Cypresses, the slender trees known by their Latin name Cupressus sempervirens, grow throughout the Mediterranean. We find them in the landscape either standing alone or in small clusters, most often near cemeteries. Depending on their habitat, they can take on a pyramidal or columnar shape, and they may grow shorter or taller. When you come across the slimmest cypresses growing in large groups, you know you’ve arrived in Konavle. Recognizable by their breathtaking beauty, they have become a defining feature of this region’s landscape.
Cypresses grow both individually and in smaller groups, mixed with other vegetation, but most often in Konavle we encounter them as cypress groves, called čempresate, groves consisting of cypresses alone. They are a unique habitat and home to many Konavle endemic species.
The Mediterranean cypress tree is a cemetery tree. Perhaps because it symbolizes Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, or perhaps because Apollo turned the unfortunate young man Cyparissus into a cypress tree so that he would mourn forever. According to Greek mythology, Cypress, a handsome young man from the island of Ceos, accidentally shot an arrow and killed his friend, a tame deer, for whom he mourned so much that Apollo turned him into a mourning tree – a cypress. Funeral pyres for cremating the deceased were also most often made of cypress wood. Sarcophagi and coffins as well, because, they say, cypress wood is easy to work with and lasts a long time. But not just for that reason.
This slender, evergreen creature in cemeteries seems to maintain a thin thread of love between heaven and earth, a thread that the living maintain with the departed. And this connection full of sadness attributes to the cypress a quality with which it may not have been born. Because the cypress is actually a happy tree. Its roots intertwine deep beneath the ground, weaving through the remnants of the medieval era, antiquity, and prehistory, reaching all the way to solid bedrock. In Konavle, where a rich history and a long prehistory remain trapped beneath the earth, among its roots lie the remnants of this region’s former glory. Yet the tree itself stretches skyward, toward the heavens, toward the future.
In Konavle, cypresses are everywhere. They spill across the slopes of Bjelotina, making sure the mountain doesn’t come crashing down onto the villages. The massive cypresses surrounding Sokol Fortress form natural ramparts, adding to defense of the stronghold. Those that gently descend from Ilija’s Peak, from Sniježnica Mountain to the Konavle Valley, create a stunning, tiered backdrop where the morning mist can rise and fall with each new day. In Gornja Banda, they shape landscapes of a true Arcadia, weaving through the tree groves where young falcons practice their flight before soaring into life. Above the Konavle cliffs, cypresses rise like lighthouses, illuminated by moonlight, guiding those at sea toward safe passage. It seems that cypresses love Konavle, just as much as Konavle loves them.
The people of Konavle have always had a partner they could rely on in the cypress. It was their guarantee of stability for their buildings, their floors, and their roofs. Konavle builders place all their hopes in the body of the cypress for long-lasting houses and hearths. Every kupjerta (roof structure) of a Konavle house, kućarica (traditional stone house), or pojata (outbuilding) was built from wooden cypress beams. In many structures, the floors and windows were made from cypress as well. This can also be recognized by the typical scent that moves into the house with the beams, when the cypress’s essential strength takes hold in the home’s microbiome, and the two become inseparable.
The smell in the cypress grove is even more intoxicating. The cypress grove breathes with all its might and when you find yourself among its trees, you breathe into its lungs. It is an intoxicating bath in which poets and birds have plenty of work to do. In that ethereal scent lies the cure to many ailments. Essential oils are volatile substances, the essence, or the soul, of a plant. The essence of the cypress is deeply healing; the cypress is generous.
Cypress essential oil is used to fight infections, aid in detoxification, strengthen the respiratory system, and help relieve nervousness and anxiety. Above all, in aromatherapy, it is officially used to ease grief and loss. That is why Konavle homes are filled with the soul of the cypress – they are happy homes.
When you see the cypress groves of Konavle, know that they hover between the worlds of the living and the dead, the past and the future. In their veins, they turn sorrow into joy, and from their generosity, they bring health.
By: Antonia Rusković Radonić