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 from 4 to 8 March 2003 the Commission adopted a
D E C I S I O N
I
The archaeological site of the ruins of the architectural ensemble of the churches of St Peter and St Paul with necropolis of stećak tombstones in Čičevo is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The National Monument is located on cadastral plots nos. 1925/2, 1925/1, land registry entry no. 634, cadastral municipality Čičevo, Trebinje, 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 providing 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 drawing up a plan for and implementing a programme for the permanent protection of the National Monument.
The Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina 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
For the purpose of ensuring the lasting protection of the National Monument, the following measures are prescribed:
Protection Zone I comprises the site defined in Clause 1 para. 2 of this Decision. The following protection measures shall apply in this zone:
Ÿ All works are prohibited other than archaeological excavations and works of conservation, structural renovation and restoration conforming to technical documentation drawn up to the conditions laid down by the heritage protection authority of Republika Srpska (hereinafter: the heritage protection authority)
Ÿ Following the completion of archaeological and other investigations permission may be granted for the reconstruction of the roof of St Paul's church to protect the building from further deterioration, according to project documentation drawn up in line with the conditions of the heritage protection authority and with the approval of the ministry responsible for regional planning in Republika Srpska
Ÿ The dumping of all kinds of waste is prohibited
Ÿ Agricultural works are prohibited
Ÿ All infrastructural works are prohibited other than with the approval and expert supervision of the heritage protection authority
Ÿ Major infrastructural works and the construction of power supply facilities are prohibited
Ÿ the construction of buildings or facilities the operations of which could be detrimental to the National Monument is prohibited.
Protection Zone II consists ofthe cadastral plots adjoinning the site defined as Protection Zone I: In this zone the following protection measures shall apply:
Ÿ the restoration, reconstruction and conversion of existing buildings is permitted
Ÿ the construction of new buildings of no more than two storeys (ground floor and one upper floor) with a maximum height of 6.5 m to the roof frame and horizontal dimensions of 12 x 12 m is permitted
Ÿ in the event of the discovery of archaeological remains all works on the site shall be suspended and the heritage protection authority shall be notified
Ÿ detailed urban planning and technical plans for the construction of new buildings must have the approval of the heritage protection authority
Ÿ the construction of industrial buildings and facilities, major infrastructure, or potential environmental polluters as defined by regulations is not permitted
Ÿ the dumping of all kinds of waste is prohibited.
IV
All executive and area development planning acts not in accordance with the provisions of this Decision are hereby 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 or jeopardize the protection and rehabilitation thereof.
VI
The Government of Republika Srpska, the Ministry responsible for regional planning in Republika Srpska, the heritage protection authority, and the Municipal Authorities in charge of urban planning and land registry affairs, shall be notified of this Decision in order to carry out the measures stipulated in Articles II to V of this Decision, and the Authorized Municipal Court shall be notified for the purposes of registration 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 to Preserve National Monuments (http://www.aneks8komisija.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.
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.: 08.1-6-133/03-3
5 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 (hereinafter referred to as the Commission) 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 (hereinafter referred to as Annex 8) 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.
At a session held on 1-2 July 1999 the Commission issued a Decision to add the archaeological site of the ruins of the churches of St Peter and St Paul with a necropolis of stećak tombstones in Čičevo, Trebinje, under the heading of Benedictine monastery and church of St Peter of the Field, seat of the Trebinje-Mrkanje bishopric in Čičevo, Trebinje to the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, numbered as 672, 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 inspected:
Ÿ Documentation on the location and current owner and user of the property (copy of cadastral plan and copy of land registry entry)
Ÿ Data on legal protection of the property to date
Ÿ Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs, data of war damage if any, data on restoration or other works on the property if any, etc.
Ÿ Historical, architectural and other documentary material on the property, as set out in the bibliography forming part of this Decision.
The findings based on the review of the above documentation and the condition of the property are as follows:
1. Details of the property
Location
The archaeological site of the ruins of the churches of St Peter and St Paul with a necropolis of stećak tombstones in Čičevo is located 7 km to the south-east of Trebinje, at the edge of Dživarsko polje south of the village of Bihova, specificially of its hamlet Crnač (Popović, 1973, p. 313). It lies on level ground beneath Ilijina hill alongside the main road that runs along the western slope of Dživarsko polje, which is the line of the ancient Epidaurum (Cavtat)-Ad Zizio (Mosko)-Anderba road (in the neighbourhood of Nikšić) (Bojanovski, 1988, 81).
The archaeological site includes the ruins of the church of St Peter, which lie below and around the present-day church of St Peter erected in 1906, the remains of the triconchal church of St Paul and the largely ruinous stećak necropolis in which the village burial ground, still in active use, is now located, on cadastral plots nos. 1952/2, 1925/1, cadastral municipality Čičevo, Municipality Trebinje, owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church, land registry entry no. 634.
Historical data
It should first be noted that two research archaeologists have conducted major archaeological excavations over the past forty or so years. The first was Marko Popović, in 1968, who published his findings in 1973. During his research he investigated the remains of the old church of St Peter (other than those lying beneath the new church), and uncovered almost the entire interior of the church of St Paul. He investigated the entire area of the foundations and the area between and around both churches. Since part of the village burial ground lay over the other buildings that, in his view, formed part of the monastery complex, he was unable to excavate these, nor the stećak necropolis that belonged to the monastery, which had been «to a large extent destroyed» (Popović, 1973, 315) by recent graves being dug beneath the stećci. The second archaeologist was Đorđe Janković, working in 2001, who excavated the interior of the church of St Paul and the foundations of the walls, as well as the land on which the building of the newly-founded monastery had been erected in 1999, east of and in the immediate vicinity of the churches of St Peter and St Paul. The findings of the first stage of his work were published in 2002, and the excavations continued in 2003 (Janković, 2002, 99-124).
In studying the complex, Marko Popović took as his starting point in identifying the ruins the fact that there are few details of the monastery complex in historical sources, and that the history of and data on the monastery should be considered within the ambit of sources and data on the Trebinje bishopric. His initial hypothesis was that this was the site of the monastery of St Peter of the Field (Sancti Petri de Campo), citing the following historical data:
Ÿ The earliest information on the formation of the bishopric of Trebinje appears in a letter from Pope Benedict VIII dated 27 September 1022 to the Archbishop of Dubrovnik, placing the Trebinje bishopric, and others, under his jurisdiction. This enables one to determine that the Trebinje bishopric was founded prior to 1022
Ÿ The earliest information on the monastery of St Peter of the Field is to be found in the Chronicles of the Doclean priest, which state that King Radosav, brother of King Mihajlo of Zeta, was buried there. Later, a work by Mavro Obrin, Kraljevstvo Slovena, states that the great district prefect of Raška, Desa, died in Trebinje and was buried in the monastery of St Peter of the Field.
Ÿ In 1265 there is a reference to Salvije, Bishop of Trebinje, living in exile in Dubrovnik, which is connected with the 1252 war between King Uroš I and Dubrovnik. After peace was concluded in 1254 the Dubrovnik church lost all authority over the Catholic bishoprics in the territory of the Serbian state.
Ÿ From a letter dated 6 January 1346 from Pope Clement VI to King Stefan Dušan, it may be deduced that following the expulsion of Bishop Salvije the Trebinje bishopric was run by the bishop of Kotor. In this letter the Pope calls on King Stefan Dušan to restore to the Kotor bishopric certain monasteries and churches that the kings of Raška had seized, among them the Benedictine monastery of St Peter of the Field.
Ÿ After the collapse of the Serbian state and Trebinje's coming under the rule of the Bosnian state in the reign of King Tvrtko I, in 1377, circumstances changed for the Trebinje bishopric. At this time there is reference to Bishop Ratko, a subject of King Tvrtko's. Somewhat later, in 1401 and 1411, there is reference to the church of St Peter of the Field in documents in the Dubrovnik archives.
Ÿ The last information about the monastery of St Peter dates from 1456, and states that Bishop Mihajlo left his diocese, entrusting it to the priests of the church of St Peter in Čičevo (Popović, 1973, 315-317).
Ÿ It is on the basis of these facts that Popović dated the complex to the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Đorđe Janković's basic hypothesis was that there is no evidence linking the monastery of St Peter of the Field with the monastery of SS Peter and Paul in the village of Crnač, although this is how many historians, art historians and other scholars interpret the historical data on the monastery of St Peter of the Field. As Janković states, «from the start it is associated with documentary sources on places of worship dedicated to St Peter in Trebinje», such as historical sources citing «ecclesia Sancti Petri di Trebignja» or «San Pietro di Cicieuo» (Janković 2002, 101-103). There could have been several churches dedicated to this patron saint in Trebinje.
Janković's other hypothesis relates to the location of the bishop's see – whether it was located in the fort or close to the ramparts. Rulers and the nobility were buried in graveyards within the ramparts, or at least close to them. He cites by way of example the discovery of the burial vault of the twelfth century district prefect Grdo in a church on the right bank of the Trebišnjica in present-day Trebinje.
The third reason he adduces in support of his views that the data thus far uncovered about the monastery of St Peter of the Field cannot relate to the monastery of SS Peter and Paul in Crnač is the paucity of remains of monastery buildings around the churches of St Peter and St Paul. The archaeological material in the immediate vicinity of these churches dates from late antiquity, from the sixth century. Popović, on the other hand, quotes Delić on the remains of a building 12 m to the west of the church of St Paul, on the site of the newly erected konak (Popović 1973, 328-329).
In conclusion, the final argument put forward by Janković relates to the name of the monastery. It is impossible for the dedication of the monastery not to have mentioned the name of the holy apostle Paul when there was a church dedicated to him – a paraclys in this case – alongside the church of St Peter. He therefore relies on an analysis of a series of archaeological data, of which the most recent is the discovery of the baptistery in the church of St Paul, on the absence of ecclesiastical furnishings, which is very rich in churches of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and on analogies between the form of the churches of St Peter and St Paul in Crnač with churches from late antiquity and the early Byzantine period in Dalmatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Istria, Montenegro and northern Italy. In Janković's view the first to be built was the cruciform church of St Peter, in the fourth and fifth centuries. Alongside it certain buildings intended for residential use (a bishop's palace?) were erected. He assumes that the church of St Paul was built «in all likelihood» in the first half of the fifth century. If this was also the bishop's see, then it must have been destroyed at the latest by the late sixth or early seventh century in the Avar campaigns. The church of St Peter was not rebuilt after this, but the church of St Paul «continued in active use» (Janković 2002, p. 109). Late mediaeval burial vaults were constructed in both churches, with the difference that in the church the vaults were constructed in the rubble of the building, whereas in the church of St Paul they were beneath the floor of the church.
2. Description of the property
The archaeological site consists of the remains of the churches of St Peter and St Paul, the church of St Peter built in 1906, and a stećak necropolis.
CHURCH OF ST PETER
According to Popović, prior to the start of excavations in 1968 the remains of the old church of St Peter were not visible. In the first decade of the twentieth century, the walls of the nave were still visible, with the apse and the walls of the choirs, and the western wall of the narthex. Evidence for this is the plan given by S. Delić in 1912, without the prothesis, diaconicon and chapel Delić, 1912, 276, fig. 1) (the remains of this church were demolished in 1906 when the new church of St Peter was built by the Metropolitan of Herzegovina, Petar Zimonjić. Most of the nave of the newly erected church lay over nave of the old church, which had already been abandoned and demolished (Popović, 1973, pp. 313, 317).
The old church of St Peter was a large cruciform basilica with a semi-circular apse and rectangular choirs. It belonged to the type known as the crux immissa with lateral spaces located between the arms of the cross. There were a proscomodia and diaconicon in the altar space. In the western part of the church, alongside the choir, were north and south chapels and a spacious narthex occupying the entire width of the church. The dimensions of the church were: length, including the apse, approx. 20 m; width approx 15 m.
The altar area of the church was composed of a semicircular apse about 4.5 m wide and 2.8 m deep, which extended into the nave of the church. Alongside the inner side of the wall of the apse the remains of a socle some 30 cm wide, preserved in the form of one row of stones, which is all that is left of a subsellia or syntronon. The benches date to the same time as the building of the church, since they already existed when the floor was laid. On the floor of the central area of the apse is the impression of the pedestal of the altar table, of which one side of 1.1 m remains, while the other three sides are not preserved in the impression, and nor is the pedestal itself.
North of the altar area was a square proscomidia (with sides 5 m long). On the south wall of the proscomidia was a 1 m wide door that led into the altar area. In the south-west and south-east corners were corner pilasters.
South of the altar area was the diaconicon, of the same form and dimensions as the proscomidia. Three doors lead from the diaconicon: into the altar area (0.7 m wide), into the south choir (0.95 m wide) and the third leading to the exterior (0.8 m wide).
The north and south choirs were of rectangular form and both of the same size (3.25 x 4.00 m). By analogy with the church of St Paul and the remains of dressed blocks of dripstone, it may be deduced that there were arches above the passage from the choir into the nave.
The north and west side chapels were of the same size and shape (5.35 x 3.5 m) and were in a extension to the choirs. There was a corner pilaster in each of the south-east and south-west corners of the chapel. The chapel had three doors, one in the south wall (0.96 m wide) leading into the nave of the church, another in the west wall leading into the narthex, and a third in the north wall, leading to the exterior. All three doors were made at the same time, when the church was built, since there are no signs of the walls having later been breached. The door that leads into the nave and narthex was later bricked up. When the new church of St Peter was built in 1906 the interior of the chapel was used as infill, so that it was almost completely destroyed beneath the chapel.
The south side chapel and narthex were linked by the door that was later bricked up. When the new church was built the north wall of the chapel was completely destroyed.
The narthex, in the form of an elogated rectangle, occupied the entire width of the west end of the church. The main entrance door to the church (2.10 m wide) was in the centre of the west wall of the narthex. The east wall of the narthex was partly pulled down during the construction of the new church, while the north wall was partly destroyed by the construction of a burial vault. It was here that the door facing the church of St Paul was located. On the east wall of the narthex were two pilasters: a corner pilaster where the north wall of the church met the east wall of the narthex, and a pilaster in the extension of the south wall of the north chapel. Where the exterior south wall of the church met the east wall of the narthex, and on the west facade of the narthex, there are no pilasters. Probably the church alone was first to be built, and then the narthex that forms an organic part of it (Popović, 1973, 320).
The walls of the church were made of small stone blocks, partly re-dressed, and jointed with white lime mortar. The foundations were laid on the natural rock, 10-50 cm below the floor level of the church. The foundations were treated in the same way as the parts of the walls that stand above ground. The height of the remaining parts of the walls ranges from 60 to 90 cm above floor level. The joints between the stones are roughly pointed. The interior walls of the church were plastered with white lime mortar on which no traces of any frescoes have been observed.
The facades of the church were articulated by 20 cm wide pilasters. There were eight pilasters on the east facade, four on the north and three on the south. During excavations of the church of St Peter no fragments of decorative mouldings or of moulded stone were found. An eyewitness wrote in 1906 that the windows of the apse and choirs were of the same shape and size as those of the church of St Paul. According to accounts from older local people, the western wall of the narthex had arched windows, but they were pulled down well before the church was built in 1906. The exterior facade of the apse had white dressed stone arches rising from the foundations to beneath the roof on both sides of the window, while on the facades of the choirs they extended from beneath the windows to the base of the vertical struts (Delić 1912, 278-280).
The church floor was made of two layers of lime mortar beneath which was a substratum of rammed stone chips partly overlying the natural rock. The apse floor was 20 cm higher than the floor of the rest of the church.
The church was not vaulted, but had a wooden roof structure. The nave of the church was probably roofed with a gable roof, somewhat higher than the roofs of the lateral parts of the church. Above the east and west walls of the nave were triangular gables, while the choirs had gable roofs lower than that of the nave, forming smaller triangular gables on the north and south walls of the choirs. The other lateral areas probably had roofs with a single slope.
Thirteen burial vaults made of stone slabs were discovered inside the church. One was discovered in the proscomidia and two in the diaconicon, six in the north choir and one in the south choir. All the vaults lay above ground level. In the narthex three vaults were discovered, of which one was set into the west wall of the narthex to the left of the entrance, with a slab stećak above it. This vault was above the presumed floor level, and the slab was some 30 cm above floor level. Almost all the vaults had the same orientation as the church, other than those in the narthex, which lay south-north. The most interesting find, discovered while the foundations for the new church were being dug, was a gravestone with an epitaph. According to Marko Vego, a transcription of the epitaph, recording that one Drusan made the vault for his mother, read:
"Poleta, Drusan (Družan), Dražeta činu raku nad materju v dni slavnga kneza Hramka".
In analysing the palaeographic features Vego noted that the shapes of individual letters in this epitaph were similar to those of the signature of the great district prefect Nemanja and his brother, Prince Miroslav. The author thus concluded that it could be said with almost complete certainty that this was the same scribe Drusan who was authorized by Nemanja when the latter concluded a treaty with Dubrovnik in 1186, and that the epitaph dates from the late twelfth century, some time between 1177 and 1200. This is confirmed by the use of bold semi-vowels (jor) in the epitaph, as used in Zahumlje, Travunija, Bosna and on Brač in the second half of the twelfth century at the same time as lightface semi-vowels.
Vego notes that the formulation of the epitaph, too, which betrays an office scribe rather than a epigraphic scribe, suggests that Drusan (Družan) wrote the epitaph, and given that his mother was buried here, it may be assumed that he was from Čičevo (Vego 1964., 182-183).
Part of this slab, bearing the epitaph, is now set into the north part of the altar in the proscomidia of the new church of St Peter.
From the discoveries made during the 1968 excavations, it follows that all the vaults were buried in the rubble produced by the demolition of the church, from the period when the rubble had already been formed (Popović, 1973, pp. 317-322).
According to Marko Popović, the church of St Peter, that is to say the foundation of the monastery of St Peter de Campo, dates from the mid eleventh century or at the latest the 1080s, at a period of major Benedictine expansion, when it is mentioned for the first time in the Chronicles of priest Dukljanin in connection with the burial of King Radosav (Popović, 1973, p. 333)
Unlike Popović, however Janković dates the church of St Peter to the fourth century, and its destruction to the invasions by Slav and Avar hordes in the late sixth and early seventh centuries.
NEW CHURCH OF ST PETER
This church is typical of the churches of Dalmatia and the southern coastal area, whence the style was spread into the interior by Dubrovnik masons. This led to the emergence of a distinct group of monuments originating from the influence of the Orthodox ideas of the founder of the church and the western stylistic views of those who actually built it. This type of church is particularly characteristic of eastern Herzegovina – churches of simple ground plan and modest dimensions, with stone slab roofs.
The present church is on the site of the old church of St peter, the remains of which were pulled down in 1906 to build the new one. All that is visible of the old church are the walls of the nave and apse and those of the choirs, along with the western wall of the narthex. The newly erected church largely covers the nave of the old church of St Peter.
The present church of St Peter is a single-nave structure consisting of an elongated nave terminating at the east end in a semicircular apse. The exterior dimensions of the church are 13.83 m. in length (including the apse), and 6.35 m. in width. The apse is semicircular on both the exterior and interior, with an interior span of 5.7 m. There is a window in the central axis of the apse of which the apertue is 0.70 m wide and 1.50 m high.
The walls are reinforced by three pairs per wall of matching rebated arches bearing fairly substantial pilasters (square pillars). The end arches rest on the pilasters in the angles, roughly equivalent to semi-freestanding pilasters (Šuput, 1991, p. 155). This creates three niches in each wall. The niches for the proscomidia (where the consecrated wine and bread were prepared) andn diaconicon (originally the place where the deacons stood during the liturgy, and later used for the practical purpose of storing vestments and church plate) are built into the side walls. The upper structure of the nave is a longitudinally placed barrel vault resting on three arches with transverse tie beams. The arches rest on pilasters measuring 0.5 x 0.35 m. The distance between these pilaasters is 2.40 m longitudinally and approx. 3.45 m transversally.
As with other churches of this type in Herzegovina, the masonry of St Peter’s church is of limestone. In this case the blocks are regular rectangular in form rangingn in size from 25 to 30 cm. Externally, the blocks are laid in even horizontal courses and pointed. The horizontal and vertical joints are very narrow, indicating that all sides of the blocks were finely dressed. The walls are 65 cm thick. The stone blocks are bonded with lime mortar.
The entrance to the church is at the west end and emphasized by a projection echoing the vertical lines of the bell tower and standing out 22 cm from the surface of the wall. The entrance door is 1.35 m wide and 1.75 m high, terminating in a round arch, and has dressed stone jambs in the form of pillars with moulded capitals and a stone lintel matching the arched line of the door. At the top of the arch is a crest stone with an inscription recording the erection of the church. At a height of some 4.20 m below the belfry is a round stone window or oculus, made of a single square iece of stone, measuring about 0.60 m, with four relief decorations at the angles in the form of six-petalled flowers with the upper two incised into the stone and the lower two in “negative” inscribed in a circle. At the top is a belltower “na preslicu” with three bells, typical of this region.
Inside, the building is 3.85 m wide at the west end, and 12.53 m long measured from east to west. The apse is 3.50 m long and has inbuilt niches for the proscomidion and diaconicon.
The church has a wooden iconostasis with simple royal doors. The floor, pillars and capitals are all of stone.
The church as a whole is tiled, with the apse clad with stone slabs. The moulded roof cornice above the nave is at a height of approx. 5.00 m, while the roof cornice of the semicircular apse is at a height of approx. 4.30 m, above which is the semi-conical roof of the apse.
The church is lit by two arched windows in the south and north walls and the window in the apse. The windows are positioned logically and symmetrically in relation to the arrangement of the interior structural components of the building. The apertures of the windows are 0.70 wide and 1.50 m high. The stone window frames are somewhat slanted outwards and each consist of four stone blocks.
CHURCH OF ST PAUL
The church of St Paul stands alongside the church of St Peter, to the south. It is 14 m long and 6.30 m wide, and is a single nave structure in the form of a triple conch, with an altar apse and transverse choir apses, semicircular within, constructed of laminar limestone, with arches of finely dressed dripstone. Outwardly, the conches are trapezoid. The conches were biforate, with dripstone arches and simple consoles.
The descriptions of this church by Popović and Janković differ somewhat. The views of both as regards the debatable details will therefore be set out here.
In Popović's view, the interior of the church was originally divided by a wall, later pulled down, into nave and narthex. The wall that separated the narthex from the nave was preserved only at foundation level, while its impression on the north wall, to which it abutted, can be seen to a height of about 2 m, above which there are no further signs of it (Popović 1973, 323). In Janković's view, the interior of the space was divided at foundation level by a wall with a thickness above floor level of 55 cm, the appearance of which it is no longer possible to determine (Janković, 2002,104). Popović held that the narthex was 2.30 m long and 5.10 m wide, whereas Janković is not sure that there was a narthex at all. All that is left of the later wall is impressions, and the results of the next excavations must be awaited (Janković, 2002, 107).
The walls of the church of St Paul are of smaller, roughly dressed stone blocks jointed with white lime mortar. The walls are 60 cm thick.
On the exterior at foundation level the walls have an extension with a width varying from 10 to 20 cm. The foundations rest on the natural rock, and their depth varies from 30 to 60 cm. The walls of the church are fairly well preserved, their height ranging from 3.50 to 5.50 m. The west wall of the church extends southwards to meet the west wall of the church of St Peter, which is at the same level, but the two are not structurally linked.
All three apses are vaulted with conches that end in dripstone arches on the nave walls, resting on small, simply moulded sandstone consoles. In all three apses there is at foundation level a wall that joins and reinforces the ends of the arches.
Popović expresses the opinion, given that the walls are not very thick and in the light of the wide span, that the church of St Paul was not vaulted but had a gabled roof with wooden rafters. Delić agrees, remarking on the remains of a «swallow» on the east wall and noting that the ceiling was probably of wood and the roof was tiled (Delić, 1912., 277). The roof cornice is still visible here and there, as is a triangular gable above the east facade. Janković is of the view that there was a cupola above the baptistry, basing this on finds of roof bricks (Janković, 2002,107)
According to Popović, the original main entrance to the church of St Paul, now walled up, was an arched portal in the south wall facing the north door of the narthex of the church of St Peter, while there is no sign of any entrance in the west end. As well as this walled-up portal in the south wall of the church there is a smaller door that was later pierced, now forming the entrance to the church. Janković refers to a smaller arched entrance to the church in the north section of the west wall, which was also walled up (and has now been reopened) (Janković 2002, 105).
The church of St Paul had three types of window. The apses are biforate, with openings 1.10 wide, of which the remains are relatively poorly preserved. On the east wall of the church, south of the apse and beneath the roof cornice, part of a round window or oculus has been preserved, with a diameter of about 40 cm, made of blocks of dripstone. There was probably a matching window on part of the east wall. The third type of window is a narrow window on the west wall of the church, narrowing towards the exterior in the form of a loophole. The height of the window is 90 cm and the width at the narrower side is 15 cm.
Only a small part of the church floor survives, in the south choir apse. The floor was made of layers of lime mortar with about 5 cm above it a thin layer of mortar with crushed brick and fine stone added. The interior of the church was excavated in its entirety and several burial vaults were discovered, but the documentation on them has not been preserved. During the 1968 excavations the remains of three demolished burial vaults were discovered, two of which were children's. These vaults were constructed of undressed stone slabs, resembling in every respect the vaults found in the church of St Peter. Janković excavated a further sixteen of them (Janković 2002, 108). Both authors attribute the majority of the vaults to the late mediaeval period.
Popović paid particular attention to the above-ground burial vault in the narthex of the church of St Paul, constructed against the north wall, which no longer exists. During the 1968 excavations only insignificant remains of this vault were discovered, but Delić, who had the opportunity to see it in a good state of preservation, was able to give information about its appearance and dimensions. Longitudinally it occupied the space from the west to the east wall of the narthex, while the lateral sides of the grave were walls with a thickness of 30 cm. The vault was sealed at the top with a stone slab, and the space in the interior measured 85 cm wide by 2.30 m long. The vault stood 1 m above floor level. The entrance was rectangular, measuring 40 x 80 cm, and was located in the west wall. After the burial, the entrance was walled up to the full width of the wall. The vault was contemporary with the church, and was preserved until 1908, when it was opened and a skeleton, without any grave goods, was discovered in it. (Popović 1973, 326). It was attributed to the district prefect Desa (Popović 1973, 334, 336). Janković found no surviving evidence of this vault (Janković, 2002, 105).
A new find made in 2001 is the font. Its existence, along with other arguments put forward, wholly alter the dating of the church. On the outside it was oval with the long axis oriented east-west (the long west-east axis measuring 2.2 m and the north-south 1.8 m). The inside is rectangular. It is made of cut stone jointed with lime mortar, and rests directly on the rocky ground. The central part of the basin is made of tegula (antique-period flat roof tiles) overlaid with lime mortar mixed with pounded antique brick. The upper part of the basin has not been preserved, so the original depth of the basin is not known; the part that survives is 50 cm deep. The exterior of the basin was faced with undressed stone and earth. It had two steps on each of the east and west sides, i.e. along the longer axis that coincided with the orientation of the church (Janković 2002, 107).
According to Popović, the church of St Paul dates from the mid twelfth century, when the burial of district prefect Desa is referred to i a work by M. Orbin – he was probably interred in the narthex of the church of St Paul, as its founder (Popović, 1973, p. 336).
Popović identified four stages of construction. Alterations carried out on the church of St Paul were the demolition of the wall between the nave and the narthex, other than the part of the wall against which burial vaults had been constructed, and the walling-up of the entrance portal in the south wall. A new wall was also pierced in the south wall of the church one metre east of the walled-up portal. On this occasion the altar bifora was alslo walled up.
Janković identified four occasions when the church was destroyed: the first in the late fourth or early fifth century with the invasions of the Western Goths, the second in the late sixth or early seventh century in connection with the Avar invasion – to which period he attributes a fire following which the church of St Peter faded into oblivion – the third between 867 and the beginning of the tenth century, and the fourth following the establishment of the Catholic episcopal see in 1377, when interments were carried out in the remains of the church of St Peter and in the church of St Paul (Janković, 2002, 110).
During the 1968 archaeological excavations, the walls of a structure that abutted onto the walls of both churches were uncovered in the space between the church of St Peter and the south apse of the church of St Paul. The south wall of this structure ran for its whole length against the wall of the church of St Peter, and was 25 cm thick. The north wall of the structure was formed by the wall of the south choir apse of the church of St Paul. The walls were preserved to a height of 80 cm, and there was no sign of any opening in them. The floor was composed of a 10 cm thick layer of compact hydrostatic mortar and was at a level of 49.03 cm, about 30-50 cm lower than the floors of the church of St Peter and 90 cm lower than the floor of the church of St Paul. Traces of mortar of the same quality were found on the remains of the walls. It is assumed that these are the remains of a water tank. Without more accurate dating, but since the structure lay beneath later mediaeval graves, it is clear that at that time the tank was not used for this purpose.
Five burial vaults were discovered in this area between the churches, of which four were alongside the south wall of the church of St Paul and the fifth among the remains of the tank. All the vaults were dug in the rubble, and were identical in construction to the burial vaults discovered in both churches. They were fairly shallow, so that the slabs covering them were either at the same level as the sill of the entrance door to the church of St Paul or even about 10 cm higher. These burial vaults date to the same period as those discovered in the two churches.
Popović emphasizes that the architecture of the church of St Paul presents a fairly complex problem. The ground plan type of the church of St Paul, a triple conch, is to be found in the architecture of the east, of Byzantium, and of the West. The actual form of the triple conch of the church of St Paul, with apses that are semicircular on the inside and trapezoid on the outside, can be linked to Byzantine triple conches of the fifth and sixth centuries and later of the tenth century. However, there are structural differences between this church and Byzantine architecture, with the structure of this church more closely resembling the Romanesque. The church of St Paul had no cupola nor vaults, but a wooden roof, with only the apses conch-vaulted. In the structure of the walls, the workmanship of the window bifora and the arched portal that was later walled up, the church of St Paul belongs to Romanesque architecture (Popović, 1968, 333). Janković finds analogies with the triple conch churches of the late antique and early Byzantine period, fourth to sixth century (Janković, 2002, 119).
Both authors agree that the church of St Peter was the first to be erected, followed by that of St Paul, but they attribute the entire ensemble to different periods. Popović dates the construction of the first church of St Peter to the second half of the eleventh century and that of the church of St Paul to the mid twelfth.
Janković dates the construction of St Peter to the fourth century, and its final demolition to the late sixth or early seventh century. He dates the construction of the church of St Paul to the first half of the fifth century and its abandonment to the early Ottoman period, at the beginning of the sixteenth century (Janković, 2002, 119).
In the rubble and the burial vaults two coins were found (a Turkish coin and a Hungarian one from the second half of the sixteenth century) which indicates that interments were carried out in the churches up to that period.
NECROPOLIS WITH STEĆAK TOMBSTONES
It is clear that burials were carried out both within and around the churches in mediaeval times. Ćorović states that 121 remained with slabs and one stećak, and that many stećci were destroyed when the new church, surrounding walls and so on were built (Ćorović 1923, 70).
Bešlagić counted 98 stećci in the Orthodox burial ground west of the church, forming two groups – 77 slabs and 21 chests. The workmanship is poor and there are amorphous examples as well. They lie west-east, with the exception of ten that lie north-south. Two chests are decorated with twining vines with trefoils and a sword with a rosette in a twisted garland (Bešlagić, 1971, 405). Popović did not excavate the graves beneath them because the necropolis «had been largely destroyed by recent interments beneath the stećci» (Popović, 1973, 315). There are now some fifty of them in this burial ground, in several groups.
Seventy-seven stećak tombstones were identified on the site of the present-day Orthodox cemetery. Other than some by the north wall of the chuch of St Paul, which may be assumed to be in their original positions, the majority of the tombstones have been relocated, or dumped on the still unused part of the cemetery. One entire group of about ten stećak tombstones have been turned into steps leading to the upper, western section of the cemetery. In some cases it is impossible to tell whether the tombstones have been moved or not. Most of them are in the form of solid low chests up to 30 cm in height. In most cases the workmanship is good and the shape regular. One is decorated with a shield and sword design, which is very common on stećak tombstones in Herzegovina.
3. Legal status to date
In the proceedings prior to the adoption of a final decision to designate the property as a national monument, documents relating to the protection of the property were inspected, with the following findings:
Pursuant to the provisions of the law, by Ruling of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of SRBiH no. 05-777-1/66 in Sarajevo, the archaological site of the monastery and churches of St Peter and St Paul in Čičevo, Trebinje, were placed under the protection of the state under the designation Church of St Peter in Čičevo Dživar.
The regional plan of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to 2002 recorded and evaluated the Church of St Peter in Đivar near Trebinje as a Category I monument.
The archaeological site with the ruins of a monastery and churches of St Peter and St Paul in Čičevo, Trebinje, is on the Provisional List of National Monuments of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, as no. 672, designated as the Benedictine monastery and church of St Peter in the Field, the seat of the bishopric of Trebinje and Mrkanje in Čičevo – Trebinje.
4. Research and works of conservation and restoration
In 1883 the Austrian general Đ. Babić conducted some minor excavations.
In 1906 the remains of the church of St Peter were pulled down and the graves were dug out; the works and remains of the complex were recorded by S. Delić.
In 1911, V. Ćorović excavated the burial vaults in the church of St Paul and the churchyard around it.
Between World Wars I and II, and in particular in the early 1930s, V. Ćorović conducted several minor investigations.
In 1968 a systematic archaeological excavation of the complex of the monastery of St Peter was conducted as part of the Yugoslav-American archaeological project to study the wider Trebišnjica area. The finds from these excavations are in the Museum of Herzegovina in Trebinje.
In 2001 further archaeological investigations began in the church of St Paul, which are due to last for several years. At the same time the site on which the newly founded monastery was built is being studied.
Conservation works to date:
In 1968, at the same time as the excavations, preventive conservation was carried out by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of BiH. On this occasion the damage to the wall of the south chapel was made good by turning it into a door opening that had never previously been there, and the north-east corner pilaster was removed. (Popović 1973, 315, note. 9; Our Antiquities XIII, 192, 35).
5. Current condition of the property
In 1999 the preserved remains of the walls of the oldest church of St Peter were covered with concrete set with stone slabs. At the same time works were conducted to indicate the contours of the ground plan in concrete around the 1906 church. Part of the walls (below ground) and the foundations of the oldest church were thus preserved as excavated by M. Popović in 1968. The entire church of St Peter is now surrounded by an access plateau on which the contours of the apse, diaconicon and prothesis, the choirs, the chapels and the narthex at the west end are indicated.
The remains of the walls of the church of St Paul are preserved to a height of three to five metres. The entrance, windows and parts of the hemispheres above the apses also survive. By comparison with the state of the site in 1968, there are visible signs of later interventions – the entrance in the west wall has been reopened, and to some extent the destroyed east wall of the apse and part of the wall of the north conch have been closed off.
In the village burial ground, still in active use, that lies to the south, south-west and west of the church complex, there are some fifty stećci in various groups, which have probably been moved several times.
Recently, in 1999, a konak for the monastery of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul was erected to the east of the church complex and the village burial ground – this monastery was founded as the first nunnery in the eparchy of Zahum and Herzegovina.
III – CONCLUSION
Applying the Criteria for the adoption of a decision on proclaiming an item of property a national monument (Official Gazette of BiH nos. 33/02 and 15/03), the Commission has enacted the Decision cited above.
The Decision was based on the following criteria:
A. Time frame
B. Historical value
C. Artistic and aesthetic value
C.III. Proportions
C.IV. Composition
C. V. Value of details
D. Clarity
D.I. Material evidence of a lesser known historical period or periods
D.II. Evidence of historical changes
D. IV. Evidence of a particular type, style or regional manner
E. Symbolic value
E.I. Ontological value
E II. Religious value
E III. Traditional value
E IV. Connection with rituals or ceremonies
E. V. Significance for the identity of a group of people
G. Authenticity
G. IV. Tradition and technique
G. V. Location and setting
G. VI. Spirit and feeling
G.VII. Other internal and external factors
H. Rarity and representativity
H.I. Unique or rare example of a certain type or style
The following form an integral part of this Decision:
- Plans and drawings
- Photographs
Bibliography
Bešlagić, Šefik, Stećci, kataloško-topografski pregled. (Stećci, a catalogue and topographical survey) Veselin Masleša, Sarajevo, 1971.
Bojanovski, Ivo, Bosna i Hercegovina u antičko doba. (Bosnia and Herzegovina in ancient times) Academy of the Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Works, Bk. LXVI., Centre for Balkan Studies, bk. 6, Sarajevo 1988.
Ćorović, Vladimir, Hercegovački manastiri, (Monasteries of Herzegovina) Starinar, II series. Journal of the Serbian Archaeological Society. Serbian Royal Academy. Belgrade 1923, (1925.), 69-77.
Delić, Stevan, Petrov manastir kod Trebinja.(St Peter's monastery near Trebinje) Journal of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina XXIV, Sarajevo, 1912, 275-282.
Janković, Đorđe, Late Antique Triconchal Church of St. Apostles Peter and Paul Monastery Near Trebinje. Journal of the Serbian Archaeological Society no. 18, Belgrade, 2002, 99-124.
Popović Marko, Manastir svetog Petra de Campo kod Trebinja. (Monastery of St Peter de Campo near Trebinje) Journal of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, Archaeology, New series, Vols XXVII/XXVIII, Sarajevo, 1973, 313-346,
Regional plan of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Stage «B» - evaluation of natural, cultural and historical assetsi. Institute for Architecture, Urban Planning and Regional Planning of the Faculty of Architecture in Sarajevo, Sarajevo, 1980
Vego, Marko, Novi i revidirani natpisi iz Hercegovine (nastavak). (New and revised epitaphs of Herzegovina (cont.) Journal of the National Museum (Archaeology), n.s. Vol. XIX, Sarajevo, 1964, 173-211.
|
