The remnants of the ancient Illyrian cultural heritage on island Brač, such as the bunja, drywalls and tumuli, have withstood the test of time.
The bunja, a small stone edifice with the characteristic circular stone roof, built with no wooden support whatsoever, was used as a shelter for shepherds and as a storage.
The building technique used is an original one and ingeniously conceived.
Bunja are generally small structures, not higher than 2 meters, with the walls mostly made out of locally sourced stone, without fugues, and half a meter thick. The inside space of the bunja is seldom larger than 2 m in diameter. The entrance usually faces the west and is quite low to protect the interior from the wind and rain.
The most striking and important part of the bunja structure is the domed roof which does not have and beams or supports. The resulting edifice is basically a waterproof shelter since the water seems to sluice over its slabs into the ground.
The bunja represents one of the most ingenious solutions in a dome-type architecture, and as such is worthy of our admiration.
* Source: The Drywalls of Brač, Lucija Puljak, DSc, Primary School Pučišća