Mirila

Mirila are connected to funeral customs of residents in the coastal side of Velebit from the 17^th to the 20^th century. They spent their summers boarding cattle in the high pastures and during that period they would have to transfer their deceased from the hillsides to the cemeteries. The deceased would be laid on the ground in a specific place which was the place for the final farewell with the Sun. A mirilo would be constructed in that place. It was a measurement (mira in Croatian) of the deceased marked with a stone at the place of the head and another one at the place of the feet, tessellations in between them and symbols in a shallow engraved relief of the headstone.

Mirila were a cult of the deceased and that made them more important than cemeteries where the body would be buried. It was thought that the grave only had the body without the soul and that the soul remained on the location of the mirilo.

Close to the village Ljubotić (northwest from Starigrad-Paklenica) there is an educational path that includes six locations of mirilo. The path is 5 km long. Each of the locations contributes to the legend of this unique tradition with imagery and story.