Grebnice, a name that simply means something like grave-stones, is a field of stećci near Bileća in eastern Herzegovina. These are the massive carved tombstones of medieval Bosnia and its neighbours, cut from local limestone between roughly the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, shaped like chests, slabs or little houses with gabled roofs, and sometimes covered with spirals, rosettes, swords, shields and dancing figures. UNESCO listed a selection of the most important sites together in 2016, and the necropolis here is one of the eastern Herzegovinian groups. Standing among them on a still afternoon, with the grass grown up around the stones, is a strangely moving experience.
Bileća is a town of some thirteen thousand on the edge of a large reservoir, the Bilećko jezero, created when the Trebišnjica river was dammed in the 1960s. The lake is long and blue-green, set in a landscape of bare grey karst and scrubby oak, and in summer people swim from its shores. Further south, the Trebišnjica flows toward Trebinje, a pleasant town with plane trees, a stone bridge from the Ottoman period and a Serbian Orthodox monastery, Tvrdoš, known for its wine cellars. The local wines, from the dark Vranac grape and the white Žilavka, are good and inexpensive.
The riding in eastern Herzegovina is a revelation for those who have only ridden along the Croatian coast. The roads climb from the coast through karst plateaus and across deep valleys, with long open bends, very little traffic and wide views. Surfaces are generally decent on main routes, more uneven on minor ones, and the heat in summer can be fierce, radiating off the white rock. The bora, a cold, gusty wind, blows in winter. Expect livestock, slow trucks and occasional police checks.
Bileća has fuel, shops and cafés; Trebinje, about twenty-five kilometres away, has a larger choice and a lively market. Herzegovinian food includes smoked ham, cheese preserved in a sheepskin, lamb roasted under a metal bell and cevapi, small grilled sausages served with onions and flatbread. If you visit the stećci, walk carefully, as the ground can be uneven and full of thorny plants. Look closely at the decorations, and notice how different each stone is, as if the carvers wanted every grave to tell its own story.