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Decisions on Designation of Properties as National Monuments

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60th session - Decisions

Hamidija mosque (mosque in Rijeka, Riječka mosque, Ričke mosque), the site and remains of the architectural ensemble

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Status of monument -> National monument

             Pursuant to Article V para. 4 Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 39 para. 1 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, at a session held on 4 March 2003 the Commission adopted a

 

D E C I S I O N

 

I

 

            The site and remains of the architectural ensemble of the Hamidija mosque (mosque in Rijeka, Riječka mosque, Ričke mosque) in Mrkonjić Grad are hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).

            The National Monument comprises the site designated as cadastral plots 20/88 and 20/89-1, cadastral municipality Mrkonjić Grad, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

            The provisions relating to protection and rehabilitation measures set forth by the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 9/02) shall apply to the National Monument specified in the preceding paragraph.

 

II

 

            The Government of Republika Srpska shall be responsible for securing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary to protect, conserve, display and rehabilitate the National Monument.

            The Government of Republika Srpska shall be responsible for providing the financial and technical conditions for drawing up the technical documentation for the rehabilitation and for the rehabilitation itself of the National Monument.

            The Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the Commission) shall determine the technical requirements and secure the funds for preparing and setting up signboards with the basic data on the monument and the Decision to proclaim the property a National Monument.

 

III

 

            The Government of Republika Srpska shall be responsible in particular for ensuring that the following measures are enforced:

Ÿ          The architectural ensemble of the Hamidija mosque in Mrkonjić Grad and its surrounding mezarje (graveyard) shall be reconstructed in its original form, with the same dimensions, on its original site, using the same material or same type of material and the same techniques as far as is possible, on the basis of the documentation on its original form which is an integral part of this Decision.

Ÿ          All pieces of the mosque that remain following its demolition, whether on the site or in the dumps to which they were removed following demolition (the nišan and bašluk headstones were removed to the working garbage dump in Grabež) shall be recorded, conserved and rebuilt into the mosque using the method of anastylosis.

Ÿ          All pieces that are recovered and that, in the light of the extent of damage or for other good reasons, cannot be re-used shall be displayed in appropriate manner within the mosque ensemble.

Ÿ          Prior to the start of reconstruction the surface layers of soil must be removed to reveal the original foundations of the walls, a detailed survey conducted,  and the original parts of the foundations and walls renovated and consolidated.

Ÿ          All usable material from the original building that is recovered should be built into the mosque building, and the parts that are lacking and for which documentation exists should be made from material of the same or similar source by the method of repristination.

Ÿ          All the parts for which no reliable documentation exists should be resolved within the remit of the project in a manner that will ensure that their interpolation is clearly evident.

Ÿ          All parts of nišans that are recovered shall be presented in the part of the site where there were graves prior to their destruction.

Ÿ          On all plots adjoining the protected site the only construction permitted is that of residential buildings of no more than two storeys (ground floor and one upper floor) with a maximum height of approx. 6.50 metres measured from the level of the ground floor to the upper level of the roof structure above the upper floor.

                                          

IV

 

            All executive and area development planning acts not in accordance with the provisions of this Decision are to be revoked.

 

V

 

            Everyone, and in particular the competent authorities of Republika Srpska, and urban and municipal services, shall refrain from any action that might damage the National Monument specified in Clause I of this Decision or jeopardize the protection and rehabilitation thereof.

 

VI

 

            This Decision shall be lodged with the Government of Republika Srpska, the Ministry responsible for regional planning and the Ministry responsible for culture in Republika Srpska, the heritage protection authority, and the municipal administration authorities responsible for urban planning and land registry issues, for the purpose of implementation of the measures set forth in Clauses II to V of this Decision, and to the competent municipal court for entry in the land register.

 

VII

 

            The elucidation and accompanying documentation form an integral part of this Decision, which may be viewed by interested parties on the premises or by accessing the website of the Commission (http://www.anek8komisija.com.ba) 

 

VIII

 

            Pursuant to Art. V para 4 Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina are final.

 

IX

 

            This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its adoption and shall be published in the Official Gazette of BiH and the Official Gazette of Republika Srpska.

 

            This Decision has been adopted by the following members of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments: Zeynep Ahunbay, Amra Hadžimuhamedović, Dubravko Lovrenović,  Ljiljana Ševo and Tina Wik.

 

No.: 07-6-144/03-4

4 March 2003

Sarajevo

 

Chairman of the Commission

Dubravko Lovrenović

                                                               

                                                                E l u c i d a t i o n

 

I – INTRODUCTION

            Pursuant to Article 2, paragraph 1 of the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a “National Monument” is an item of public property proclaimed by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments to be a National Monument pursuant to Articles V and VI of Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and as property entered on the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of  BiH no. 33/02) until the Commission reaches a final decision on its status, as to which there is no time limit and regardless of whether a petition for the property in question has been submitted or not.

            The Commission received a petition from the Ministry for Urban Planning, Housing and Public Utilities, Construction and the Environment of Republika Srpska on 8 April 2002, and proceeded to carry out the procedure for reaching a final decision to designate the Property as a National Monument, pursuant to Article V of Annex 8 and Article 35 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments.

 

II – PROCEDURE PRIOR TO DECISION

            In the procedure preceding the adoption of a final decision to proclaim the property a national monument, the following documentation was consulted:

Ÿ          Documentation on the location and current owner and user of the property (transcript of land registry entry 524, cadastral municipality Mrkonjić Grad, Assembly of the Municipality of Mrkonjić Grad, dated 1 September 2000, with copy of cadastral plan)

Ÿ          The current condition of the property

Ÿ          Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs.

Ÿ          Historical, architectural and other documentary material on the property, as set out in the bibliography forming part of this Decision

Ÿ          Regulatory plan for Mrkonjić Grad town centre dated 1987

 

            The findings based on the review of the above documentation are as follows:

 

1. Information on the historic monument

Location

            With the founding of a new urban settlement on the site of the village of Gornja Kloka during the period between 30 December 1589 and 8 January 1590, the kasaba (town) of Novo Jajce (Yaytse Yenice) came into being.  For several centuries it was known as Varcar Vakuf, until 1925 when, during the time of the first Yugoslavia, it received the name Mrkonjić Grad.  The registration of the waqfnama of Kizlaraga's waqf was carried out on 11-20 February 1595 in Istanbul (Trako,VII-VIII, pp.155-156; Mujezinović, 1998, p.9).

            It was at this time that the ancient names of the various quarters of the town were formed: mahala Imamovac (after the first waqf imam), Mečet (after a small wooden mosque), Kolobara (the old market), Zavakuf (the part of the town beyond the waqf), Rijeka (Rika), Zborišće (a place for assemblies), Uspolje (the road to Trijebov via Suljinovac spring) and many other names of areas of the town (Lovrenović, 1973, p. X)

            The Hamidija mosque was in mahala Rijeka (Rika) in the centre of town, cadastral plots nos. 20/88 and 20/89-1, land registry no. 524, cadastrall municipality Mrkonjić Grad, Republika Srpska.

Historical data

            Verses are carved into the chronogram over the entrance door, written in Naskh script in Turkish.  By calculating the numerical values of the letters with the diacritical marks and adding them together, the Hijra year 1326 is arrived at (1908 CE).  The mosque acquired its name of Hamidija from the renovator of the mosque, Hamid-aga Husedžinović of Banja Luka.  The inhabitants of these parts also use other names for the mosque: Riječka mosque, the mosque in Rijeka, Rička mosque (Mujezinović, 1998, pp.11-12).  

            The Hamidija mosque was set on fire and dynamited in October 1993, following which it was demolished, and the building material was removed to a garbage dump in Grabež.

           

2. Description of the monument

Architecture

            The Hamidija mosque belonged to the type of mosque with a single space and open sofas with a hipped roof and stone-built minaret.

            The exterior dimensions of the building were approx. 10.60 x 16.70 metres. It had two rows of windows, and the walls were of solid brick, with a thickness of approx. 55-60 cm. The exterior façade of the mosque was stuccoed. The mosque had a hipped roof with a classic wooden roof structure of the double hanger type, overlaid with tiles. The ground plan was designed with open external sofa porches and a single interior space for prayer with a gallery mahfil, which is very common in mosques with a single interior space and pyramidal roof. The entrance area measures some 3.30 x 10.60 metres, with two exterior sofa porches, to the right and left of the entrance. The ceiling and roof structure over the porches rest on four wooden pillars to the front and two to the rear against the north-west wall. The porches have wooden floors and are raised some 30-40 cm above the floor level of the entrance, with wooden railings about 90 cm high made of thin laths with moulded edging finish. The ceiling above the exterior porches is wooden, in šiša form. The wooden pillars of the porches are linked by wooden arches, with the point of support of the base of the arches at two-thirds the height of the pillars.

            The central prayer space is very spacious, measuring about 9.40 metres wide by 12.20 metres long. To the left and right of the entrance doors were interior sofa areas, which were level with the floor of the mosque, and railed with low wooden railings about 50cm high made of thin laths. There was space inside them for one saf (row) of worshippers, giving an anthropometric depth for the sofas of about 140 cm. In the remaining area of the ground floor of the mosque, measured from the railings of the interior sofas to the wooden podium of about 15 cm in height and about 80-100 cm in width along the entire mihrab wall, seven rows of worshippers could stand (a depth of some 10 metres).

            The mahfil was reached from the entrance door via a wooden spiral staircase on the inner side of the north-east wall to the right of the entrance door. The minaret was also reached via this wooden staircase, through an arched door in the basal section of the minaret.

            The mahfil rested on two brick-built pillars. It was of the usual depth, allowing room for two rows of worshippers, giving an anthropometric depth of some 280 cm. The mahfil had a semi-circular projection in the axis of the mosque for the muezzin.

            The minaret, of equal sixteen-sided cross-section, had a four-sided basal section of dressed stone measuring approx. 2.60 x 2.60 metres. A wooden mast was set in the axis of the mosque to carry the steps; the mast had an average diametre of 20-25 cm. The joints of the vertical extension of the mast were reinforced with iron rings and braces. The treads of the wooden spiral steps of the minaret were wide enough to allow an adult man to climb normally, giving an anthropometric width of tread of approx. 65 cm. The body of the minaret had a outer wall of the thickness of a brick (about 25 cm). Between 1975 and 1980 the barrel of the minaret was rebuilt. The walls of the barrel were made of solid brick of the thickness of the outer wall of about 12 cm.  At the same time the wooden substructure of the cone of the minaret was replaced and recovered with copper, with a new copper crescent moon and three pommels.

            In the interior was a mihrab, mimber, ćurs (Ar. kursi, «throne») and mahfil. The mihrab was made of stone and reached to a height of some 80 cm from the ceiling.  The ceiling of the mosque was plastered.

            On the facades the windows were arranged in two rows. On the north-east facade there were three windows in each of the two rows, on the south-west wall two windows in two rows, in the mihrab wall two windows in the upper and two in the lower zone, and on the entrance facade there were three windows in the form of an oculus in the upper zone and two windows with pointed arches and the entrance portal in the lower zone. On the lateral and south-east facades the lower row of windows were rectangular, and the upper row were rectangular with the top in the form of rounded arches.

            The central part of the entrance facade at the level of the pointed arches of the lower row of windows was enhanced by a shallow decorative cornice in the form of three superimposed, recessed rows of bricks standing out from the background. The vertical levels of these facade brick extensions of the decorative cornice were set at an angle of 45 degrees from the plane of the entrance facade.

            In the harem (graveyard) of the mosque, to the south-east and east of the mosque itself, were some fifty nišans.

            On the street side the mosque was walled off in more recent times by a wall some 100-120 cm high, while the other sides of the polygonal plot were surrounded with a wooden fence.

 

3. Current condition of the site

            The Hamidija mosque was set on fire and dynamited in October 1993, and then demolished, and its building material taken away to a garbage dump in regular use in Grabež. On the site itself, cadastral plot nos. 20/88 and 20/89-1, land register entry no. 524, cadastral municipality Mrkonjić Grad, there are the remains of the foundations of the base of the minaret (as may be concluded from their dimensions and the visible remains of the socket into which the mast was inserted).

 

III - CONCLUSION

            Applying the Criteria for the adoption of a decision on proclaiming an item of property a national monument, adopted at the fourth session of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments (3 to 9 September 2002), the Commission has enacted the Decision cited above. The Decision is based on the following criteria:

A. Time frame

B. Historical value

E. Symbolic value

E II Religious value

E III Traditional value

E V Significance for the identity of a group of people

F.  Townscape/landscape value

F.I.  Relation to other elements of the site

F.II  Meaning in the townscape

F.III. The building or group of buildings is part of a group or site

G. Authenticity

G. V. Location and setting

G. VI. Spirit and feeling

 

            The following photographs, drawings and maps form an integral part of this Decision:

1.Documentation on property rights

1.1.Hamidija mosque copy of cadastral plant

1.2.Hamidija mosque copy of land register entry

2.Photographs taken prior to the demolition of the building

3.Photographs taken since the demolition of the building

4.Maps and plans

4.1.Location with position of building and north designated (from planning documents, no. of floors of buildings and disposition of content, regulatory plan, Mrkonjić Grad centre, 1897)

4.2.Reconstructive method of determining exterior dimensions of the mosque – comparative presentation of copy of cadastral plan and part of location from regulatory plan

4.3.Hamidija mosque – position and exterior dimensions

 

Bibliography

Lovrenović, Ivan, Mrkonjić Grad, National University Mrkonjić Grad, 1973 (using the services of the library of the Bosniac Institute, Sarajevo, founded by Adil Zulfikarpašić)

 

Mrkonjić Grad: Grad zasjedanja ZAVNOBIH-a (Mrkonjić Grad, town of ZAVNOBIH sessions) (using the services of the library of the Bosniac Institute, Sarajevo, founded by Adil Zulfikarpašić)

 

Mujezinović, Mehmed, 1998, Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovine (Islamic epigraphy of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Bk 3, 3rd ed., Cultural Heritage Series, Sarajevo-Publishing, 1998

 

Regulatory plan, town centre Mrkonjić Grad, Town Planning Authority, Banja Luka, Banjaluka, 1987

 

Trako, Sakih, Natpisi na šamadanima Kizlaragine džamije u Mrkonjić Gradu, (Inscriptions of Kizlaraga’s

mosque in Mrkonjić Grad) Annals of the Gazi Husref bey Library, VII-VIII, pp.155-160 (using the services of the library of the Bosniac Institute, Sarajevo, founded by Adil Zulfikarpašić)

 

Persons from whom certain information was received during on-site survey: Begović Ibrahim, employed by Rijaset of the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and for many years imam of the Hamidija mosque; Krivdić Mahmut, for more than 30 years a member of the jama’at of the Hamidija mosque; Tulek Ibrahim, workman who carried out the maintenance of the mosque.



Panorama of Mrkonjić Grad, an old photoThe site of Hamidija mosque in 2003Hamidija mosque in Mrkonjić GradHamidija mosque, photo from 1939
The site and remains of Hamidija mosque, 2003The remains of Hamidija mosque  


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