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 8 to 15 November 2005 the Commission adopted a

D E C I S I O N

I

The architectural ensemble of the Church of the Archangel Michael with a necropolis with stećak tombstones in Aranđelovo is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).

The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot nos. 1403 and 1404 (new survey), corresponding to c.p. no. 1513 (old survey), land register entry no. 250, cadastral municipality Župa, municipality 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.

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 providing the resources needed to draw up and implement the necessary technical documentation for the rehabilitation of 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

Protection Zone I consists of the area defined in Clause 1 para. 2 of this Decision.  The following protection measures shall apply in this zone:

• all works are prohibited other than conservation and restoration works, with the approval of the Ministry responsible for regional planning in Republika Srpska and under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority of the Republika Srpska (hereinafter: the heritage protection authority),
• works of any kind to the infrastructure are prohibited unless in exceptional cases with the approval of the Ministry responsible for regional planning in Republika Srpska and under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority,

Protection Zone II extends over a radius of 100 m from Protection Zone I.  The following protection measures shall apply in this zone:

• the only construction permitted is of residential buildings with maximum dimensions of 10 x 12 metres and a maximum height of 6.50 m. to the base of the roof structure, i.e. ground floor and one upper floor;
• the dumping of all kinds of waste is prohibited;
• the erection of industrial buildings and facilities is prohibited;
• the siting of potential environmental polluters is prohibited.

The Government of Republika Srpske is required to ensure that a Study for the protection of the church of the Archangel Michael in Aranđelovo, the frescoes and the necropolis with stećak tombstones is drawn up, with proposed measures on the basis of which restoration works shall be carried out.

In this regard the following are required:

• analysis of the causes of cracks to part of the barrel vault, and the repair thereof;
• analysis of the building materials used in repairing the building, as well as of the drainage system, as a result of the damp observed in the building;
• analysis of the causes of damage to the frescoes;
• clean deposits from the frescoes;
• clean the stećak tombstones;
• remove plant organisms from the stećaks;
• repair cracked and broken tombstones;
• provide access to the site by making good the access road and paths to all parts of the site;
• draw up a programme for the presentation of the National Monument.

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 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 are final.

IX

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. 668.

X

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: 06.2-02-229/05-4                                                                 

9 November 2005

Sarajevo                                     

Chair 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.

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 Church of the Archangel Michael in Aranđelovo to the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, numbered as 668.

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
• Details of legal protection of the property to date
• Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs
• Details of war damage, data on restoration or other works on the property, 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. Details of the property

Location

The village of Aranđelovo is near Lastva, 25 km to the east of Trebinje.

The church of the Archangel Michael and the necropolis with stećak tombstones is in an Orthodox cemetery below the mediaeval fort of Klobuk.

Access to the churchyard is from the west, from an access road that forks off from the main Trebinje-Nikšić road.

The main axis of the church lies east-west. The entrance to the church is at the west end.

The National Monument was built on a site designated as cadastral plot nos. 1403 and 1404 (new survey), corresponding to c.p. no. 1513 (old survey), land register entry no. 250, cadastral municipality Župa, municipality Trebinje, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Historical information

Aranđelovo is in the territory of the mediaeval župa (county) of Vrm which, together with the old Klobuk fort, is known from early mediaeval historical sources.  It is referred to by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the mid 10th century, and by the Dioclean Priest in the 12th century.  It is in the Travunija district.  Porphyrogenotus refers to the fort or town of Vrm, and the Dioclean Priest to Kolbuk hill.  From the mid 12th century, the Trebinje district was under the rule of the Nemanjić dynasty.  One source refers to one Radovan “Zuenich de Verma 1280.”.  In 1318 the Dubrovnik authorities forbade their merchants to travel to Vrm. Following Tvrtko I Kotromanić’s coronation as king in 1377, the district came under Bosnian rule.  Until 1391 the župa (county) of Vrm was held by the Sanković’s, who also had holdings in the Dubrovnik area, among others, at that time. Following the death of the Sanković's, their land was divided between the local lords Sandalj Hranić and knez (Prince) Pavle Radenović. Pavle received the district around Bileća, with Banjani, Trebinje, Klobuk with Vrm and Konavle. The fort of Klobuk was under the rule of the aristocratic family Pavlović until 1441, when it was seized from them by the Kosača family, who ruled Vrm until 1477, when it was taken by the Ottomans.  This area was called Korjenić, after the Korjenić tribe, a member of which is referred to in a document dating from 1399 (Kapidžić-Kreševljaković, 1954, 19; Vego, 1957, 55,137).

Built into the left doorjamb of the church at the exit from the narthex is a stone bearing an inscription, which reads as follows in Bešlagić's translation:

ON THE THIRTEENTH OF SEPTEMBER, ON THE EVE OF ST CHRISTOPHER'S DAY, GOD SERVANT GEORGIJE PRESENTS HIMSELF BY THE NAME OF ŽUPAN [LORD OF THE COUNTY, DISTRICT PREFECT] KRNJE.

Bešlagić dates the inscription to the 14th century (Bešlagić 1959, 240-241).

The transcript of the inscription by M. Vego reads:

† M[e]s[e]ca sekъtebra u treti na des[e]te dъnъ (13.) prћstavi se ravъ b[o]ži Đeorgije na večerije H[risto]va dne, a imeneъ županъ Krъnћ (Krnje, Krnja).

Vego dates the inscription to the first half of the 13th century, arguing as follows: the name Krnje was not uncommon in the 12th century; the date of death of rab Đeorgije also appears on an inscription of Marija Divica from Vidoštak near Stolac dating from1231; and this method of dating rarely features on the late mediaeval period; the expression presents himself also features in the Marija Divica inscription and in the epitaph of župana Pribilša if Poljici near Trebinje dating from 1241.  However, the same phrase RABE BOŽIJE also features on a stećak tombstone above the grave of Radača, wife of župan Nenac Čihorič,  dating to the last quarter of the 14th century (Vego, 1962, 201,230-231; idem,1964, 183-184).

Kajmaković dates the same epitaph to the 11th to 12th century (Kajmaković, 1971, 365).

            In old Herzegovina, the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries saw the erection of single-nave churches of both Orthodox and Catholic provenance, to build which master-builders from Dubrovnik were hired.  In the architecture of the coastal region, the single-nave type of church appears quite early, in the pre-Romanesque period, and its development can be traced throughout the mediaeval period.  The master-builders of Dubrovnik had long been building both religious and secular buildings in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  These churches are all of a similar size, with the difference between them featuring in the method of transferring the lateral thrust.

In architectural features, the church of the Archangel Michael in Aranđelovo belongs to the group of Herzegovina churches with rebated arches, the origins of which are to be found in the architecture of the pre-Romanesque and Romanesque in the Dubrovnik area and Zeta (Ševo, 1995, p. 179).

            There is no precise information about the church of the Archangel Michael in Aranđelovo and its origins.  It was probably built between the first half of the 16th and the early 17th century (Ševo, 1995, 179; Kajmaković, 1971, 365)

2. Description of the property

The church of the Archangel Michael stands in the Orthodox cemetery of the village of Aranđelovo.  Beside the church, on the same plot, is a necropolis with stećak tombstones as well as tombstones of more recent date.

            In layout, the church of the Archangel Michael belongs to the type of single-nave church of rectangular ground plan with a semicircular apse and a bell tower of the type known as na preslicu.

            The church lies east-west with the entrance at the west end.

            The exterior dimensions of the church are approx. 11.00 x 5.30 m,and the interior dimensions approx. 9.50 x 3.80.  The height from the floor to the apex of the vault is approx. 4.60 m.

            The church has solid stone walls about 75 cm thick, made of large, regular-cut stone blocks bonded with mortar and laid in horizontal courses that are visible on the exterior façades. The walls of the parvis to the north and south are built on stećak tombstones, and there are two surviving stećaks in the church, which are used as stone benches (Ševo, 1995, p. 179).

            The church is roofed with a longitudinal barrel vault reinforced by two transverse arches.  Along the longitudinal walls of the nave and parvis are deep rebated arches supported by pilasters.  The nave has three arches on each side, with the central arch wider and rather higher than the other two.  The side walls of the parvis each have one rebated arch.  Steel ties can be seen in the upper reaches of the longitudinal walls.

            The church is entirely clad with stone slabs with the typical overlap on the ridge which, given the colour, must have been done recently. The apse is also clad with stone slabs.

            The church is lit through three arched windows in the south and north walls of the church and through a window in the apse.  The disposition of the windows is logical and symmetrical in regard to the layout of the interior structural elements of the building. The window apertures are 0.40 m wide and 1.30 m high.  The stone windowframes are slightly chamfered outwards and composed of four stone blocks each.

            The entrance portal is in the west wall of the church, with a newly-made wooden door, 80 cm wide and1.75 m high, framed by massive stone doorjambs and lintel.  There is a lunette above the door, with a stone rosette above that.  The rosette is directly beneath and in the axis of the bell tower.  The rosette is circular, inscribed inside a square.  It is divided into eight sections, which are alternately solid and open, with the four open sections forming a cross.

            The bell tower na preslicu, made of finely-worked limestone, with one opening for a bell, is set over the west wall of the church.  The bell tower is approx. 7.6 m in height to the stone cross, and contains a large bell.

            Within the church, according to Z. Kajmaković, «a modest but, at the same time, one of the most original fresco ensembles in Herzegovina» has survived (Kajmaković, 1971, 248).

            The exact date when the church was frescoed is not known, and nor is the artist.  On the west wall, in the place where details of the founder of the church, the date when it was frescoed and the artist are usually to be found, the fresco plaster has fallen away.  However, on the basis of analogy of their stylistic features, the frescoes in Aranđelovo may be assumed to be the work of the same group of artists as those who painted the fresco compositions in the church of the Archangel Michael in Petrovići(1) a village on the Bileća- Nikšić road, in Velimlje and Grahovo, and the Reževići monastery near Petrovac on the coast, in the early decades of the 18th century.

            According to Lj. Ševo, the fresco ensemble of the church in Aranđelovo is «relatively modest, but is one of the most original in Herzegovina, since the author has achieved a successful synthesis between the Byzantine visual tradition with elements of Cretan painting, which adopted certain Renaissance-baroque forms, adapting them to the Orthodox, Eastern Christian canon and the needs of the Orthodox liturgy» (Ševo, 1995, 180).

            The arrangement of the frescoes in the church leads to the supposition that two artists were at work here, a master and his assistant.

            Referring to the fresco artists of Herzegovina's churches in the early decades of the 17th century, Kajmaković says that «their works do not suggest the work of the great artist Georgije Mitrofanović in Zavala and Dobrićevo,» but rather the pleiade of lesser artists who would later work in Lomnica, Mostaći, and later in the parvis of the Dobrićevo monastery, and that they «mark the start of a line of development of the rusticized craft of painting that would survive here until the 1630s along with the activities of significantly better artists of the descent of later Serbian frescoes» (Kajmaković, 1971, 249).

            However, he also says  of the Aranđelovo fresco painter that he is an «interesting artistic personality,» that he is gifted, that he was probably trained in a small fresco-painter's workshop on the Montenegrin coast or in Macedonia, that as he developed he was strongly influenced by western painting, and that he took some of the models for his frescoes from the paintings of monumental mediaeval churches (Kajmaković, 1971, 249-250). On the other hand, Kajmaković concludes from the script of this artist, which is a mixture of Serbian in the lower reaches and Greek orthography in the upper reaches, that either he or his assistant could have been Greek, or if not, that he used the Greek script and artists' handbooks (Kajmaković, 1971, 251). Ljiljana Ševo reaches the same conclusion as to the origins of the artist (Ševo, 1995, 180).

            Kajmaković says of the chief artist that some of his treatment of colour palette and line observable on the figure of St Demetrius, set on typically very thin legs, show the true potential power of the artists, but that he did not demonstrate any great sense of responsibility to his work, but painted rapidly, with the aim of covering the greatest possible wall surfaces, hence the unnaturally large format of some of the frescoes.  Then again, the coats of paint, particularly on the figures, are much more impasto-like than fresco technique permits, which Kajmaković sees as the influence of paintings in oils that the artist might have seen on the coast.

            The method by which the artist creates the physiognomy of his figures in the lower reaches is as follows: he places an olive-green coating over a dark brown ground, modelling highlighted areas with light ochre, the lips in light pink, the moustaches and hair almost black, the eyes large with wide pupils, and forming an olive-green oval above the forehead below which is a heart-shaped arch by the eyebrows.  He touches the cheekbones with barely noticeable white lines. Dark brown tones predominate, particularly in the case of younger figures, while olive-green and light ochre tones are to be seen on the older ones.

            The entire fresco painting is concentrated into five zones:

1. standing figures of warriors,
2. busts of martyrs,
3. compositions of major festivals,
4. busts of prophets,
5. scenes of Christ Pantocrator and the Angel of Great Council, and the upper part of a scene of the Ascension of Christ(2).

In order to achieve the greatest possible surface for his frescoes, the artist included in his compositions the surface of the pilaster-strips, which extend to the apex of the vault.  For the same reason, the figures of saints are inappropriate in format to the small size of the church. Some of them (St. Demetrius and the Archangel Michael) above the south window are larger than lifesize(3).This above all reflects the inadequacy of the artist when needing to create a complex composition in a small area, such as the compositions of major festivals.  In these, the fresco artist of the Aranđelovo church reduces his figures only in length, taking no account of their proportions.  He manages well when needing to paint a large wall surface with a single figure. 

            It is impossible to conduct a more detailed analysis of the work of the main artist's assistant, since his work is in very poor condition and covered with clumsily improvized touching-up done in the 19th century (Kajmaković, 1971, 253-254).

            It is also important to note that the parvis of the church was never frescoed, and that the frescoes on the upper reaches of the north wall of the nave are visible only in fragments.  The compositions of major festivals feature here in the following order:

• Christ's entry into Jerusalem
• the Crucifixion
• the two Marys at the tomb
• the Ascension of Christ – the best-preserved fresco on this wall (Kajmaković, 1971, 369)

During World War I the north wall of the church was painted by «an Italian prisoner of war» (Kajmaković, 1971., 365).

Layout of the frescoes(4):

West wall (south-north)

1. Apostles Peter and Paul (facing one another, and holding between them a model of a church)
2. Emperor Constantine and Empress Helena
3. The socle is decorated with pleated whitecurtains with dotted red lines
4. Ornamental frieze with stylized wavy palmettes, white on a black ground.  In the centre of this frieze is a red-bordered panel set exactly over the door.  It was probably here that the founder's inscription would have stood.
5. Assumption of the Holy Virgin
6. Unidentified prophet
7. Unidentified prophet
8. Unidentified prophet
9. St. Demetrius

South wall (east-west)

10. St. George
11. St .Theodore Stratelates
12. Narrow panel with a cross (IC, XC-NI, KA)
13. St. Theodore Tiron (damaged on one side by widening of the window)
14. Archangel Michael (badly damaged fresco)
15. St, Victor (bust of the saint damaged)
16. St. Nicholas
17. St.Simeon Nemanja (st=ª sªmeon=). The fresco is damaged.
18. St. Sava the Serb (damaged fresco)
19. Nativity of Christ (Badly damaged composition, somewhat retouched)
20. Visitation of the Lord (damaged composition, retouched)
21. Baptism of Christ (damaged composition, retouched)
22. Raising of Lazarus (right half of the fresco completely destroyed)
23. Panel with stylized palmette
24. Unidentified prophet
25. Unidentified prophet
26. Unidentified prophet
27. Unidentified prophet
28. Prophet Avakum
29. Prophet Isaiah
30. Prophet Zacheriah
31. Unidentified prophet
32. Unidentified prophet
33. upper part of the scene of the Ascension of Christ with figure of Christ in a mandorla (fresco damaged)
34. Christ Pantocrator
35. Anthropomorphic representation of the moon in bluish tones.  Its counterpoart on the north side is a representation of the sun in red.
36. Christ as Angel of the Great Council (This is the best-preserved part on the vault.  It has not been retouched)

East wall (north-south)

37. Unidentified saint (fresco damaged)
38. Christ Emanuel
39. Unidentified father of the church
40. Unidentified father of the church (possible St John Chrysostom)
41. Unidentified father of the church (figure destroyed by widening of the window)
42. Unidentified father of the church (figure destroyed by widening of the window)
43. Unidentified father of the church
44. St. Cyril the philosopher
45. Mother of God Širšaja Nebes (Spanning the Heavens)
46. Lower part of the scene of the Ascension of Christ

The wooden iconostasis partition was installed in the church in the early 20th century. Parts of it are decorated with woodcarvings – mainly floral designs.  In some places the lower part of the partition is painted with floral designs.

The iconostasis partition is set with icons by a unidentified artist, probably dating from the early 20th century, in oil on canvas.

Compositionally, the icons on the iconostatis partition can be divided into three zones: a lower, a central and an upper zone.

The lower zone is set with the following icons (running north-south): (5)   

1. Archangel Stephen – on the door
2. Throne icon with figure of the Holy Virgin
3. Royal doors with scene of the Annunciation
4. Throne icon with figure of Christ
5. Archangel Michael – on the door

The central zone is set with icons with the following scenes (running north-south):

1. Baptism of Christ
2. St Basil of Ostrog
3. The Last Supper
4. St Sava the Archbishop
5. Transfiguration of the Lord

The central part of the upper zone has an icon of the Holy Trinity.

Necropolis with stećak tombstones

            In the late 1950s, 80 stećak tombstones were recorded in the necropolis by the church in Aranđelovo, most of them chest-shaped, with some decorations in the form of crescent moons, swords and crosses (Bešlagić 1959, 240-241).  The catalogue survey of the stećaks by the same author lists 76 tombstones, of which 20 were slab-shaped and 56 chest-shaped, five of them decorated with swords, bow and arrow, and borders of twisted bands and twining vines (Bešlagić, 1971, 404).

            In October 2005, 52 stećak tombstones were found in the necropolis, roughly in six groups. They are set in rows running west-east.  The necropolis is quite extensive, covering an area of approx 60 m (west-east) x 24 m (north-south), with the stećaks tombstones running in two basic rows, west to east. The entire necropolis lies to the north of the church, apart from one isolated stećak outside the entrance to the church.  The two rows of tombstones are about 10 m apart.  The tombstones are unequal in size, but mainly of poor workmanship and sunk into the ground.  Most of them are made of local stone which is apt to disintegrate into strata.  In some cases the corners have been knocked off, and some of the thinner slabs are broken in half.  Some slabs, up to 0.25 m in height, are of good workmanship and regular form.  The majority of the chests are low, with a height of up to 0.40 m.

            The decorative designs are almost impossible to make out except on two stećaks.

            The most important group is no. 1, about 20 m west of the church.  It contains nine decorated stećak tombstones.

• Stećak no. 1 chest (measuring 1.8 x 0.6 x 0.5 m);
• Stećak no. 2 slab (measuring 1.6 x 0.7 x 0.12 m);
• Stećak no. 3 chest (measuring 1.9 x 0.6 x 0.35 m);
• Stećak no. 4 large slab (measuring 2 x 1.13 x 0.25m); decorated with a large carved sword along the entire slab
• Stećak no. 5 chest (measuring 1.9 x 0.93 x 0.40 m); incised with a sword and a bow and arrow facing downwards
• Stećak no. 6 slab (measuring 1.9 x 0.66 x 0.23 m);
• Stećak no. 7 chest with separate pedestal (chest measuring 1.23 x 0.57(54) x 0.90 m; pedestal partly broken, measuring 1.8 x 1 m.)  It is decorated on the horizontal surface, north side and west face with a carved twisted band design. On the north side an empty panel is framed, and on the west face a rosette is incised in the centre, framed by the same carved band.  The horizontal surface is hollowed out with the hollow surrounded by the same band. The upper edge of the side has an incised border with a design of twining vines.
• Stećak no. 8 chest (measuring 1.4 x 0.55 x 0.25 m);
• Stećak no. 9 slab (measuring 1.3 x 0.8 x ?m, sunk into the ground);
• Stećak no. 10 chest (measuring 1.15 x 0.57 x 0.3 m);
• Stećak no. 11 chest (measuring 1.95 x 0.95 x 0.7 m);
• Stećak no. 12 chest (measuring 1.5 x 0.6 x 0.2m);

Group no. 2

• Stećaks nos. 13,14 and 15 are large, regular-cut slabs, about 10 m north of the stećak marked on the plan as no. 1.

Group no. 3

• Stećaks nos. 16,17,18,19, 20, 21, 22, forming a group of six low chests around a large slab, and two smaller chests. Stećaks nos. 23 and 24 are set separately. This group of stećaks is 10 m to the west of group 2.

Group 4

• Stećaks nos. 25-37, a total of 13 about 12 m to the east of group 2.  It consists of a larger group of 7 stećaks, with the rest scattered around it.

Group 5

• Stećaks nos. 38-43, a total of 6, about 7 m to the east of group 4, and consisting of large slabs.

Group 6

• Stećaks nos. 44-51, a total of 8 low chests and slabs.
• Stećak no. 52, in the form of a slab of good workmanship, lies isolated about 5 m to the west of the entrance to the church. The horizontal surface has a simple carved band as a frame. It appears that there is part of the beam of a broken cross on the west half.

3. Legal status to date

In the procedure preceding the adoption of a final decision to proclaim the property a national monument, documentation on the protection of the property was inspected, with the following findings:

            Pursuant to the law, and by Ruling of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of NR Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, no. 02-689-3 dating from 1962, the church in Aranđelovo, Peoples’ District Committee Trebinje, county of Mostar, was entered in the register of immovable cultural monuments.

            The Regional Plan of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to 2002 lists the church of the Archangel Michael in Aranđelovo as an individual Category I monument.

The Provisional List of National Monuments of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments lists the church of the Archangel Michael in Aranđelovo near Trebinje under serial no. 668.

4. Research and conservation and restoration works

No detailed information is available (describing the extent, type, materials, methodology, techniques etc.) of repair works or of conservation and restoration works on the church.

The following meagre information concerning these works was gleaned from the local people on site:

• 1992/93, works on cleaning the frescoes on the south wall
• 1998 or 1999, the local people replaced the old stone slabs with the present marble slabs
• 2000/01, drainage installed around the church
• 2000/01, archaeological investigations inside the church as part of the drainage works
• 2004, works on cleaning the facade and roof-cladding works
• 2005, part fixing of the frescoes on the north wall of the church
• the stećak tombstones were recorded in 1959 and 1971.

5. Current condition of the property

An on-site inspection in October 2005 ascertained as follows:

            The church of the Archangel Michael in Aranđelovo appears in good condition from the outside.  Inside the church some damage is visible, probably caused by the 1979 earthquake, in the form of sizeable cracks in the barrel vault by the stone arches that serve to reinforce the vault.

            Other damage to the walls is caused by the effects of damp.

            The extensive effects of damp have led to the breakdown, cracking and fading of pigments of the frescoes on the north wall of the church, the apse and the vault of the nave.  Here the frescoes are visible only in fragments.

            Damp has also permeated the fresco plaster, causing it to blister in many places and the painted layers to fall away.  The worst damage is to be seen in the lower part of the north wall, where the fresco plaster has fallen away to reveal the bare stone in places.  In these places, too, the worst blistering is to be seen.  To prevent the fresco plaster from fallen away even further, persons unknown entered the church without the knowledge of the priest and fixed the lower part of the fresco on the north side of the wall with gauze.

            The frescoes on the south wall of the church are in much better condition.

            Some of the stećak tombstones in the necropolis are damaged as a result of years of weathering and have fallen to the ground.  There are plant organisms, mainly lichens and mosses, on most of the tombstones, and in some of them shrubs and trees have taken root, breaking up the stone and threatening lasting damage to the tombstones.

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.iii. proportions

C.iv. composition

C. v. value of details

D. Clarity

D.ii. evidence of historical change

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. relation to rituals or ceremonies

E.v. significance for the identity of a group of people

F. Townscape/ Landscape value

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

G. Authenticity

G.i. form and design

G.iii. use and function

G.iv. traditions and techniques

G.v. location and setting

G.vi. spirit and feeling

            The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:

o    Copy of cadastral plan

o    Copy of land register entry and proof of title;

o    Photodocumentation;

o    Drawings

Bibliography:

During the procedure to designate the architectural ensemble of the Church of the Archangel Michael in Aranđelovo with necropolis of stećak tombstones as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:

1954.    Kreševljaković, Hamdija, Kapidžić, Hamdija,  Stari hercegovački  gradovi (Old Towns of Herzegovina). Naše starine II, Sarajevo, 1954, 9-21.

1957.    Vego, Marko, Naselja bosanske srednjovjekovne države (Settlements of the Mediaeval Bosnian State). Sarajevo,  1957.

1959 Bešlagić, Šefik, Nekoliko novopronađenih natpisa na stećcima (Some newly-discovered epitaphs on stećak tombstones) Jnl of the National Museum in Sarajevo, archaeology, no. XIV, Sarajevo,  1959, 239-247.

1960.    Đurić, Vladimir, Fresko slikarstvo manastira Gradišća u Paštrovićima (Fresco painting of the Gradišća monastery in Paštrovići). Historical Notes XVII, vol. 1. Titograd 1960.

1962.  Vego, Marko, Novi i revidirani natpisi iz Hercegovine (nastavak) (New and revised epitaphs from Herzegovina [cont.]). Jnl of the National Museum in Sarajevo, archaeology, no. XVII, Sarajevo, 1962,   191-243.

1964.  Vego, Marko, Novi i revidirani natpisi iz Hercegovine (nastavak) (New and revised epitaphs from Herzegovina [cont.]). Jnl of the National Museum in Sarajevo, archaeology, no. XIX, Sarajevo, 1964, 173-211.

1964.    Korać, Vojislav, Durić, Vojislav, Crkve sa prislonjenim lukovima u Staroj Hercegovini i   Dubrovačko graditeljstvo XV-XVII vijek (Churches with rebated buttresses in Old Herzegovina and Dubrovnik Architecture 15-17 Century) Proceedings of the Faculty of the Humanities No. VII, Belgrade 1964, 561-629

1971.    Kajmaković, Zdravko, Zidno slikarstvo u Bosni i Herecgovini (Murals in BiH). Sarajevo, 1971.

1971.    Bešlagić, Šefik, Stećci, kataloško-topografski pregled (Stećak tombstones, a catalogue and topographical survey), Sarajevo, 1971. 142-143.

1991.   Šuput, Marica,Spomenici srpskog crkvenog graditeljstva XVI-XVII vek (Monuments of Serbian Ecclesiastical Architecture 16-17 Century) Belgrade-Novi Sad-Priština, 1991.

1995.    Ševo, Ljiljana, Pravoslavne crkve i manastiri u Bosni i Hercegovini do 1878. godine (Orthodox churches and monasteries in BiH to 1878). Banja Luka, 1995.

(1) The frescoes of the church date from 1604 (V. Đurić, 1960., 272).

(2) The Ascension of Christ is painted on the vault of a number of other churches, such as the church of SS Peter and Paul in Bijelo Polje (16th C) and the Church of the Holy Virgin in Sredska (Kajmaković, 1971, 253)

(3) The treatment gives the impression that the artists were influenced by some monumental building the interior of which was suited to monumental formats.

(4) A schematic view of the layout of the frescoes forms an integral part of the Decision.

(5) The icons of this zone have been replaced, with new ones mounted instead of the old in 2003 and 2004. The new ones show the same scenes but are in tempera on wood.  There has also been a change of style – the saints on the icons are in the traditional Byzantine style used for the figures of saints.