The Franciscan Monastery in Humac is home to the oldest museum in Bosnia and Herzegovina, established in 1884. This historic museum proudly displays the Humac Stone Tablet from the 12th century, the oldest preserved monument written in Croatian, featuring a blend of Glagolitic and Old Croatian Cyrillic scripts.
Thanks to the diligent efforts of numerous Franciscans and generous donations from the local population, the museum’s collection has grown significantly over the years. This expansion necessitated new premises for the archaeological collection, leading to the establishment of the current museum exhibition in 2003. This exhibition is located in the basement of the St. Anthony of Padua Monastery on Humac.
The museum boasts a vast array of archaeological material collected from the wider Herzegovina region, spanning nearly 16,000 years. The exhibits are divided into prehistoric, ancient, and medieval sections, offering visitors a comprehensive journey through time. The monastery courtyard also features a lapidary, showcasing an impressive collection of stone monuments.
The Ljubuški region is particularly rich in Roman artifacts, with 70 Roman monuments discovered in the area. The majority of these are tombstones (stelae) belonging to veterans and soldiers from various legionary and auxiliary units. Among the museum’s highlights is the Humac Stone Tablet, the oldest Cyrillic-Glagolitic monument. This tablet recounts the restoration of the Church of the Archangel Michael in the 11th and 12th centuries and is celebrated as the oldest written monument of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
