Status of monument -> National monument
Pursuant to Article V para. 4 Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 39 para. 1 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, at a session held on 4 to 8 March 2003 the Commission adopted a
D E C I S I O N
I
The site and remains of the historic monument of the church of St George in Gomiljani is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).
The National Monument is located on a site consisting of cadastral plot no. 422/10, Land Registry entry no. 251, cadastral municipality Gomiljani, Trebinje Municipality, 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.
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, display and rehabilitate the National Monument.
The Government of Republika Srpska shall be responsible for providiing the financial and technical conditions for drawing up and implementing the technical documentation for the rehabilitation 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 property, the following measures shall apply:
Protection Zone I comprises cadastral plot no. 422/10, Land Registry entry no. 251, cadastral municipality Gomiljani. Within this zone the following protection measures shall apply:
Ÿ as part of the design project for the rehabilitation of the site the methods of reconstruction (anastylosis and repristination), restoration, structural renovation and consolidation, and conservation shall be used
Ÿ all infrastructural works are prohibited except with the approval for the ministry responsible for regional planning in Republika Srpska (hereinafter: the regional planning ministry) and under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority of Republika Srpska (hereinafter: the heritage protection authority)
Ÿ the erection of new buildings in Protection Zone I is prohibited
Protection Zone II consists of a zone approximately 30 m wide west of the road, and of a length equal to the length of the western boundary of the plot of the church and burial ground increased by a further 30 m on each of the south and north sides and the area surrounding the plot of the church and burial ground to the east of the road by a strip 30 m wide. Within this zone the following protection measures shall apply:
Ÿ the only construction permitted is of residential units of no more than two storeys (ground floor and one upper floor) and maximum dimensions of 10 x 12 metres
Ÿ all other construction is prohibited other than the erection of agricultural facilities of a temporary nature
Ÿ the dumping of waste is prohibited
The Government of Republika Srpska shall be responsible specifically for ensuring that the following measures are carried out:
Ÿ drawing up a plan for the clearing of the church of St George in Gomiljani to include the following procedures and measures:
o recording the current state of the site to include the identification and classification of fragments of the church
o the temporary removal of undamaged painted layers from the walls and other surfaces and their relocation to a suitable place until they are reintegrated into the fabric
o the protection of undamaged parts of the walls and foundations
o major investigative works to include determining the stability and structure of the existing walls and foundations of the building, the load-bearing capacity of the soil, the petrographic and chemical constituents of the stone and other building materials
o the stratographic study of the remains of the original plaster and pigment to determine the identity of the original palette, the chemical content, and the nature of the plaster in regard to its granulometry and the material used.
The preparatory works must be conducted to the following conditions:
Ÿ all preparatory works for the rehabilitation shall be directed by the heritage protection authority
Ÿ all works must be carried out according to the clearance plan and under the constant supervision of experts from the heritage protection authority
Ÿ the existing undamaged foundations, walls, floors and parts thereof shall be preserved and protected from damage, recorded, studied and conserved so as to be reintegrated into the building as provided for by the rehabilitation project
Ÿ the remains of the church may not be damaged or removed from the premises of the church of St George
Ÿ if it is determined that conservation or restoration works need to be carried out on some particularly valuable fragments outside the premises of the church ensemble, these fragments shall be documented photographically and numbered and the owner of the property notified of their temporary removal
Ÿ the entire site shall be cleared of self-sown weeds.
A structural engineer shall survey and draw up a report on the condition of the building, following which work shall begin on the conservation, structural consolidation and protection of existing parts of the frescoes in line with a project approved by the regional planning ministry and under the expert 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 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 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.
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 to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina are final.
IX
This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its adoption and shall be published in the Official Gazette of BiH and the Official Gazette of Republika Srpska
This Decision has been adopted by the following members of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments: Zeynep Ahunbay, Amra Hadžimuhamedović, Dubravko Lovrenović, Ljiljana Ševo and Tina Wik.
No.: 07-6-752/03
4 March 2003
Sarajevo
Chairman of the Commission
Dubravko Lovrenović
E l u c i d a t i o n
I – INTRODUCTION
Pursuant to Article 2, paragraph 1 of the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a “National Monument” is an item of public property proclaimed by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments to be a National Monument pursuant to Articles V and VI of Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 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 its 15th session held on 14 June 2000 in its previous complement the Commission issued a Decision to add the church of St George in Gomiljani to the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, numbered as 691,
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:
Ÿ Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs.
Ÿ Copy of land registry entry and proof of title
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 are as follows:
1. Data on the site
Location
St George's Church is in the village of Gomiljani, approx. 2 km from Trebinje, on c.p. no. 422/10, Land Registry entry no. 251, cadastral municipality Gomiljani, Trebinje Municipality, Republika Srpska.
Historical information
In Popovo Polje itself there are three old monasteries and thirty-six old churches within a relatively small area, together with a large number of still more ancient sites of former churches owned by the Eparchy of Zahum and Herzegovina.
The church of St George [Georgija (Đurđevica)] was built towards the end of the 15th century. Its dating is arrived at by analogy with the other two (of three in all) more or less well preserved Orthodox churches in Gomiljani. Their presence is a significant historical fact, and the inscriptions from the Church of St Vrac (Vračevica) in the same village, scratched into the plaster on the south wall and the northern part of the west wall – V/LjETO Z (7000 – i.e. 7000 years after the creation of the world, or 7000-5508 = 1492 CE) provide evidence for the year 1492 as the terminus ante quem for Vračevica. Since all three churches in Gomiljani are architecturally similar, the end of the 15th century is taken as the final date by which they were erected. A tombstone with an epitaph in Cyrillic was found beside this church, referring to Ivan Pržović of Gomiljani. This tombstone is now in the Museum of Herzegovina in Trebinje. The only known person of this name was a prominent merchant from Trebinje, referred to in sources dated 1700 and 1717. The epitaph of Ivaniše Pržović, if its dating to the early eighteenth century is correct, would be evidence of the long and unbroken tradition of characteristic Cyrillic gravestone epitaphs of the Orthodox population of this part of Herzegovina (Ševo, 2002, pp. 198-199; Korać, 1996, p. 238, illus 20.).
Legal status to date
By ruling of the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina No. 02-UP-I-108-2/70 dated 19 November 1970, the building was placed under state protection.
2. Description of the monument
The church of St George was a single-nave building of elongated rectangular ground plan, with overall exterior dimensions of approx. 4.80 x 9.10 metres, and barrel vaulted. There was an apse at the east end of semicircular form both externally (the external radius of the apse measuring 160 cm) and internally. The height from the floor of the nave of the church to the higest point of the underside of the vault was about 310 cm. The floor of the apse (on a ground plan dating from 1960 the flooring was cement glaze on a base of concrete and stone overlay) of the altar space was higher than the floor level of the nave by a single step with a 10 cm riser. The entrance is the centre of the west wall, in the longitudinal axis of the church (with the opening measuring 73 x 163 cm on the exterior), with narrow rectangular arched windows (the lights measuring 50 x 110 cm on the exterior and 80 x 120 cm on the interior) in the centre of the north and the south walls.
About 140 cm from the level of the east apsidal wall was a wooden iconostasis with royal doors (according to technical records of the current state of the church building by the National Institution for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and Natural Rarities of the People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1960).
The church was built of stone with lime mortar binder. The east and west walls are about 65 cm thick, and the south and north walls, which bore the weight of the vault and the horizontal components of the thrust of the vault, are about 80 cm thick. As regards the stratification of the cross section of the wall structure, the building techniques used were that the outside of the outer wall was of massive elongated dressed stone blocks laid in horizontal courses, while the inside had an overlay of quarry stone stabilized with lime mortar. The gabled roof was clad with stone slabs on wooden rafters resting on a semicylindrical stone vault.
In its architectural features, the church of St George in Gomiljani belongs to the type of small single-nave church with semi-circular apses (in this region, other examples of this type of church are Vračevica and Konstadinovića in Gomiljani, SS Peter and Paul in Zaplanik, the ruins of the church of St George (Djurdjevica) in Domaševo, Ljubomir; the ruins of the Predojevića church in thev village of Prijevor near Bileća, the ruins of the church of St Ignatius - Maleševke in the village of Zudojevići, by the Trebinje-Bileća road) (Sparavalo, 1979; Ševo, 2002).
The wall paintings in St George's church in Gomiljani date to the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. They are attributed to an anonymous local craftsman who was acquainted with both Serbian and Dubrovnik art. One hypothesis suggests that the Gomiljani frescoes are associated with the workshop of Vicko Lovrov who painted the frescoes of Tvrdoš monastery. Another is that they were the work of Marko Stefanov Trebinjac, who learned his craft in Dubrovnik in 1501, and in 1509 painted an octoechos that is now in Savina monastery (Ševo, 2002, p. 198, Kajmaković, 1971, p. 65)
Because of the ruinous state of the church it is impossible now to tell if it was entirely frescoed. All that can be seen today is that the east wall and apsidal conch were painted.
The church has been in a ruinous state for a long time. The socle is partly buried in rubble. The frescoes have been damaged by weathering and can be seen only in parts: in the apsidal conch, the head of the Mother of God, to the north of her part of the figure of an angel, and in the zone below this part of the halo of one of the holy archpriests. The fragment of fresco showing the head of an angel (from the composition of the Mother of God of the Blessed Heaven) has been in the collection of the Museum of Herzegovina in Trebinje since 1959 (Ševo, 2002, p. 198, Kajmaković, 1971, p. 316)
The socle is painted with a band with a stylized white wavy palmetto design.
The first zone of the apsidal conch is painted with a composition of the Gifts of the archpriests to Christ the Lamb of God. This scene has almost completely disappeared with the passage of time. An inscription is visible by the first archpriest from the north: NIKOLA.
Above this composition, in the hemispherical apse, is a painting of the Mother of God of the Blessed Heaven between two angels. The head of the Mother of God has survived in part.
On the narrow side walls alongside the apsidal conch are the paintings of two figures of holy archdeacons, with the Archangel Gabriel above them to the north and the Mother of God to the south – representing the Annunciation.
Above the triumphal arch, on the wide gable area of the east wall, there is a representation of a scene with the torso of a figure that is unrecognizable due to the extent of damage. The likelihood is, as was usual in Byzantine and Serbian wall painting, that it represented the Ascension of Christ (Kajmaković, 1971, pp.64-65, 316).
It is hard to judge the stylistic features of this painter, given the very poor condition of the frescoes, but the quality of line and the sophisticated palette of the better preserved fragments are evidence of his skill (Ševo, 2002, p. 198).
The east wall is embellished with rich colour combinations. The background is green in the lower part and dark blue in the upper. Tones of ochre, red, blue, cyclamen, violet, brown and green are to be seen on the draperies of the painted figures.
Judging from the best preserved fragment, the head of the angel, it may be assumed that the Gomiljani painter was a skilled colourist and an excellent draughtsman.
The figure of the angel from the composition of the Mother of God of the Blessed Heaven is shown in half profile, looking upwards. He has curly brown hair on which is painted a band with a pearl at the centre. He is wearing a cyclamen cloak and green robe. The skin tones are painted with brown, ochre and green shadows at the edges of the face. The shadows are lightly touched in without a hard transition. The lines on the face are drawn with a fine brown line.
The paintings in the church of St George in Gomiljani date from the late fifteenth or first decade of the sixteenth century, and are the work of an unknown artist.
Because of the very poor state of the paintings it is hard to assess the stylistic features of the artist. It may be concluded from the better preserved fragments such as the head of the angel in the composition of the Mother of God of the Blessed Heavens that the artist was an excellent colourist and draughtsman.
4. Current condition of the site
The church of St George is in a ruinous state. No information has been found to explain why the building has fallen into ruins. A study of available literature and documentation referring to this building compels one to the conclusion that the devastation occurred between 1960 and 1969.
A technical record of the building when it was still in good condition was made in May 1960 by the National Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and Natural Rarities of the People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while in a minute dated 10 April 1969 as part of the Ruling of the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 02-UP-I-108-2/70 dated 19 November 1970 placing the building under state protection there is reference to the ruins of the church. A photograph of the eastern part of the Đurđevica church in Gomiljani (Kajmaković, 1971, p. 65, illus 15.) clearly shows that the building was in a ruinous state when photographed, and that in the interior of the building a temporary roof of tiles had been erected which was no doubt intended to protect the remains of the church.
In the light of this, and bearing in mind observations of the nature of the cracks in the wall of the church (which extend over the entire height of the walls of the church and narrow from the ground towards the top of the walls, which suggests that the cause is of a tectonic nature), it was probably the powerful earthquake (9 degrees on the Mercalli scale) on 26 July 1963, of which the epicentre was in Skopje, Macedonia, that caused the damage to the church and led it to fall into ruins. A second powerful earthquake on 26 and 26 October 1969, with its epicentre in Banja Luka (7 and 8 degrees on the Mercalli scale) no doubt caused further damage to this church.
On-site inspection on 20 February 2003 showed that the west and east walls with apsidal conch have been preserved, but that the wall structure and their structural quality are destabilized. The south and north walls have been reduced almost to foundation level, and much of the material that constituted them is inside the actual building.
III – CONCLUSION
Applying the Criteria for the adoption of a decision on proclaiming an item of property a national monument, adopted at the fourth session of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments (3 to 9 September 2002), the Commission has enacted the Decision cited above.
The Decision is based on the following criteria:
A. Time frame
B. Historical value
C. Artistic and aesthetic value
C. v. value of details,
D. Clarity
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.ii. religious value,
E.iii. tradicional value,
E.v. significance for the identity of a group of people.
G. Authenticity
G.ii. material and content
G.iv. traditions and techniques
G.v. location and setting
G.vi. spirit and feeling
The photographs, plans and drawings listed below are an integral part of this Decision:
1. DOCUMENTATION ON PROPERTY RIGHTS
1.1. Church of St. George in Gomiljani – copy of cadastral plan
1.2. Church of St. George in Gomiljani – copy of land register entry
2. PHOTOGRAPHS
3. MAPS
4. DRAWINGS
Bibliography
Kajmaković, Zdravko, Zidno slikarstvo u Bosni i Hercegovini, (Wall paintings in Bosnia and Herzegovina) Veselin Masleša, Sarajevo, 1971, Sarajevo
Korać, Vojislav J., Trebinje, istorijski pregled, I, Period do dolaska Turaka, (Trebinje, a historical survey, I. Period to the arrival of the Turks), Regional Museum of Trebinje, Trebinje, 1966
Skarić, Vladislav, Trebinje u 18. vijeku, (Trebinje in the 18th C.) Journal of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina XLV-1933, volume for history and ethnography, Sarajevo, 1933, pp. 39-70
Ševo, Ljiljana, Pravoslavne crkve i manastiri u Bosni i Hercegovini do 1878, (Orthodox Churches and Monasteries in Bosnia and Herzegovina to 1878) Glas Srpski, City of Banja Luka, 2002, Banja Luka.
Ruling of the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 02-UP-I-108-2/70 dated 19 November 1970
Technical record of the current state of the property, National Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and Natural Rarities of the People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1960
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