Home sweet home? Living in a tomb
Homeless and cold, would you choose to live with the dead? That’s what two Serbian men have chosen to do in the city of Nis. For nearly 20 years, both Bratislav Jovanovic and Aleksandar Dejic have lived in tombs beside the caskets of their descendants.
Photos taken by Sasa Djordjevic of AFP. You can read his account on AFP’s Eyewitness blog.
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- Homeless men Bratislav Jovanovic (R), 43, and Aleksandar Dejic, 50, sit on January 10, 2013 inside a tomb at a cemetery in Nis, 200 kilometres south of Belgrade. Both men have been homeless for nearly twenty years since they lost their family members. (Sasa Djordjevic/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Bratislav Jovanovic and Aleksandar Dejic sit inside a tomb at a cemetery in Nis. During winter time with outside temperatures dropping below zero they take shelter in the graves or above ground tombs at the old cemetery. Photo taken Jan. 10, 2013. (Sasa Djordjevic/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Bratislav Jovanovic leaves on January 10, 2013 a grave, he uses as a shelter during winter time at a cemetery in Nis, 200 kilometres south of Belgrade. Photo taken on January 10, 2013. (Sasa Djordjevic/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Bratislav Jovanovic stands beside a tomb at a cemetery in Nis. Jovanovic has been homeless for nearly twenty years, since his house was burned down in a fire. The last 15 years he lives in a tomb beside the caskets of his decedents. Photo taken Jan. 10, 2013. (Sasa Djordjevic/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Bratislav Jovanovic enters a grave, which he uses as a shelter during winter time at a cemetery in Nis. Jovanovic has been homeless for nearly twenty years, since his house was burned down in a fire. The last 15 years he lives in a tomb beside the caskets of his decedents. Photo taken on January 10, 2013. (Sasa Djordjevic/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Aleksandar Dejic, 50, sleeps in a tomb he uses as a shelter during winter time at a cemetery in Nis. Dejic has been a homeless for twenty years and has no living family members. During winter with outside temperatures dropping below zero, he and his other homeless friends take shelter in the graves or above ground tombs at the old cemetery. Photo taken on January 10, 2013. (Sasa Djordjevic/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Bratislav Jovanovic, 43, sits on January 10, 2013 in a grave, which he uses as a shelter during winter time at a cemetery in Nis. Photo taken on January 10, 2013. (Sasa Djordjevic/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Bratislav Jovanovic and Aleksandar Dejic warm up beside a fire at a cemetery in Nis, 200 kilometres south of Belgrade. Photo taken Jan. 10, 2013. (Sasa Djordjevic/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP: Living with the dead: Serbs make tomb home
By Zoran Kosanovic (AFP) – Jan 30, 2013
NIS, Serbia — With a thin pink quilt pulled around his shoulders and three rusty metal coffins to keep him company, Bratislav Stojkovic is spending another freezing night inside a tomb at a long-forgotten municipal cemetery in the southern Serbian city of Nis.
He and his friend Aleksandar Dejic are the only two living tenants of the “Old Cemetery,” once known for its precious, intricately carved tombstones, which have long since vanished.
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