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Church dedicated to the translation of the relics of St Nicholas, a log-built church in the village of Jelićka, 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 from 3 to 9 May 2005 the Commission adopted a

 

D E C I S I O N

 

I

 

The architectural ensemble of the Orthodox timber-built church (church dedicated to the translation of the relics of St Nicholas) in Jelićka, Municipality Prijedor, is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).

The National Monument consists of the church, the belltower, and the movable heritage consisting of the icons on the iconostasis screen and six books.

The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 785/1, Land Register entry no. 246, cadastral municipality Jelićka, Municipality Prijedor, Republika Srpska, 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 Republika Srpska no. 9/02) shall apply to the National Monument.

 

II

 

The Government of Republika Srpska 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 (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 property, the following protection measures are hereby stipulated:

Protection Zone I consists of the site on which the church is located.  In this zone:

  • all works are prohibited other than conservation and restoration works and routine maintenance works on the church, with the approval of the Ministry responsible for regional planning in Republika Srpska and under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority of Republika Srpska (hereinafter: the heritage protection authority).

 

A protective strip with a radius of 50 m from the church is hereby stipulated.  In this protective zone the construction of new buildings that could be detrimental in height or horizontal dimensions 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 authorities, shall refrain from any action that might damage the National Monument or jeopardize the preservation and rehabilitation thereof.

 

VI

 

The removal of the movable heritage referred to in Clause 1 para. 2 of this Decision (hereinafter: the movable heritage) from Bosnia and Herzegovina is prohibited.

By way of exception to the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Clause, the temporary removal from Bosnia and Herzegovina of the movable heritage for the purposes of display or conservation shall be permitted if it is established that conservation works cannot be carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Permission for temporary removal under the conditions stipulated in the preceding paragraph shall be issued by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, if it is determined beyond doubt that it will not jeopardize the movable heritage in any way. 

In granting permission for the temporary removal of the movable heritage from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Commission shall stipulate all the conditions under which the removal may take place, the date by which the items shall be returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the responsibility of individual authorities and institutions for ensuring that these conditions are met, and shall notify the Government of Republika Srpska, the relevant security service, the customs authority of  Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the general public accordingly.

 

VII

 

The Government of Republika Srpska, the Ministry responsible for regional planning in Republika Srpska and the heritage protection authority of Republika Srpska, 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 – VI of this Decision, and the Authorized Municipal Court shall be notified for the purposes of registration in the Land Register.

 

VIII

 

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) 

 

IX

 

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.

 

X

 

On the date of adoption of this Decision, the National Monument shall be deleted from the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of BiH no. 33/02, Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 79/02, Official Gazette of the Federation of BiH no. 59/02, and Official Gazette of Brčko District BiH no. 4/03), where it featured under serial no. 470.

 

XI

 

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.

 

No. 07.2-02-108/05-5

4 May 2005

Sarajevo

 

Chair of the Commission

Ljiljana Ševo

 

 

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.

The Commission to Preserve National Monuments issued a decision to add the timber-built church in the village of Jelićka to the Provisional List of National Monuments, under serial no. 470.

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:

  • 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, etc.
  • Copy of cadastral plan and copy of land registry entry
  • 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. Details of the property

Location

            The village of Jelićka(1) is in an area known as Timar. Timar is a leval expanse in the lower course of the river Gomionica, between the towns of Prijedor and Bronzani Majdan, and surrounded by Mts Kozara and Banja Luka’s Vrhovina. There are a number of villages and hamlets in this area: Jelićka, Slavićka, Radosavska, Niševići, Sratinska, Gradina, Marićka, Busnovi, Bistrica, Omarska and Rakelići. Almost every one of them has its own log-built church.

The National Monument stands on c.p. no. 785/1, c.m. Jelićka, Municipality Prijedor, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Historical information

            According to a census drawn up in 1911for the Banja Luka eparchy(2),  there was a total of 83 timber-built religious edifices in the Bosnian krajina (frontier region) (2nd schematism of the Orthodox Banja Luka Bihać metropolitanate for 1911). As regards their date of origin, seven dated from the 18th century, sixteen from the 19th (pre 1878), and a total of sixty prior to 1911. Up to 1952 there were almost thirty of them. Many disappeared during World War II and in the early years following the war, the principal reasons for which were largely associated with the war and, later, poor or inadequate maintenance of these buildings.

Local tradition(3) relates that there was a small, very simple church(4) in the village of Jelićka on the left bank of the river Gomionica, in a place called Kućiština, which was moved to another place, hidden in the forests, in the space of a single night(5). The church on that site soon fell into ruins. Petar Momirović, who studied folk architecture in these parts, recounts that when he carried out his investigations (in the 1950s), the ruins of the church were still visible.

An old Serbian psalter in the museum of the old Orthodox church in Sarajevo refers to a pope (Orthodox priest) named Ninko in Timar in 1699; in 1742 there is reference to priests Lazo and Damijan, and a ritual book in the Gomionica monastery contains the inscription: «This book – Trebnik – is the property of me, a humble sinner, priest Ilija Damenović. Timar, 23 July 1785.»

There are numerous records throughout the 19th century referring to priests in Jelićka, evidence that at this time the church was very active in that part of the world, well before 1841 which is the date given for the construction of the church(6) on the inscription incised above the entrance door to the church.

The inscription features the name of the craftsman Jovo Čanak. It should be noted that the log-built church in the neighbouring Timar village of Rakelići was built in 1856 by craftsman led by Mirko Čanak, indicating that at that time there was a family or group of builders in the region who passed on their trade from generation to generation (Ševo, 58).

The present log-built church in the village of Jelićka was built in three years. The logs were cut in the neighbouring village of Marićka, and the ironmongery (wedges and hinges) were made in ten forges(7) (Ševo, p. 58).

           

2. Description of the property

Timber buildings constitute a large group in the architectural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Retaining distant Slav traces, the churches of Bosnia are full of inventiveness and adapted to natural conditions and existential needs (Pavlović, 1962. p. 91). Since these are buildings of modest size, they were often listed as ”log-built” or ”village-style” (Bećirbegović, 1999, p. 9).

            In regions rich in building-quality timber, many buildings of various types, form and purpose can be seen. Timber church architecture was evolving into an extensive architecture with its own typical decoration when its evolution was abruptly cut short(8).

According to Petar Momirović, log-built churches can be divided into four groups:

  1. simple rectangular churches of small size and mainly without apse,
  2. larger rectangular churches with decorative roofs and polygonal apse,
  3. a transitional form with additional three-sided apse and new structural and decorative elements, and
  4. a new type of log-built church with more elaborate ground plan, finer workmanship and austere lines. (9)   

In her book Džamije sa drvenom munarom (Mosques with wooden minarets), Prof. Madžida Bećirbegović classified timber-built churches according to building methods and general features(10). She classifies log-built churches into just two groups:

  • pre-18th century churches(11), and
  • 19th century churches(12) 

In terms of their date of origin, the churches may be classified into three basic types:

  • older log-built churches (built in the mid 18th century(13))
  • more recent (built during the 19th century(14)), and
  • churches of transitional type. 

The church in Jelićka is dedicated to the festival of the Translation of the relics of St Nicholas.  It belongs to the group of churches of more recent type. According to Petar Momirović, these are «churches of larger size but not elaborate, the timber of good workmanship, bolder in construction, by an experienced hand, and tastefully decorated» (Momirović, p. 158).

The ground plan of the church is a rectangle with the sides 9.00 m. long (excluding the apse) and 5.40 m wide. To the east the church has a five-sided altar apse 1.35 m long, making the overall east-west length of the church 10.35 m.

The walls are about 2.35 m high, and the overall height of the church from ground level to the rounded roof ridge is approx. 7.30 m.  At a height of about 3.35 m, by the eave purlin, the pitch of the roof becomes less steep (approx. 30 deg.), forming 1.30 m wide eaves.

The entire church is of smoothly dressed oak logs. The basal logs formerly rested on the ground, until interventions in 1890-95 when the church was provided with a stone socle. The basal log is 0.37 cm in height. The remaining lots are laid horizontally, one upon another, all the way up to the eave purlin.

At the corners of the west end, the longitudinal logs of the side walls and transverse logs of the west facade wall are joined by double overlaps. When the side walls were built, given the impossibility of finding 9-metre long treetrunks of even thickness, blind cuts known as ćert(15)   were made at the ends of the logs with a length of about 6 metres, with matching cuts at the ends of shorter logs. These cuts were fitted together and iron cramps used to hold them together, so creating logs of the desired length and thickness. The gaps that this produced were covered inside and out by oak boards giving the impression of pilasters.

This method of joining timber components seems complicated at first glance, since it would be much simpler to link the structural components by placing an upright with grooves into which the horizontal beams would be fitted. In this case, the builder deliberately avoided this method, knowing that it would result in a weaker structure (shallow grooves would mean the horizontal logs would not be firmly held in place, while deeper grooves would weaken the upright). The chosen method resulted in a stronger bond.

This solution was applied only on the south wall of the church. To the north, it was unnecessary, since on this side there was a an entrance door with wide, substantial doorjambs into which the horizontal logs were tenon-jointed.

To create a polygonal apse and ensure that the timbers were bonded with the necessary rigidity, the builder used double angled overlaps with the ends of the logs cut at an angle. The oblique lines of the joins at the angles of the apse create a handsome, lively impression.

All the other logs are of equal thickness, at 17 cm. They are rectangular in section, but of different heights. The basal beam is 37 cm high, and the others range from 8 via 13 to as much as 25 cm. To provide extra rigidity, they are spiked with substantial iron wedges.

The roof structure is a framework of rafters interlinked by angle braces, with no ridge beam. The rounded part of the roof is conical in shape, and constructed using a large number of purlines without doubling the corner rafters.

The eaves are constructed by adding a large number of exterior purlines. The underside of the eaves are clad with softwood šašavac wedges over their entire length, and the front is faced with clapboarding with semicircles cut into the underside. Battens are laid over the rafters, to which several layers of oak shingles are nailed. The shingles are attached with a large quantity of square-section, large-headed nails.

The decoration on the frontal cornice is composed of cutouts and incisions. The craftsman thereby created the semicircular design which terminates the eaves and circles over half the width of the decorative cornice.

The way the structure of the barrel vault in the interior of the building has been handled suggests a skilled craftsman. The basic timbers of the vault are rectangular in section. They do not rest on the side walls, but are displaced inwards from the eave purlin by about 60 cm, with their ends resting on the west wall and the first side of the polygonal altar apse. The timbers are underpinned by a row of short beams or consols, which overlap and are attached to the end logs of the side walls. On the underside they are compressed by the eave purlin and the weight of the roof, so that the consols and the timbers forming the vault are perfectly stable.

Semicircular ribs are fixed to the vault timber. To the sides, the ribs are held by the rafters, and joined at the top over the entire length of the vault by a beam which is attached to the roof battens.

The structure of the semi-calotte of the altar area is executed using the ribs of the shorter arch. On the inside, šašavac wedges are nailed to the ribs to create a barrel vault extending over the full length of the church and the altar semi-calotte.

The vault is 4.30 m high (measured from floor level), with a span of 3.25 m. The church previously had a brick floor.

The interior of the church consists of the altar area and nave. The altar area is about 12 cm above the level of the rest of the church. The hierarchical chair is on a stone pier made of soft limestone.

During renovations in the 1890s, a wooden choir gallery 2.40 m wide was built at the west end of the church, reached via a wooden staircase. The east side of the choir has a wooden railing 78 cm in height. The choir itself is at a height of 2.36 metres.

The altar area of the church is divided from the nave by an iconostasis screen. The iconostasis was mounted in the church in this form in the 1890s during major renovations to the church. It consists of wooden panels with inset icons painted in tempera on canvas. The paintings are by a local craftsman.

Compositionally, the iconostasis screen consists of several parts:

-                      the lower range of icons, with the following scenes:

§          Original sin – north-east side of the iconostasis, on the altar doors.

The painting is coated with a layer of soot and dirt, and splashed with wax in places.  The scene shows God the Father pointing at Adam and Eve.  At the top, near the royal doors, the title of the scene is inscribed in dark-toned Cyrillic capital letters.

§          Cain, tiller of soil – north-east side of the iconostasis, on the altar doors.

The painting is coated with a layer of soot and dirt, and splashed with wax in places.  The corner of the painting nearest the royal doors has been burnt – almost half the painting is affected, and traces of burning can be seen in the middle of the lower half of the painting. The lower part of the painting is almost indecipherable, so thick is the layer of dirt and deposits of mould caused by damp.  The painting is so badly damaged that the figure of Cain cannot be seen.  The title of the scene is inscribed at the top in dark-toned Cyrillic capital letters.

§          Death of Abel – north-west side of the iconostasis

The painting is torn in a number of places nearest the royal doors, and the coat of paint in the lower part of the icon is badly damaged.

The painting is a scene of Abraham standing with a knife in his hand.  Facing him is an angel, leaning down towards a group of people in the lower part of the icon (which is so badly damaged that the group of people can barely be made out).  The title of the scene is inscribed at the top in dark-toned Cyrilliac capital letters.

§          Abraham's sacrifice – north-west side of the iconostasis – on the altar doors.

The painting is coated with a layer of soot and dirt, and splashed with wax in places.  The scene is of Abram offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice.  Abram is facing the heavens, where an angel is appearing.  The title of the scene is inscribed at the top in dark-toned Cyrillic capital letters.

-                      the central range of icons, with the following scenes:

§          Translation of the relics of St Nicholas – north-east side of the iconostasis, on the altar doors

The painting is coated with a layer of soot and dirt, and splashed with wax in places.  The scene is a funeral procession led by four priests followed by the people carrying the coffin on their shoulders.  In the background is a church with a covered area for a clapper, which a monk is striking.  The title of the scene is inscribed at the top in dark-toned Cyrillic capital letters.

§          Mother of God and Christ – north-east side of the iconostasis

The painting is coated with a layer of soot and dirt, and splashed with wax in places.  It is torn in five places.

This is an ordinary throne icon showing the Mother of God enthroned with the infant Christ on her left arm.  Christ is giving a blessing with His right hand and holding a scroll in His left.

§          Christ Pantocrator – north-west side of the iconostasis

The painting is coated with a layer of soot and dirt, and splashed with wax in places.  It is torn in two places.

This is an ordinary throne icon showing Christ enthroned, giving a blessing with His right hand and holding the Gospels open in His left.

§          St John the Baptist – north-west side of the iconostasis, on the altar doors.

The painting is covered with a layer of soot and dirt and splashed with wax in places.  The saint is show standing, dressed in a rough brown robe with a green cloak over it.  He is giving a blessing with his right hand and holding a tall cross and a scroll in his left; the scroll bears the words «Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,» inscribed in dark-toned Cyrillic capital letters.

-                      lower range of icons

§          Three apostles

§          Holy Trinity – in the form of God the Father and Christ on a cloud and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove at the top of the painting

§          Three apostles

§          Three apostles

§          Three apostles

This range consists of paintings with the twelve apostles, standing, holding scrolls. The painted surface is covered with soot and dirt.

-                      top of the iconostasis screen

  • Icon – so thickly coated with dirt and soot that, especially in the dark church, it is impossible to say who the figure on the icon is (the Mother of God)
  • Modelled dragon
  • Cross
  • Modelled dragon
  • Icon – so thickly coated with dirt and soot that, especially in the dark church, it is impossible to say who the figure on the icon is (St John the Baptist)

Royal doors

The scene on the royal doors is of the Annunciation with Kings David and Solomon in the semicircular top section, and the four evangelists at the bottom.

The background of the doors is dark brown. They have some slightly paler medallions edged with ochre, containing the figures of saints.

The lower section on the north-east section shows the figure of the evangelists John and Mark, and on the south-east section the figures of Matthew and Mark. The evangelists are not shown with their usual attributes, but only with a pen and book – open or closed.

The scene of the Annunciation shows the Archangel Gabriel on the north-east and the Virgin on the south-east section of the doors. The Archangel Gabriel is shown standing, turned slightly towards the Virgin, with his left hand raised, and holding a lily in his right. The Virgin is shown standing, turned slightly towards the Archangel Gabriel. Her arms are folded across her breast. Above her is the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove surrounded by the rays of the sun.

At the top of the doors, the north-east section shows King Solomon holding a scroll in his right hand and pointing to King David with his left. The doors are quite badly damaged at this point.  King David is shown on the south-east section of the doors with a scroll in his left hand and his right arm slightly bent at the elbow.

The lower part of the doors is quite badly damaged (particularly the north-east section), with the painted layer cracked and split. Elsewhere on the same section the paint has split in a number of other places, and cracks are also visible on the other section.

 

The church in Jelička owns a number of Russian publications:

  • A New Testament dating from 1793
  • An octoechos dating from 1764
  • A psalter dating from 1752
  • A missal dating from the first half of the 18th century
  • A prayer book dating from the first half of the 19th century
  • An octoechos printed in Vienna in the early 19th century with an old inscription from the donor, headpriest Simoun Popović, hero of Kočić's tale Mračajski proto 

Almost all these books have an inscription by the donor or owner.

 

            The church has two doors – the main door at the west end of the building, and a side door on the north side.

            The west door is set between two solid oak doorjambs. Above the entrance, the eaves are cut into.The door lintel is round-arched, or semi-elliptical. The angles of the lintel are decorated with two bold designs in a circle: to the north a rosette, and to the south Solomon's seal, with a smaller rosette within it(16). Towards the centre of the arch is a grooved circle. The centre of the lintel bears the date when the church was built. The string course of the lintel by the door is decorated with interlinked semicircles.

The eaves by the west door are also decorated: to the north is a carved Solomon's seal, and to the south a rosette.

The church doors are double rectangular doors. Each door is composed of a single piece of wood.  To this are nailed, at the top and the bottom, thin laths to which the hinges are attached.  The iron hinges are curved into a double circle with the inner ends curving inwards. The north door of the church is a single door, also of a single piece of wood, closed with a lock with a large key. The entrance has a single stone step.

The original windows were cut through two adjacent logs and measured 20 x 20 cm.  These were probably closed by small shutters on the inside of the church. There were five in all, three in the altar area and two in the nave. These windows were later filled in with timber.

During the interventions in 1890-95, to improve the lighting in the church, three large windows were pierced in the altar area and two in the south wall of the central part of the church.  These were fitted with iron bars, glazed and provided with iron shutters.

During the Austro-Hungarian period, a belltower was erected outside the church, by the west entrance. The belltower is roughly square in ground plan, measuring 3.10 x 3.10 metres.  The structure consists of four wooden 30 x 30 cm pillars with the distance between them gradually narrowing towards the top. The pillars stand on stone bases. Ten rows of wooden boards with semicircular ends are nailed to the outside. The belltower has a hipped roof clad with shingles. A wooden clapper is attached to the west side of the belltower.

The church has a spacious fenced churchyard. There were formerly two leanto's in the churchyard, where the congregation used to assemble. More recently (in the 1970s) a new church and hostel and a memorial to members of the Yugoslav National Army and the Army of Republika Srpska killed in action have been erected.

 

3. Legal status to date

By ruling of the National Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and Natural Rarities of NR BiH in Sarajevo, no. 12/52, dated 8 January 1952, the building was placed under state protection, and by ruling of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of NR BiH in Sarajevo no. 02-774-3 dated 18 April 1962 the church was placed under protection and entered on the Register of immovable cultural monuments. This ruling became legally valid on 24 October 1962.

The property is on the Provisional List of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the title log-built church in the village of Jelićka under serial no. 470.

 

4. Research and conservation and restoration works

According to information from the annual Naše starine,  the Institue for the Protection of Monuments of BiH and the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska, in the late 19th century the following works were carried out on the church:

  • A stone wall was built below the foundation timbers
  • A wooden choir gallery was built inside the church at the west end of the nave
  • The windows were enlarged and glazed, and fitted with iron bars on the outside
  • A wooden belltower was built at the west end of the church. 

According to Milijana Okilj, a graduate architect from the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska, since the 1992-1995 war in BiH this Institute has not been involved in any conservation and restoration works on the building.

Most of the works have been done by the local inhabitants of the village of Jelićka and the local priest.

The most recent works were in 2002 and consisted of:

  • Repairs to the foundations below the main beam, with the joints repointed
  • New flooring in the central prayer area
  • Repairs to the underside of the eaves, replacing the old šašavac wedges with new ones.

5. Current condition of the property

The church in Jelićka is in good structural condition. There are no problems with damp or structural problems in the building itself. There is damage visible on the underside of the eaves and on the šašavac wedges inside the building, caused by using unseasoned wood which has split and broken away from its moorings as it dries. This was confirmed by the parish priest, who said that the wood was still damp when used. New timbers have been stacked by the south wall of the church.

In the plot where the log-built church stands, a new church and hostel were built in the 1970s. Since the war in BiH, to the west of the log-built church a memorial fountain in memory of YNA soldiers and later Army of RS soldiers killed in action has been erected.

The icons on the iconostasis screen are in poor condition, covered with a thick layer of soot and dirt. On almost all of them, the paint has split and cracks.  One is affected by damp and showing signs of mould. One icon has been burnt, and the canvas has split on some of them.

 

6. Specific risks

Failure to take steps to protect the icons and iconostasis.

 

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. i. quality of workmanship

C.ii. quality of materials

C.iii. proportions

C.iv. composition

C. v. value of details

C.vi. value of construction

D. Clarity

D.ii. evidence of historical change

D. iv. evidence of a particular type, style or regional manner

D. v. evidence of a typical way of life at a specific period

E. Symbolic value

E.i. ontological value

E.ii. religious value

E.iii. traditional value

E.iv. relation to rituals or ceremonies

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.iii.  the building or group of buildings is part of a group or site

 

The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:

-     Copy of cadastral plan

-     Copy of land register entry and proof of title;

-     Documentation of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport:

o        ground plan scale 1:50

o        longitudinal section scale 1:50

o        cross section scale 1:50

o        details

-     Photodocumentation of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, taken by Mirzah Fočo

 

Bibliography:

            During the procedure to designate the log-built church in Jelička as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:

 

1912.    2nd schematism of the Serbian Orthodox Banja Luka-Bihać Metropolitanate for 1911, Banjaluka, 1912

 

1953.    Momirović, Petar, Naše starine I, 1953

 

1956.    Momirović, Petar, Drvene crkve zapadne Bosne (Wooden churches of western Bosnia), Naše starine III, 1956

 

1962.    Pavlović, St. Dobroslav, Crkve brvnare u Srbiji (Log-built churches in Serbia) Doctoral dissertation defended at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade, Belgrade, 1962.

 

1989.    Škaljić, Abdulah, Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom jeziku (Turkicisms in Serbo-Croatian), Svjetlost,

 

2000.    Various authors, Srpska pravoslavna eparhija banjalučka 1900-2000 (The Serbian Orthodox Banja Luka Eparchy 1900-2000), Schematism, Banja Luka 2000

 

2002.    Nenadović, M., Slobodan, Ilustrovani rečnik izraza u narodnoj arhitekturi (Illustrated dictionary of terms in folk architecture), Prosveta, 2002.

 

2002.    Ševo, Ljiljana, Crkva u Romanovcima. (The church in Romanovcima) Pravoslavne crkve i manastiri u Bosni i Hercegovini do 1878 (Orthodox churches and monasteries in BiH to 1878), Banja Luka, 2002.

 

2004.    Lalić, Slobodanka, Folklorni elementi u dekoraciji u crkvama brvnarama u Bosni i Hercegovini (Folklore elements in the decoration of log-built churches in BiH)

 

2004.    Fočo Mirzah, Tradicionalna arhitektura BiH – Upotreba drveta u sakralnoj arhitekturi (Traditional architecture of BiH – use of wood in religious architecture) Seminar paper, Interdisciplinary post-graduate studies at the Faculty of Architecture in Sarajevo.

 

(1) Since two families, the Jelić and the Popović families, provided the priests in this village, the entire village was given the name Jelićka (Momirović, p. 157).

(2) The church belongs to the Banja Luka eparchy, founded in 1900 as a metropolitanate. This eparchy is in north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to this, the region belonged to the Dabrobosnian metropolitanate. Prior to this, the region belonged to the Dabrobosnian metropolitanate.  The first bishop of this eparchy was Metropolitan Evgenije Letica (1901–1907), followed by Serbian archpriests Vasilije Popović (1908–1938), Platon Jovanović (1940–1941), Dr Vasilije Kostić (1947–1961), Dr Andrej Frusić (1961–1980) and the present bishop, Jefrem Milutinović.

(3) The tradition is that during the time of Prince Timar there was one Radiša who had a servant whom the Ottomans carried off with them to Istanbul, where he finished school and became a pasha. Later, as pasha, he invited Prince Radiša to Istanbul and gave him permission to build a new church. The church was known as Radiša's church after him (Ševo, p. 58). 

(4) Timber-built religions buildings differ very little in outward appearance from timber-built houses.  They have no monumental features at all. Every structural component, and every detail, is to the human scale. The walls are not high, the entrances are not accentuated by any particularly richly decorated portal. In face, these low walls, the simple workmanship, and the spacious steeply pitched roof with projecting eaves are the basic features of the outward appearance of this architecture. Despite their simplicity, the builders of these buildings brought to them all the experience they had acquired over the years, and thereby gave them a certain suggestion of monumentality. In this case, a building of harmonious proportions imbued with folklore elements from the region where it came into being was unintentionally achieved (Pavlović,1956, p.53).

(5) The timbers can easily be dismantled and moved, to be reassembled in a more suitable spot.  Evidence for this lies not only in folk traditions but also a number of records and incised marks enabling the builders to reassemble the building.  Individual structural components had holes at the ends through which ropes and wedges would be passed so that they could be dragged by a team of bullocks to the desired site. The distances would not be great, usually a few kilometres (Pavlović, 53 , Fočo, 16).

(6) The information on the basis of which a church can be dated can vary and be more or less exact. The most reliable are authentic documentary references in the building itself and, for example, recording: «built in 1821» or an inscription on a built-in altar icon reading «this church was built by lord Vuica in memory 1818».  Such information can be treated as reliable evidence of the date of construction. In some such buildings, inscriptions have been found recording the date of construction or the date when the foundations were laid.  Some information can be used as the basis for calculating how long certain works lasted.  The year engraved on an iconostasis, however, cannot always be taken as the date of construction of the church.  As a rule, icons and royal doors are painted immediately after the church is built, usually a year or two later.  However, sometimes icons were painted over a longer period.  Caution is needed in the case of icons where the inscription does not denote the church for which they were intended, since it is common for the icons in a particular church to have originated in another church or for icons not associated with a specific church to be presented as a gift from elsewhere. Inscriptions are usually to be found on the royal doors, which are older in some cases than the building itself, having belonged to an older church on the foundations of which the newer one was erected.  Doors can even belong to a completely different church in another place altogether.  Other information that can be used to date a church can be found in the records in various books, chronicles or plaques mounted to commemorate the renovation of the church.  Again, caution is needed with such data, which are often quite arbitrary – a priest, for example, may note some facts that are unproven. Burial grounds, various pieces of information about a particular settlement and life there, and folk tradition can be of great help in dating churches. Traditions are full of arbitrary details generated by the imagination. Buildings usually speak for themselves. An analysis of individual architectural, structural and technological elements from buildings of which the date is known, and a comparison with those of which the date is not known, enables one, with experience, to determine the decade or quarter-century when the latter could have been built.

(7) The master smith was one Jovo Čanak of Prijedor.

(8) It is not known whether the number of such buildings fell because of over-exploitation of forest timber to meet modern needs for timber or because of new techniques and the use of modern building materials, but it is a fact that, for example, the erection of a new church right beside St Nicholas' church in Javorani led indirectly to the older, 18th century timber-built church falling into dereliction – once it was abandoned, it was no longer maintained, and rapidly deteriorated. It was much the same with the timber-built church in the village of Kola.

(9) See Decision designating the architectural ensemble of the log-built church in Romanovci as a National Monument.

(10) This classification works only for buildings the exact date of origin of which is known and where there have been no later interventions, which were very common in the case of log-built churches. Following certain interventions, usually in the form of extensions or of transferring parts of one church to another, what is in fact authentic becomes open to question.

(11) In her view, the first group is typified by simpler workmanship and decoration, a rectangular ground plan with no apse, and a roof structure that is exposed on the interior. These churches are of modest workmanship and, in choice of materials and workmanship, look more like an ordinary village house than a religious building. The churches in Malo Blaško, Šljivan (demolished in the 1950s or 60s), Javorine, Romanovci and Kola.

(12) The second group includes the churches in the villages of Jelićka, Rakelići, Busnovi, and Marićka.  These churches are considerably larger, and have one or more apses.

(13) A total of five buildings from this period survive in Bosnia and Herzegovina: the churches in Malo  Blaško near Slatina, the church in Javorani near Kneževo, the church in Romanovci near Gradiška, and the church in Han-Kola near Banja Luka. They are about 50 km apart. They were probably built (or perhaps rebuilt on the site of older churches) in the first half of the 18th century. They share certain features in common. All are modest in size, no more than 9 m in length and 4 m in width. In size and construction they do not differ from the timber-built houses people lived in in those days, or from various small-sized buildings used for production (e.g. mills and stamping mills). The ground plan of these churches is usually rectangular, with the load-bearing structure set direct on the ground without any foundations or dry stone underpinnings to transfer the load to load-bearing ground. In most cases they are built on cut stone. As a rule the skeleton system was used, supported by wooden uprights tenon-jointed to the base beam.  This was thus a type of skeleton system with consisting of uprights and walls of tongue-and-groove boards. In addition, buildings of this kind have an architecturally very interesting roof structure with a ridge and trough at the top (Ševo, 1996, 73, Stanković, 2003, 62).  Some churches are made of true rectangular-section logs, joined at the corners by overlapping.  The upper log of this type of structure often formed the eave purlin; in some cases, this was doubled to form a dual eave purline. Struts were mounted between the uprights to reinforce the structure and add stability to the walls. The churches in this group had very few openings, only an entrance at the west end, usually with a solid arched lintel and jambs. The oak doors are rectangular, with horizontal crossbars at the back and an iron lock with a large key. Light entered the church, usually around the altar, through angled horizontal gaps between the logs. In Romanovci and Blaško there are purpose-made narrow slits in the timbers, which can be closed by flaps.

(14) There are four log-built churches dating from this period in Bosnia and Herzegovina: the churches in the villages of Jelićka, Marićka, Rakelići and Busnovi. These timber-built places of worship are in north-western Bosnia, close to the town of Prijedor, in the Timar district. They are about twenty kilometres apart.  With the exception of the church in Jelićki, which was built rather earlier, they were all built over a period of about twenty years, betwwen 1856 and 1872. The churches of this group share certain features.  They are considerably larger than the previous group. They are rectangular in ground plan, with a polygonal apse at the east end.  They are built of massive logs joined by a system of special overlaps joined at the angles of the apse.  The ends of the logs are rounded at an angle. The roof cladding is tiles or wooden shingles. The roofs are high and steeply pitched, gabled over the nave, three-paned or four-paned over the apse. Inside the church, the altar area is separated from the nave by a high altar screen. The nave and parvis are separated by pillars and arches, over which there is a choir gallery. The gallery is reached from the parvis via a steep wooden staircase. The gallery area is often enclosed by mušebak (wooden latticework). The church in Jelićki has a brick-paved floor, but the others have stone-paved floors. The bare log walls of the church can be seen on the inside of all these churches except the church in Rakelići, where the walls are plastered. The interior of these churches is well lit. These churches have a portico over the main entrance at the west end, and a tall belltower built directly onto the roof.

(15) Ćert – incised cross-cut ends of the beams at the angles of log-built buildings (Škaljić, str. 190)

(16) six-pointed star



Orthodox log-built church in the village of JelićkaNew orthodox church in JeličkaNorthern facadeSouth-eastern side of the church
Southern facadeEntranceDetail of the facade's constructionFacade, detail
Interior of the church, detail - wood carvingIconostasisRoyal door 


BiH jezici 
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