Liznjan it's a village not far from my hometown. Only about three kilometers. With new buildings getting raised in between the two, it's only a matter of time when Liznjan and Medulin, my hometown, will become one urban area. This little overture about the distance isn't directly connected to what follows and to the main theme of the post. It's here only to show how close and familiar this village, Liznjan, is to me ...
... and how surprised I was a couple of days ago, to find there something that not only I never saw, but also never knew existed ...
... an old cemetery in the middle of a neighborhood not far from the old center of Liznjan.
The only Liznjan's cemetery that I knew about and visited on quite a few occasions, is on the outskirts of the village. That's the one that is still in use.
This old one, situated on the top of the small hill ...
... and surrounded by houses ...
... was a great surprise.
Some days ago, two, three, or four, don't remember exactly, I encountered a fisherman from Liznjan that I didn't know well.
I knew only that is a fisherman, and that lives somewhere in Liznjan. I saw him in the bar near the port of my hometown. We were the only customers, and so we started chatting. At one point he said that has some fresh fish that would like to sell at a very favorable price, and I decided to buy. We finished our drinks and drove to Liznjan ...
... to his neighborhood near the old cemetery.
On many occasions, and when I say many, that means at least a hundred, I was very close to this graveyard. But never close enough to see it.
There is a small grocery store nearby. Only about fifty meters from there.
I can't tell you much about the history of this place. I never heard anybody mentioning it ...
... and I found nothing about it on the Internet. No photographs. Not a single article. Nothing. I can only talk about what I saw. I saw ad example that only a couple of graves have been recently embellished with flowers.
Many tombstones were very old and had shapes that I never see on contemporary burial grounds in this area.
I visited the cemetery on two occasions that same day to get the photographs for this post. On my first visit, I photographed these two interesting old gravestones, but they were lit in a way that didn't show the reliefs on them
So I returned later. Now the shapes were visible on the photograph.
A skull with two crossed bones was sculpted on one of those stones. That's a motif that I rarely see in graveyards. Angels, books, Jesus figures, flowers, and doves are common. Bones are always real, and well hidden down in the ground.
I saw only one Jesus in the whole graveyard, and that sculpture looked very old. Not only in the type and texture of the stone, but in the shape and design of the figure as well.
This obelisk is also very peculiar. I never saw anything like it in the graveyards of the small towns and villages in this area.
The springtime is near, and many blue flowers appeared around some graves.
These are the Common hyacint flowers (Hyacinthus orientalis). This plant is native to southwestern Asia, southern and central Turkey, northwestern Syria, Lebanon, and northern Israel. It was introduced to Europe in the 16th century.
In some places, the flowers appeared along the vague contours of some old, barely visible graves.
In this photograph, you can see the small gate of the cemetery.
On some graves the flowers were artificial. In this case, they were in the vase, while in the following photograph ...
... you can see a bouquet laid on the ground, surrounded by a couple of stones that mark some old grave without the cross or tombstone.
Here you can see similar flowers ...
... on one of the biggest memorial stones in the small graveyard.
The crosses were relatively varied ...
... although more in shape than in size. Here you can see a modest but elegant one.
Here you can see a very short and thick one. Painted with the appropriate color, it would look like a red cross logo.
This simple one was one of the most interesting.
It's made of two pieces of metal that look like something that's used in a garage or in the repair shop.
This old, rusted one has a pretty interesting design.
This is one of only two or three gravestones with a photograph. And it's a very old and interesting photograph.
The grave in this photograph looks like a part of the tall cypress tree behind it.
Here you can see a simple wooden cross surrounded by juicy foliage.
AND THAT'S IT. AS ALWAYS IN THESE POSTS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK - THE END.