The "Eljdan" family tree

The small settlement of Vranjače was first mentioned as an independent place in the register of souls of the Roško Polje parish in 1891. Written evidence of ownership exists since the introduction of the land registry system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, more precisely since the creation of the cadastral maps in 1883. In 1968, the cadastral municipality of Vranjače was officially established as part of the municipal cadastre – with a total area of ​​14.26 square kilometers.

Vranjače consists of four hamlet groups: Trogrlići, Prke, Šarići (formerly Šarić-Bilići), and Šapine. These form a coherent geographical unit, idyllically situated at the foot of the Zavelim Mountains, at approximately 900 meters above sea level. In terms of language, mentality, dialect, culture, customs, and way of life, the people here are very similar to those from the Dalmatian Zagora, especially the Studenci area.

This is no coincidence: the three oldest family names – Prke, Trogrlići, and Šarići – actually originate from Studenci. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, cattle breeders from this region settled in Vranjače. Initially, they only came during the summer months to use the highlands as grazing land, but always returned to their hometowns in the winter. Only much later did some families become permanent residents, selling their land in Studenci only in the 1960s.

For many decades, Vranjače was virtually cut off from the outside world. The first electric lightbulb didn’t shine here until 1978 – a clear symbol of the neglect of this remote place. As much as people loved their homeland, they were increasingly forced to emigrate. The largest wave of emigration began in the early 1970s.

Today, the largest community of former Vranjačani lives in the city of Bjelovar, followed by Koprivnica, Đakovo, Osijek, Zagreb, Split, and other Croatian cities – but their descendants have also settled in numerous European countries.

The reasons for the decades of neglect of this region also lie in the traumatic history of the 20th century. During World War II, many young men from Vranjače remained loyal to their Croatian nation and homeland. Numerous of them paid for their commitment with their lives – by bullets, in mass graves, under grenades, or on the painful journey across Bleiburg.

And yet, this deep connection to their homeland lives on to this day – in the few who have remained, as well as in those who have long since moved far away but have never severed their ties to Vranjače. They are all united by the wish that the place will not be forgotten, that life here will not come to a standstill.

For it should never be recorded in the chronicles:

“There was once a Vranjače, somewhere high above, far away, somewhere in the middle of nowhere…”