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Gothic lintel from the Royal Court at Bobovac

  • arheologija srednji vijek gotički natprozornik


The upper palace of the royal court at Bobovac, a rectangular building 19 metres long and 5.6 metres wide, contained a small court chapel and had large two- and three-mullioned windows. Among the decorative sculpture from the palace, especially interesting is the section of the lintel, which features the following: a transenna (a perforated sheet of stone used to shut windowsor gate fences, usually a geometric, plant-shaped, or animal-shaped ornament), a part of a gothic arch, and a relief ornament of a stylised Bosnian crown superimposed on the Gothic letter R, formed out of a voluptuous ribbon.

The combination of the letter R and the crown is unique among the known mediaeval Bosnian heraldic motifs. On the other hand, the fleur-de-lis crown itself is a standard motif, which has many known parallels in heraldic depictions on coins, seals, and architectural sculpture. As a rule, all of these depictions are connected to the ruling dynasty whose rulers bore the title of king, not Ban, from 1377 onwards.


Materials and technique:

This artefact can seen in the Archaeology Pavilion as part of the exhibition Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Middle Ages.
  • arheologija srednji vijek gotički natprozornik