Pločasti most (The Slab Bridge)

Although we are among the last in Europe when it comes to waste sorting, the people of our region have a long tradition of “recycling.” When a building went unused for a certain time — whether it was some old Roman camp, an Illyrian fort or a fortress from the Middle Ages — someone would very quickly come up with an idea and use the material from that structure (mostly stone) to build a family house, a dry-stone wall, or whatever need happened to arise at that moment. And if people judged that a building could be put to use as it was, they would simply move into it, as, for example, into Diocletian’s Palace in Split.

And while in some cases the scales of a decision’s correctness tip more towards the justification of pragmatism than towards the questionable morality of the act — especially in times when an awareness of preserving cultural heritage could hardly be expected — the same could hardly be said of the Pločasti most (the “Slab Bridge”). The use of gravestones as building material for a bridge does indeed flirt with questionable morality, even though the institutionalised desecration of graves in the form of archaeological activity is nothing strange to our society at all.

Be that as it may, this is an interesting style of construction that also appears in some other places around the Pločasti most.

The bridge is located near the source of the Cetina, and if you set off south from the Church of St. Saviour, the road will surely bring you to the Pločasti most. The bridge, or rather its remains, is surrounded by beautiful nature, but also by a distinctive architectural expression on the hill on the other side of the river. It has not been in use since the Second World War, and a concrete bridge, which is used today, was built next to it.

On the approach to the bridge, some children rode past on horses. Trail riding through this region must be a superb experience. This whole area has enormous tourist potential.

At one moment, the view across the field towards Dinara, the rustle of the leaves in the treetops, the peace and the energy this place radiated at that moment, evoked memories and emotions from childhood that had been stored away long ago. True, those locations from memory are some hundred kilometres away, but this is that same landscape.