accompanied by the inscription in Gothic Latin letters, has for the first time been placed and interpre-
ted in a mythological context. In St. Mary’s church we didn’t get just the Baba’s “identity card”, as I have called it – with her

21 Suzana Marjanić (2002: 193) wrote about Natko Nodilo's perception (already at the end of the 19 th century) of the teonym Baba which should personify
the aged aspect of the Great Goddess. Since it is not relevant in the context of this inscription and the drawing of our Old Baba Vukoša, the Baba's
other, young aspect is not mentioned and discussed in this paper. Much has been written about this young aspect of the Baba. It is known that the
old Slavic deity Mokoš and her daughter, the young goddess Živa, whose name in Slovene folklore is often Vesna or Marjetica (Margaret) or Deva
(Virgin), are Slavic parallels of the Indo-European old and young goddesses examined by Emily Lyle in 2007 (Kropej 2012: 57).
22 Cf. at the end of the section 2 of this article the paragraph about the statue of Eve on the town hall in Ljubljana as a Christianized form of “our” Baba,
Eve being the great-grandmother, her main attribute in Christianity.
23 In the article published in 2012, but not in the book published in 2015, Lyle includes the well known research of Radoslav Katičić about the Slavic
mythology motive – the golden key which in the spring opens the earth, as well as about St. George who, with his sword, strikes off the dragon's head
thus opening the fertile period of the year. (Lyle 2015: 5).
24 In such a case the already mentioned Pleterski's assumption that the name Baba must be the oldest one (cf. footnote 21) would be correct.
25 Let me mention the similar folk practise of scratching the church walls of the Blessed Virgin in Kloštar/Blažena djevica Marija u Kloštru near Kobaš in
Slavonia. Namely, if a believer takes a piece of this holy place, as it is believed, he is protected by the Virgin Mary for the whole year (Vuković 2010:
287)
 114 Je l k a V ince P a l l u a

“photo” and name – but we even got the information when this “identity card” was edited, engraved into the fresh first
layer of the plaster – in the year 1425. Therefore, on the basis of quite a few indicators discussed in this article, we can state,
let us repeat, that the 15th century Croats in Istria must have kept alive the memory of the supreme Proto-Slavic goddess
Mokoš as a helper and consoler on the very spot where Mokoš was worshipped and where in the 15th century St. Mary’s
church was built. Besides, it can be stated that the Baba from Gračišće, after the first one from Grobnik, is the second dis-
covered figurative representation of the Baba and is the oldest dated Baba.26

Jelka Vince Pallua

Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar
Marulićev trg 19
HR-10000 Zagreb
jelka.vince@pilar.hr

26 Recently, on the basis of the written reference in 1703, another dated Baba was discovered by the historian Aleksander Panjek. On a map from the
Vienna Archives drawn at the end of the16th century (the one from 1703 is its copy), he found the Baba drawn as a pillar, also a monolith, under the
village of Tinjan near Pazin (Hrobat Virloget 2015: 59). So, the two Babas were found quite close to Pazin – the heart of Istria, both being quite old.
 A Ne w ly D i s c o v e re d F igur at i v e Re p re s e n tat i on o f t he M y t hi c a l B aba – “ Ol d B aba V uko š a” in S t. M a r y ’ s Church of G r a či š će i n I s t ri a
115
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Belaj, V. 2007, Hod kroz godinu. Pokušaj rekonstrukcije Myth and Folktales, Scientific Research Centre of the
prahrvatskoga mitskoga svjetonazora, 2. izmijenjeno Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana.
i dopunjeno izdanje, Golden marketing-Tehnička Lyle, E. 2012, Ten Gods. A new Approach to Defining the
knjiga, Zagreb. Mythological Structures of the Indo-Europeans,
Belaj, V. 2009. Poganski bogovi i njihovi kršćanski sup- Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon
stituti, Studia ethnologica Croatica, Vol. 21, 169–197. Tyne.
Belaj, V., Belaj, J. 2014, Sveti trokuti. Topografija hrvatske Lyle, E. 2015, The Hero Who Releases the Waters and
mitologije, Ibis grafika, Institut za arheologiju, Ma- Defeats the Flood Dragon, Comparative Mythology,
tica hrvatska, Zagreb. Vol. 1, Issue 1, 1–12.
Fučić, B. 1960, Petar Beračić “Fundator” u Gračišću, Bul- Marjanić, S. 2002, (Dijadna) boginja i duoteizam u Nodi-
letin Instituta za likovne umjetnosti JAZU, god. VIII, lovoj Staroj vjeri Srba i Hrvata, Narodna umjetnost,
br. 1, Babić Lj. (ed.), 8–11. Vol. 39/2, 175–198.
Fučić, B. 1982, Glagoljski natpisi, Djela JAZU, knj. 57, Za- Milićević, J. 2002, Liječenje na Gračašćini vjerom i pra-
greb. znovjerjem, Gračaški zbornik, Knjižnica Acta, Skup-
Fučić, B. 2006, Iz istarske spomeničke baštine, Knjiga 12, ština udruga Matice hrvatske Istarske županije, Po-
Hekman J. (ed.), Matica hrvatska, Zagreb. glavarstvo općine Pazin, Pazin, 203–212.
Gušić, B. 1973. Naseljenje Like do Turaka, Lika u prošlosti Milotić, I. 2010, Crkva u Istri – povijesna i kulturna bašti-
i sadašnjosti, Karlovac, 13–63. na, Josip Turčinović d.o.o., Biskupija Porečka i Pul-
Hrobat, K. 2010, Ko Baba dvigne krilo: prostor in čas v fol- ska, Pazin-Poreč, 114–119.
klori Krasa, Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozof- Pleterski, A. 2014, Kulturni genom. Prostor in njegovi ide-
ske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, Ljubljana. ogrami mitične zgodbe, Studia Mythologica Slavica
Hrobat, K. 2013, The Snotty Baba in the Landscape of – Supplementa 10, Založba ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana.
Karst, Slovenia: About a Slavic Ambivalent Female Regan, K., Nadilo, B. 2012, Iz povijesti graditeljstva.
Mythical Figure, Cosmos, Vol. 29, 141–171. Istarski kašteli. Kašteli južno od Pazina, Građevinar,
Hrobat, K. 2015, Mitska krajina Gropade v okviru ustnega Vol. 64, No. 10, 851–861.
izročila na Krasu in širše, in: Nesnovna krajina Kras. Šiklić, J. 2002, Crkve u Gračišću, Gračaški zbornik,
Hrobat Virloget K., Kavrečič P. (eds.), Založba Uni- Skupština udruga Matice hrvatske Istarske županije,
verze na Primorskem, Koper, 69–84. Poglavarstvo općine Pazin, Pazin, 161–177.
Katičić, R. 2008, Božanski boj. Tragovima svetih pjesama Štrk Snoj, M. 2004, Priča koja se mogla dogoditi, Franina
naše pretkršćanske starine, Katedra Čakavskog sa- i Jurina, istarski kalendar za 2004. godinu, Repre-
bora Općine Mošćenička Draga, Odsjek za etnolo- zent, Račice, 180–183.
giju i kulturnu antropologiju Filozofskog fakulteta Toporov, V. N. 2002 [1998], Predzgodovina književnosti pri
Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Ibis grafika, Zagreb–Mošće- Slovanih. Poskus rekonstrukcije (Uvod v preučevanje
nička Draga. zgodovine slovanskih književnosti), Zupaničeva
Katičić, R. 2011, Gazdarica na vratima. Tragovima svetih knjižnica 9, Ljubljana.
pjesama naše pretkršćanske starine, Matica hrvatska, Vince Pallua, J. 1995./1996, History and Legend in Stone
Katedra Čakavskog sabora Općine Mošćenička Dra- – to Kiss the Baba, Studia ethnologica Croatica, Vol.
ga, Ibis grafika, Zagreb–Mošćenička Draga. 7/8, 281–292.
Katičić, R. 2012, Gospa međugorska i mokra Mokoš, Vince Pallua, J. 2004, Vlažni monoliti babe – ženski kultni
Ethnologica Dalmatica, Vol 19, (Kult velike majke i supstrat plodnosti i blagostanja, in: Žene u Hrvatskoj
štovanje majke Božje), Zagreb, 9–19. – Ženska i kulturna povijest, Feldman A. (ed.), Insti-
Klen, D. 1960, Iz prošlosti Gračišća, Bulletin Instituta za tut Vlado Gotovac i Ženska infoteka, Zagreb, 21–32.
likovne umjetnosti JAZU, god. VIII, br. 1, Babić Lj. Vince Pallua, J. 2011, “Baba gljive brala” – međimurska
(ed.), 1–8. svadbena dramska igra kao izvor i put do svetosti
Kropej, M. 2010, From Tradition to Contemporary Belief praslavenskoga svadbenoga obreda, Studia ethno-
Tales: The “Changing Life” of Some Slovenian Su- logica Croatica, Vol. 25, 231–252.
pernatural Beings from the Annual Cycle, Studia Vuković, M. 2010, Pučka pobožnost u svetištu Blažene
Mythologica Slavica, Vol. XIIII., 171–185. djevice Marije u nebo uznesene, u Kloštru kod
Kropej, M. 2012. Supernatural Beings from Slovenian Kobaša, Etnološka istraživanja, Vol. 15, 285–298.

ONLINE SOURCES
Moja Istra, Cvergla blog, http://swirl.bloger.index.hr/defa- ht t p://w w w.najboljeu h r vat skoj.i n fo/ideje/pr i nt .
ult.aspx?tag=gra%E8i%B9%E6e (12 February 2012) php?ID=1084 (3 August 2016)
116