Early history
To the east of Me?ugorje in the Neretva valley, the Serbian Orthodox �itomisli? Monastery has stood since 1566. Gravestones erected in the Middle Ages have remained to this day in the Catholic cemetery Groblje Srebrenica in the hamlet of Miletina as well as in the hamlet of Vionica. In the area of the cemetery in Miletina, structures from the Roman era stood, whose ruins have not yet been fully excavated.
19th and early 20th century
In 1882 the railroad line between Mostar and the Adriatic coast of Dalmatia was built, with a station in the hamlet of �urmanci, through which the village gained access to rail transport.
The Catholic parish of Sveti Jakov ("Saint James") was erected in 1892 by the Bishop of Mostar Pa�kal Buconji?. The twelve-meter tall crucifix on the mountain called Kri�evac (Cross Mountain), completing the parish's Stations of the Cross (kri�ni put), was completed in 1934.
Second World War
In 1941, when Me?ugorje belonged to the Independent State of Croatia, the �itomisli? Monastery was plundered by the Ustasha, and its refectory was burned down.
On June 21, 1941, members of the Ustasha committed a massacre in the hamlet of �urmanci against 559 Serb civilians, which led Mostar bishop Alojzije Mi�i? to write a letter of protest to the Archbishop of Zagreb Aloysius Stepinac. The Communist government of Yugoslavia had the pit containing the bodies sealed with a concrete slab; hence they were only exhumed and reburied at the cemetery of Prebilovci in the neighboring town of ?apljina in 1989.
Development of the pilgrimage site
On June 24, 1981, reports began of Marian apparitions on Crnica hill in the Bijakovi?i hamlet, and shortly thereafter confrontations with Yugoslav state authorities began. Pilgrims' donations were seized by the police and access to what was called the Apparition Hill was largely blocked.
In October 1981, Jozo Zovko, then the
