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 7 to 11 October 2003 the Commission adopted a
D E C I S I O N
I
The historic site of the necropolis with stećak tombstones in Kopošići near Ilijaš is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).
The National Monument is located on cadastral plots 1040 and 1041, Zagrebljan, Ilijaš Municipality, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The provisions relating to protection 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 the Federation of BiH nos. 2/02 and 27/02 shall apply to the National Monument.
II
The Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the Government of the Federation) shall be responsible for ensuring and providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary to protect, conserve and display 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
To ensure the on-going protection of the National Monument, the following measures are hereby stipulated:
Protection Zone I comprises c..p. 1040 and 1041 and is part of the protected zone of the Old Dubrovnik Fort. The following measures shall apply in this zone:
§ only works of conservation and restoration works, including works intended for the display of the monument, carried out to a design project approved by the Federal Ministry responsible for regional planning (hereinafter: the regional planning Ministry) and under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the heritage protection authority), shall be permitted,
§ all construction or works that could have the effect of altering the site are prohibited, as is the erection of temporary facilities or permanent structures not intended solely for the protection and presentation of the National Monument,
§ the dumping of all kinds of waste is prohibited
§ all motor traffic through the Necropola is prohibited
The site of the National Monument shall be open and accessible to the public
The site may be used for educational and cultural purposes.
Protection Zone II comprises a zone 50 m wide from the outer boundaries of Protection Zone I. In this zone the following measures shall apply:
§ new construction is prohibited,
§ the dumping of all kinds of waste is prohibited
§ all infrastructure works are prohibited other than in exceptional cases with the approval of the relevant ministry and under the supervision of the heritage protection authority.
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 the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Canton, and urban and municipal authorities, shall refrain from any action that might damage the National Monument specified in Clause I of this Decision or jeopardize the preservation and rehabilitation thereof.
VI
The Government of the Federation, the regional planning Ministry, 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 (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 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: Zeynep Ahunbay, Amra Hadžimuhamedović, Dubravko Lovrenović, Ljiljana Ševo and Tina Wik.
Chair of the Commission
Amra Hadžimuhamedović
No.: 06-6-15/03-5
8 October 2003
Sarajevo
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 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.
On 7 January 2003, Ilijaš Municipality submitted a motion/petition to designate the historic site of the necropolis of stećak tombstones in Kopošić as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Pursuant to the provisions of the law, the Commission 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:
§ Documentation on the location and current owner and user of the property (copy of cadastral plan and copy of land registry entry)
§ Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs, data of war damage, data on restoration or other works on the property if any, etc.
§ 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 site are as follows:
1.Information on the property
Location
The village of Kopošić lies at the foot of the northern slope of Hum hill in Ilijaš Municipality, about 1 km from the old fort of Dubrovnik. The stećak necropolis is alongside the Catholic burial ground, at the top of the village.
Historical information
The only historical information is an epitaph on the stećak beneath which Prince Batić is interred. This recounts that he was prince by the grace of God and King Tvrtko. According to Anđelić (1984, 123), he probably belonged to the feudal family Pribinić, one of whose members, Radoje Radosalić Pribinić, was also a grand prince of Bosnia Radoja, whom Batić Mirković succeeded. Prince Batić appears as a witness in charters dated 1405, 1408, 1419 and 1420. The name King Tvrtko refers in this case to Tvrtko II. The holdings of this aristocratic family, of whom the first known figure is Mirko Radojević (father of Prince Batić) and his older brother Jurša Radojević. They appear in documents dating from the reign of King Tvrtko I and Dabiša. Prince Batić died sometime between August 1420 and 1421 (Vego, 1970, 56).
According to the epitaph on the stećak, the aristocratic Mirković family was somewhere in the Misoča valley, in Upper Bosnia, in other words the old county of Vogošća. The Dubrovnik fort, about 1 km from Kopošić, is first mentioned in 1404, i.e. a year before Prince Batić makes an appearance as a witness in royal charters.
The third piece of information provided by the epitaph is the name of Batić’s wife Vukava, who is probably interred beneath stećak no. 2. This assumption is based on the outstanding workmanship and decoration of that stećak (Mazalić, 1939, 29) .
The necropolis dates from the first half of the fifteenth century.
2. Description of the property
The necropolis consists in fact of two groups. One group of six tombstones (Mazalić, 1939, 29, refers to seven stećaks) is in the Catholic burial ground of the village of Kopošići, and the other group, with eight stećaks, is about 70 m to the east, in the Hodžak meadow, alongside the road from the Zenika valley to Kopošići and Nasići.
According to its epitaph, Prince Batić lies buried beneath stećak no. 1, a ridge-shaped tombstone with a pedestal. The pedestal measures 2.32 x 1.16 x 0.28 m, and the ridge is 2.10 m long, 1 m wide at the widest point beneath the ridge, and 0.90 m wide at the base, with a height of 1 m of which 0.25 is the gable and 0.75 the chest. This stećak stands out in its harmonious proportions, elegance of form and simplicity of decoration.
The epitaph on the side of the stećak reads:
"Va ime otca i sina i svetoga Duha amin. Se leži knez Batić na svojoj zemlji na plemenitoj, milostju božjom i slavnoga gospodina kralja Tvrtka knez bosanski. Na Visokom se pobolih, na Duboku me dan dojde. Si bilig postavi gospoja Vukava s mojimi dobrim i živu mi virno služaše i mrtvu mi posluži". (In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, Amen. Here lies Prince Batić in his noble land, by the grace of God and the glory of King Tvrtko, Bosnian prince. Taken sick in Visoko, my day came in Duboko. This epitaph was placed by my lady Vukava and my good people who faithfully obeyed me while living and serves me now I am dead.) (Anđelić, 1984, 123: Vego 1964, no. 245, p.57).
Stećak no. 2, assumed to have belonged to Batić’s wife Vukava, is also ridge-shaped, with a pedestal of a single piece of stone. The pedestal measures 2.2 m long by 1.1 m wide by 0.3 m high, and the ridge is 2 m long x 1 m wide beneath the ridge and 0.9 m wide at the base, with a height of 0.9 m of which 0.2 m is the gable and 0.7 m the chest. The roof section of the ridge-shaped tombstone is emphasized by a twisted band, “a tile as roof cladding”, and the chest by rosettes. The side walls have spiral ornamentation and rosettes.
Stećak no. 3 is also a ridge-shaped tombstone with a pedestal. The pedestal measures 1.9 m long by 0.8 m wide and 0.27 m high, and the ridge 1.7 m long by 0.8 m wide beneath the ridge and 0.6 m at the base, with a height of 0.65 m of which 0.5 is the chest and 0.15 the gable. This tombstone is specific in having a double pedestal and a “roof” edged with a twisted band.
The other three stećak tombstones in the burial ground and outside the fence have either sunk into the ground or tipped over, so that it was not possible fully to ascertain their dimensions and even their shape.
On the site known as Hodžak there are four ridge-shaped tombstones, two of which have pedestal, and four chest-shaped. The ground on which they stand is neglected and untidy. Stećak no. 8 belongs to the group in the Catholic burial ground and came to rest here. It is the only one with ornamentation in Hodžak Stećak no. 7 is buried, no. 9 is broken, no. 11 is battered and overturned, no. 12 is sunken, and no. 14 is overturned and sunken.
All the stećak tombstones are finely dressed and nicely proportioned, with decorations of good workmanship. Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 8, however, stand out from the others for their particularly harmonious proportions, quality of workmanship and decorative features. All have twisted bands, and three also have various combinations of eight-leaved rosettes, spirals and racemes, apples and architectural elements. Batić's stećak, that of his wife Vukava and the children's grave (stećaks 1,2,3) are “houses of eternal repose” with particularly striking structural elements.
3. Legal status to date
The monument is not listed in the Provisional List of National Monuments of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments; this Decision is enacted pursuant to the petition submitted by Ilijaš Municipality on 7 January 2003.
In the Regional Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina of 1980 in Ilijaš Municipality they are registered as Category III.
4. Research and conservation and restoration works
None.
5. Current condition of the property
On the basis of an on-site inspection and information received from Ilijaš Municipality, the following was ascertained:
• The site is badly neglected and at risk of rapid deterioration as the result of the lack of regular maintenance. The surrounding residential areas have been laid waste and are deserted.
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.iv. composition
C.vi. value of construction
D. Clarity
D.i. material evidence of a lesser known historical era
D. iv. evidence of a particular type, style or regional manner
F. Townscape/ Landscape value
F.iii. the building or group of buildings is part of group or site
G. Authenticity
G.v. location and setting
The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:
- Copy of cadastral plan
- Copy of land register entry and proof of title;
- Photodocumentation;
- Drawings
Bibliography
During the procedure to designate the monument as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:
- Anđelić, Pavo, Srednji vijek - doba stare bosanske države.(The Middle Ages – period of the old Bosnian state) In: Visoko i okolina kroz istoriju 1 (Visoko and its surroundings through the ages) Assembly of Visoko Municipality, Visoko, 1984, 103-309
- Bešlagić, Šefik, Stećci. Kataloško topografski pregled. (Stećak tombstones: catalogue topographical overview) Veselin Masleša. Sarajevo, 1971
- Hörmann, Kosta, Nadgrobni spomenik kneza Batića. (Funerary monument of Prince Batić), Journal of the National Museum in Sarajevo II, Sarajevo, 1891, 391-395
- Mazalić, Đoko, Starine po okolini Sarajeva. (Antiquities in the Sarajevo region) Journal of the National Museum in Sarajevo II, Sarajevo, 1891, 391-395 LI, V ol. 1, 1939 (1940), Sarajevo, 1940, 15-35 1891.
- Vego, Marko, Zbornik srednjovjekovnih natpisa Bosne i Hercegovine, IV. (Collection of mediaeval inscriptions of BiH) National Museum in Sarajevo II, Sarajevo, 1970.
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