Nevistina stina (Bride’s cliff)

Legend has it that there was once a great love between a young girl and a young man who were fatally turned to stone at Nevista. The Nevistina stina is a passage which was once was the only connection between the Littoral and the Biokovo hinterland and it is also a beautiful viewpoint.

According to the legend, a young girl from the “upper” parts, probably from Dalmatia hinterland, was intended to marry in the Littoral area. Her mother was against this love but above all, was against her daughter’s decision to marry someone not chosen by her family. Perhaps the problem lay in the fact that the young man was from the Littoral region and as such from a poor area!? In any case , the mother sent her daughter away with the following words: When you look at the sea, hope that God turns you into stone! Despite those terrible words, the bridal procession moved, led by the bridegroom and the bride on horseback, and she had not even hinted at the strength of her mother’s curse. But, when the happy group arrived at the peak of the mountain above Brela, the curse came true. Proof can be seen in the stones in the form of a horse with a bride and bridegroom on it, a loaf of bread and goatskin bottles. If you look more carefully, you can see the bride’s veil which at that moment the wind drew away from her head. You can also see the wedding guests who followed them, perhaps it is a little more difficult now if you aren’t sure what you are looking for, as over the years a thick pine wood has grown around them..

Text Author: Vanja Sokol

Photographs: Brela Tourist Board