Letters from Muć: How a Fearless Priest Wrote Croatian History

The Branimir Inscription

In the history of Croatian archaeology, few figures are as distinctive, passionate, and yet overlooked as Don Mijo Jerko Granić (Split, October 1, 1819 – Split, December 29, 1886), parish priest of Muć and member of the People’s Party (narodnjak). At a time when late 19th-century European science was only beginning to catch up with systematic research, in the remote village of Gornji Muć—the site of ancient Andetrium—a man with a pickaxe in one hand and a pen in the other was writing pioneering chapters of early medieval Croatian and classical archaeology.

Thanks to the preserved correspondence he maintained with Don Šime Ljubić, director of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb (which is kept at the museum to this day), a time capsule has been opened for us. Written between 1872 and 1886, these letters do not merely testify to sensational discoveries—such as the inscription of the Croatian Duke Branimir from 888 AD—but also bring us, in vivid, almost cinematic detail, the daily life of a rural parish priest torn between a love for antiquity, a struggle with poverty, harsh working conditions, and frequent conflicts with local villagers and rival museums.

From the Sacristy to a Global Sensation: The Discovery That Defined an Era

In 1869, Don Mijo was appointed parish priest in Gornji Muć. As the existing Church of St. Peter was too small, he initiated work on its expansion and addition in 1871. It was during the digging of the foundations for the sacristy, at a depth of two meters, that a miracle occurred—an architrave bearing a dated inscription of the Croatian Duke Branimir from the year 888 was discovered.

This artifact—the oldest dated monument of any Slavic nation—catapulted Muć into the spotlight of the contemporary political and cultural scene. As a staunch supporter of the People’s Party, Don Mijo decided to send Branimir’s inscription to the National Museum in Zagreb rather than to Split, thereby turning it into a cornerstone of Zagreb’s museum pride.

However, the excavations did not stop there. Powered by his own enthusiasm and modest resources, Don Mijo continued to dig up surrounding sites, most notably the rich “Grudine na Dobreču.”

Dramatic Moments from the Field: From the Journal of the Muć Excavator

That excavations in the Dalmatian Hinterland (Dalmatinska zagora) were anything but simple is demonstrated by excerpts from his letters, in which he describes the thrill of discovery alongside immense obstacles posed by landowners and weather conditions.

In a letter dated May 10, 1883, Don Mijo excitedly details the discovery of a monumental tombstone:

“When we turned it over, it was quite a sight to behold. A tombstone 2.42 meters high, 0.91 wide, and 0.32 thick, divided into two frames… On the upper one, two statues, male and female, their heads deeply carved, not naked but clothed… On the lower frame is the following inscription written in fine and regular letters: SER·ENNIVS·SER· CLAVDIA·FVSCVS DOMO·CEMENELI MILES·COH·VIII VOL…”

In the same letter, he describes the harder side of archaeological work—an untamed enthusiasm colliding with the reality of peasants and private property:

“Today I went there again to inspect both the slab and the inscription better, and I walked around all the heaps of piled-up ruins, and could not help but cry out: where is the money to reveal what still lies buried and hidden here! A young man was plowing on a nearby field, and he tells me: right here this morning my plow got stuck; after digging a bit with a mattock, I found a wall heading north…”

Struggles with land owners and villagers sometimes escalated to the brink of open conflict, as poignantly attested by a postcard from July 3, 1883:

“Yesterday I had ten laborers and good and fine things would have been found, but in the afternoon the owner’s brother arrived at that field, set upon him and the laborers with such threats, swearing, and coarse insults, and even smashing the excavated slabs, causing the laborers to abandon the digging and scatter everywhere. I have sued him in court and am waiting to see how the matter turns out.”

A Numismatic Paradise, Roman Pipes, and Feuds Between Museums

In his letters, Don Mijo logs an amazingly rich yield of finds: from thirty meters of lead pipes belonging to a Roman aqueduct and bathhouse, to a handful of ancient coins (Roman, Venetian, Turkish, and even Prussian and French), all the way to precious delicate jewelry, small glass vessels, bronze statuettes (such as one he believed to be Mercury), and ancient engraved gems (intaglios), which in quantity were second in the museum only to those from Salona.

However, pressure from all sides began to take a toll on his health. He found himself caught in the crossfire between Zagreb and Split. The museum in Zagreb demanded an accounting for every penny (forta) and insisted that all materials be sent to the capital, while local Split circles (with references to Don Frane Bulić) put pressure on him to keep the heritage in Dalmatia.

In a letter dated April 26, 1886, with his health severely failing, Don Mijo wrote bitterly and with a sense of resignation to Don Šime Ljubić:

“My health, too, has been poor for two years now, and I still cannot obtain an assistant as prescribed by law and justice! You complain about what I send to the Split museum, while Bulić complains about what I send to the museum in Zagreb! The heavy stone monuments are not suited for the latter. As for that mirror, I gifted it back many years ago, and Bulić does not mention it. It is truly a rarity, and back then I did not know its value; now I would not part with it except for a handsome sum of money.”

Epilogue: A Spirit That Outlived Time

Don Mijo Jerko Granić passed away on December 29, 1886, in Split, at the age of 67. His letters remain a testament to an era when science was forged with bare hands, sheer passion, and superhuman resolve.

Although many of his collections remained swept under the rug of history after his death—divided among museums or lost in private hands—his contribution remains undisputed. Beneath its meadows, Gornji Muć still guards the secrets of Roman Andetrium and early Croatian dukes, while the spirit of Don Mijo Jerko Granić lives on in every line of his yellowed, heartfelt letters, in which he celebrated the history of his homeland with such profound passion.