The pretty and unspoilt shoreline at Zaostrog is graced with the harmonious form of a large monastery with considerable historical and cultural significance. It was home to Andrija Kačić-Miošić, the friar, philosopher, teacher and poet from nearby Brist for most of his life – he is buried in the church here. The monastery in Zaostrog was originally founded in the 13th century by a community of Hermits of St. Augustine who left in the face of Turkish invasions. A Franciscan community, itself displaced from Bosnia, settled in the abandoned building in 1468 and are still there today (not the same ones, of course). They worked hard to expand and rebuild their monastery when fate deemed it necessary, building a library that now has over 20,000 volumes, and running schools and a seminary for over five centuries. Today there is an excellent museum here, which, apart from the library, holds ethnographic and liturgical collections, an archive that includes valuable Turkish documentation, and a gallery of works by local artist Mladen Veža.
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