10.19170/eebs.2019.43.2.33

“Mirilo”, which is widely scattered around the Velebit mountain area of Croatia, is not likely to be a unique cultural heritage of the Croatian people in terms of historical and cultural history, but rather it seems reasonable to understand it as a result of the Balkans’ cultural dissemination and acceptance. In this paper, we start from the two meanings of the term “Mirilo”, and look at geographical and geological conditions that enable such cultural heritage, similar stone tomb patterns found in other Balkans, and patterns of decoration and patterns carved on “Mirilo”.But Croatia’s Mirilo, looking at in this paper, has a unique feature that is distinct from the stecak, another stone tomb form which was found in the neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina region, and in that unique characteristic is the customary stance on the life and death of the Croatian people, as well as a unique view of the world to the living and the dead.The value of “Mirilo” as a tangible and intangible cultural heritage, as well as from a folklore point of view, is a useful source of confirmation of the life and death aspects of the Croatian people during the period from the 17th century to the 20th century.