Largely a copy of the Gračanica monastery in Kosovo, it was completed in 2000. The monastery is located above the city, on the historic Crkvina Hill, and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.[1] Crkvina Hill has expansive views of Trebinje, with city walls and bridges alongside the Trebišnjica River, and has been a place of pilgrimage throughout the ages. At the current site of Hercegovacka Gračanica once was the church of St. Michael, the medieval endowment of King Milutin.[2]
Hercegovačka Gračanica was built according to the last wish of the prominent poet and diplomat Jovan Dučić (1871-1943), who wanted to be buried on a hill above Trebinje in a church like "one in Kosovo".[3] Dučić's relics were transferred from Illinois to Hercegovačka Gračanica in 2000.[4]
