“Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment."
Ansel Adams .
Međugorje or Medjugorje, is a town located in the Herzegovina region of western Bosnia and Herzegovina, around 25 km southwest of Mostar and close to the border of Croatia. The name Međugorje literally means "between mountains". At an altitude of 200 m above sea level it has a mild Mediterranean climate. The town consists of an ethnically homogeneous Croat population of over 4,000.
The town is part of the municipality of Čitluk. Since 1981, it has become a popular site of religious pilgrimage due to reports of apparitions of the Virgin Mary to six local Catholics. What they believe they saw was a manifestation of the Holy Virgin ("Our Lady of Medjugorje" or "Our Lady Queen of Peace").
As a result, this formerly poor wine-making backwater has been utterly transformed into a bustling Catholic pilgrimage centre and continues to grow even though Rome has not officially acknowledged the visions' legitimacy.
Today Međugorje has a blend of honest faith and cash-in tackiness that is reminiscent of Lourdes (France) or Fatima (Portugal) but there's little of beauty here and nonpilgrims generally find a one-hour visit ample to get the idea. Međugorje has turned into Europe's third most important apparition site, where each year more than 1 million people visit.
The town's focus is double-towered 1969 St James' Church. In a garden 200m behind that, the mesmerising Resurrected Saviour is a masterpiece of contemporary sculpture showing a 5m-tall metallic Christ standing crucified yet cross-less, his manhood wrapped in scripture. At times the statue's right knee 'miraculously' weeps a colourless liquid.
