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 19 to 24 January 2006 the Commission adopted a

D E C I S I O N

I

The residential architectural complex of the Pašić tower and manors in Bivolje Brdo near Čapljina is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).

The National Monument consists of the Pašić tower with accompanying facilities: large and small courtyards, summer kitchen, stables, mutvak (kitchen) and well.

The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot nos. 471 and 472, Land Register entry no. 6, cadastral municipality Bivolje Brdo, municipality Čapljina, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The provisions relating to protection measures set forth by the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of the Federation of  BiH nos. 2/02, 27/02 and 6/04) shall apply to the National Monument.

II

The Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the Government of the Federation) shall be responsible for ensuring and providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary to protect, conserve, and display the National Monument.

The Commission to Preserve National Monuments (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

The following protection measures are hereby stipulated for the area defined in Clause 1 para. 2 of this Decision:

• all works are prohibited other than rehabilitation works, conservation and restoration works, works to reconstruct damaged or missing parts of the buildings, and works designed to display the monument, with the approval of the Federal Ministry responsible for regional planning and under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the heritage protection authority),
• all methods and degrees of intervention must be identifiable,
• all building or works that could have the effect of altering the site, and the erection of temporary or permanent structures the sole purpose of which is the protection and presentation of the National Monument, are prohibited,
• the National Monument may be used for its original purpose and for presentation for educational and cultural purposes that will not be detrimental to the National Monument and the natural surroundings,
• the National Monument shall be open to the public in a manner to be agreed between the heritage protection authority and the owner of the property.

            Protection Zone II consists of a strip 50 m wide from the area of Protection Zone I.

In this zone, the construction of new buildings of which the dimensions (specify) or appearance could be detrimental to the National Monument or which could be detrimental in other ways.

IV

            All executive and area development planning acts not in accordance with the provisions of this Decision are hereby revoked.

V

Everyone, and in particular the competent authorities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Canton, and urban and municipal authorities, shall refrain from any action that might damage the National Monument or jeopardize the preservation and rehabilitation thereof.

VI

            The Government of the Federation, the Federal Ministry responsible for regional planning, the Federation heritage protection authority, and the Municipal Authorities in charge of urban planning and land registry affairs, shall be notified of this Decision in order to carry out the measures stipulated in Articles II to V of this Decision, and the Authorized Municipal Court shall be notified for the purposes of registration in the Land Register.

VII

The elucidation and accompanying documentation form an integral part of this Decision, which may be viewed by interested parties on the premises or by accessing the website of the Commission (http://www.aneks8komisija.com.ba) 

VIII

Pursuant to Art. V para 4 Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, decisions of the Commission are final.

IX

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.178.

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: 06.2-2-215/05-0

20 January 2006

Jajce    

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.

The Commission to Preserve National Monuments issued a decision to add the Pašić tower in Bivolje Brdo near Čaplina to the Provisional List of National Monuments under serial no. 178.

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.
• Documentation on the location of the property
• Details of the current condition of the property
• Documentation on the owner and current use of the property
• 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 residential architectural ensemble of the Pašić tower with accompanying facilities – large and small courtyards, summer kitchen, stables, mutvak (kitchen) and well – stands on an elevation in the village of Kevčići, on a site designated as cadastral plot nos. 471 and 472, cadastral municipality Bivolje Brdo, municipality Čapljina, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

            Access to the residential ensemble of the Pašić tower is from the south-east, from the side road that branches off to the village of Kevčići from the Stolac-Čapljina road.

Historical information

            The fall of the last town in the region, Herceg Novi, in 1482 is regarded as the point at which Herzegovina came under Ottoman rule (Rajković, 1982. p. 1).

Resistance to the Ottoman army was put up from the mediaeval forts in which garrisons were stationed, while the feudal lords lived in fortified manors built close to the forts. During the Ottoman period some of the mediaeval forts in Herzegovina were adapted by the Ottomans to their war strategy, and others were abandoned.

The Ottoman authorities allotted large estates to their land-owners and new feudals, as a result of which it was necessary to erect new residential buildings in the countryside. Ottoman feudal lords (spahis) built stone houses on their estates to provide both housing and defence. These buildings were towers(1), residential structures with one or more upper storeys, and were fortified.

At first, towers were built in Herzegovina in the frontier regions adjoining the Venetian borders and Dubrovnik, the area of the present-day municipalities of Ljubuški, Čapljina and Trebinje (Rajković, 1982. p. 3).

In the other regions of Herzegovina, towers were required more for residential purposes and were less important for defence. Towers were built not only in the frontier regions but also in areas of fertile land. These towers served to defend the feudal lords and their estates as well as to protect the villages and entire region. The area where they were most common was in the fertile Dživarsko plain and around Mostar.

Towers were also built as summer quarters, when they were called outings houses, built close to the larger towns, where the more prosperous burgers spent the summer. They were mainly built on fertile land and had fine views over the estate. The ground floor of these towers sometimes housed stables. Above the ground floor the towers would have another one or two storeys, which were equipped with loopholes (Kreševljaković, 1954, pp. 71-73).

When building towers, the first concern was to erect them in a strategically important position. The example of the towers in Bivolje Brdo near Čapljina indicates the position of two towers in a defence system. The Pašić tower was in the village of Kevčići, while on the other side of the village was the Fazil tower; crossfire from both towers made it possible to defend the village and environs (Rajković, 1982. p. 7).

As well as the towers of feudal lords, towers were also built as premises to house captains and their garrisons guarding the frontier. Until the late 17th century, there were captaincies only along the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Austria and the Venetian Republic, but from the early 18th century there were also captaincies alongside major roads.  Captains’ houses were built in the same way as spahis’, except that there were prison cells in the basement and ground floor (Kreševljaković, 1954, pp. 71-73).

One of the finest residential buildings in Herzegovina dating from the Ottoman period is the Pašić tower in Bivolje Brdo near Čapljina.

There is no precise information as to the date when the Pašić tower was built, but according to the owner, it was in the 16th century.  It was built by Pašića-kaduna, a lady of the family, who engaged the best craftsmen, who had been building towers for many years.

The Pašić tower was destroyed in the summer of 1992.

2. Description of the property

The ground plan of the towers is basically square, with the sides of the square ranging from 6 to 10 m in length. The walls were built of finely cut limestone, and were 80 to 100 cm thick.  If there was a well in the ground floor, the walls would be thicker. The same was true of captains' towers with prison cells on the ground floor.

The towers were always built with several storeys, usually a ground floor and two upper floors. The storeys were 2.5 to 4 m in height, and the towers themselves 11 to 20 metres, some even as much as 25 m tall. Depending on the property status of the owner and the way they were used to defend the village, towers could have as many as six storeys.

Towers in Herzegovina had a polygonal or hipped roof, with limestone slabs as roof cladding.  The roofs were not steeply pitched, so that the attic space was rarely used.

The topmost storey of the tower would have a domed or barrel-vault ceiling.

In the case of some towers, the ground floor would be vaulted (ćemer), while others would have vaulted ceilings on the upper storey or below the roof.  Captains' towers had large vaulted premises in which there would  be a prison cell.

A very interesting feature is the presence of machicolations(2) and loopholes on the towers.

The doors of the towers were always arched, with a single door of iron or solid oak, and were invariably low. Inside, every tower had a mandal (latch) to close the door, in addition to a strong lock.

As buildings used for residential purposes, a tower would have the following layout:

• At first the ground floor would contain a ćemer. As they lost their defence role, the ground floor of the tower would contain a granary, larder and, in some, livestock.
• The first floor would invariably contain an odžak (hearth), a musandera (built-in wall fittings) with hamamdžik (washroom), dolafs (wall cupboard) and sećija (built-in seating) along the walls.
• The second floor would have a layout almost identical to that of the first floor.

On each floor there would be a small antechamber outside the living quarters, with a wooden staircase. The walls of the antechambers and living quarters were whitewashed.  Horizontal partitions were composed of strong beams and thick boards, and vertical ones of thinner beams and adobe brick. The built-in furniture consisted of sećijas and musandaras. The sećijas were constructed of wooden chests on which padded mattresses were laid, and these in turn had cloth or kilim-weave laid over them.The musandera was part of the furniture ranged along one wall, incorporating the door into the room. They contained shelves, cupboards, a dušekluk where bedding was kept during the day, a hamamdžik (washroom) and a stove. The furniture was decorated with wood carving (Kreševljaković, 1954, pp. 71-73).

            The towers were surrounded by a spacious courtyard with high boundary walls. These walls served two purposes: defence, and privacy. The walls were of quarry limestone and were 50 cm thick, 2 to 4 metres high, and fitted with loopholes. The courtyard was entered through an arched gateway. The courtyard would also contain outbuildings such as the mutvak (kitchen), stables and a well.

         The Pašić tower belonged to the residential type of feudal tower (or spahis’ tower, as Prof. Kreševljaković calls them in his work).

          The Pašić tower was built on a stone base. The tower is rectangular in ground plan, with the dimensions of the ground and first floors approx. 690 x 600 cm, and those of the second floor 690 x 690 cm.  The second storey had a room known as the «bijeli ćošak» which had a doksat (veranda or oriel window) 1 metre wide on the south-eastern side of the tower. The tower was approx. 10 metres in height to the base of the roof.

            The walls of the Pašić tower were of regular cut limestone, and were approx. 80 cm thick. Family tradition has it that the greatest credit for the quality of the masonry goes to the first owner of the tower, Pašića-kaduna(3). The vertical corners of the tower were of blocks with a length of approx. 70-100 cm and a height of approx. 35-50 cm.  The window frames and the frame around the entrance door were of cut stone.

            There were two storeys above the ground floor, designed as living quarters.

            The hipped wooden roof structure of the tower was clad with stone slabs. The low-pitched roof extended over the doksat on the south-eastern wall.

            The tower was entered through a low arched door at ground-floor level on the south-eastern side of the tower.  “The door was a single oak door studded with more than six hundred great nails. The lock was from Dubrovnik, and on the inside the door was closed by means of an oak beam.” (Rajković, 1982. p. 7). The door measured approx. 95 x 145 cm (width and height from floor level to the apex of the arch). The south-eastern wall of the ground floor where the entrance door was also had a window measuring approx. 130 x 125 cm, which was pierced at a later date.

            The ground, first and second floors of the tower each had a corridor with a massive oak staircase linking the storeys against the north-east wall, and one large room. There was a partition wall about 15 cm thick between the corridor and the room.

            The interior dimensions of the ground and first floors were approx. 600 x 450 cm, and that of the second floor rather larger at 600 x 600 cm (this is only an assumption, since the doksat is missing from this storey).

            The ground floor was previously used as a granary and larder.

The first floor contained a room known as the odaja (chamber), in which there was an abdestluk (area for ritual ablutions before prayer). This chamber was also used as sleeping quarters. It had a hearth, sećijas and musandera with hamamdžik (washroom). There was a stone mihrab in the south-east wall. The first storey had six loopholes.

The second floor had a room known as the «bijeli ćošak», with sećija, musandera and hamamdžik.  There was a special adornment in the form of a stone hearth that was also used for making coffee. This chamber had large windows with a view over the estate. The second storey had six loopholes.

The height of the rooms in the ground floor was approx. 245 cm, that of the first floor approx. 290 cm, and of the secnd floor approx. 280 cm.

The ceiling joists were massive wooden beams, traces of which can be seen on the walls of the tower. The load-bearing beams were approx. 15 x 15 cm in cross-section and set approx. 55 cm apart, resting on the south-east and north-west walls of the tower.

The south-east wall of the first floor of the tower has three windows with wrought iron bars, mearing approx. 70 x 58 cm. These windows are rectangular in shape with cut stone frames with relieving arches above. There are two windows with wrought iron bars, measuring approx. 115 x 65 cm, in the south-west wall. These windows are rectangular with cut stone frames.

The south-west, north-east and north-west walls of the second storey of the tower each have two windows with wrought iron bars, measuring approx. 70 x 58 cm. These windows are rectangular in shape with cut stone frames with relieving arches above. The south-east wall of the second storey of the tower, where the «bijeli ćošak» was, had seven large windows on the doksat (oriel), two of which were at the sides of the oriel. The windows were wooden with wooden mušebak (lattice), and had relieving arches above. These windows measured approx. 100 x 80 cm.

Between the windows of the first and second storeys, the north-west, north-east and south-west walls have unevenly distributed loopholes.

The loopholes are of various shapes and sizes, but on the inside mostly look like pointed-arch niches. The openings are approx. 30 x 6 cm on the outside.

            The residential ensemble of the Pašić tower with large and small courtyards consists of the tower itself and accompanying facilities: the summer kitchen, stables, mutvak (kitchen) and well.The tower is surrounded by a high stone courtyard wall varying in height from two to four metres. The walls of the large courtyard are of quarry stone, with only the wall on the south-east side of the large courtyard later made of concrete. The large courtyard is entered through a large double oak door with a wooden gabled coping now clad with tiles. The height of the eaves from apex to ground level is approx. 240 cm. The door measuring approx. 185 x 220 cm. The doors were studded with nails with large heads. The doors had two mandalas and erezas (door latch, catch) with which the doors were closed from the inside, and two iron rings so visitors could announce their arrival by knocking. The doors were locked from the outside by a large “Dubrovnik” lock. There was a stone mounting block (binjiš-taš) outside the large gate.

The large courtyard contained outbuildings: the summer kitchen and granary.

The summer kitchen is a single-storey building to the right of the large gate in the large courtyard. It is built of quarry stone and measures approx. 1025 x 465 cm. It has a gabled roof with wooden rafters clad with tiles. The height from the roof ridge to ground level is approx. 435 cm. The door and two windows are on the south side of the building. The summer kitchen has two rooms divided by a stone wall with a door. The first room contains the kitchen range, which is connected to a large chimney.

The extension of the summer kitchen is the building known as the ahar, which was used as a granary. It shares one stone party wall with the summer kitchen which is to the west, a wall to the north and a wall to the south which is also the south wall of the large courtyard. The south side, facing the large courtyard, has no stone wall but instead a partition wall of wooden planks.  The gabled roof has wooden rafters clad with tiles. The height from the roof ridge to ground level is approx. 375 cm.

Stone steps to the left of the large gate lead to the well room. This is an irregular rectangle in ground plan, measuring approx. 760 x 570 cm. The well room has no roof. It has three free-standing stone walls and one party wall shared with the building known as the mutvak.  The walls are approx. 415 cm high. There is an opening in the south wall leading into the adjoining courtyard. The floor of the well room is at a height of approx. 130 cm, and has a cistern in the floor the opening of which is in the middle of the well room. The cistern measures approx. 435 x 355 cm.

The mutvak has a ground plan of irregular rectangular form (trapezoid) the length of which is 512 cm, with the width 431 cm at one end and 378 cm at the other. The entrance to the mutvak is from the small courtyard outside the entrance to the Pašić tower. This building has a gabled roof, now fallen in, and the height from the roof ridge to ground level is approx. 570 cm.  The mutvak had two hearths/kitchen ranges.

The small courtyard is entered from the large courtyard through double oak doors with a gabled wooden coping now clad with tiles. The height of the eaves from ridge to ground level is approx. 315 cm. The doors measure approx 185 x 220 cm. The doors had a mandala/ereza with a Dubrovnik lock.

The small courtyard was between the tower and the mutvak and in the entrance area of the tower, to the east of the tower. Unlike the large courtyard, which was grassed, the small courtyard was cobbled. The south courtyard wall had a door 50 cm wide leading into the adjoining courtyard.

3. Legal status to date

The Pašić tower in Bivolje Brdo near Čapljina was entered on the register of immovable cultural monuments, but we have no record of the registration.

The property is on the Provisional List of National Monuments of BiH under serial number 178 and the heading Pašić tower in Bivolje Brdo near Čapljina.

4. Research and conservation and restoration works

We have no information at our disposal concerning when conservation and restoration works were carried out on the tower.

5. Current condition of the property

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

• during the war, in 1992, the Pašić tower was shelled and badly damaged,
• the roof and the wall to the south-east side of the second storey, where the room known as the «bijeli ćošak» was located, were completely destroyed,
• all the floor/ceiling joists and the wooden staircase were destroyed,
• since the tower has been roofless for a long time (13 years), there is visible damage to the walls of the tower on all storeys,
• since the building has not been in use for a long time, the interior is in very poor condition,
• the building lacks doors and windows,
• during the shelling, the outbuildings were also hit and damaged:
  • the mutvak was left in complete ruins, with no roof, door or window; only the stone walls, also damaged, remain;
  • the summer kitchen was also left in ruins, but the owner has repaired the roof and fixed a new door.

           Generally speaking, the residential ensemble of the Pašić tower in Bivolje Brdo is unprotected and exposed to the damaging effects of precipitation and further deterioration.

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

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

F. Townscape/ Landscape value

F.i.  Relation to other elements of the site

F.ii. meaning in the townscape

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

G. Authenticity

G.i. form and design

G.ii. material and content

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:

• Photodocumentation
• Drawings

Bibliography

During the procedure to designate the residential architectural complex of the Pašić tower and courtyards in Bivolje Brdo near Čapljina as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:

1953.   Bejtić, Alija, Spomenici osmanlijske arhitekture u Bosni i Hercegovini (Monuments of Ottoman architecture in BiH), Contributions to oriental philology and the history of the Yugoslav peoples under Turkish rule, III-IV, 1952-53, Veselin Masleša, Sarajevo, 1953.

1954.   Kreševljaković, Hamdija, Kule i odžaci u Bosni i Hercegovini (Towers and Manors in BiH), Naše starine, Annual of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of SR BiH,  71-86

1982.  Rajković, Salih, Kule i odžaci u Hercegovini Stambeno-fortifikacioni Objekti (Towers and Manors in Herzegovina, Residential-cum-fortified buildings), Scientific research paper, Sarajevo, 1982.

(1) ”There were formerly more than three hundred such buildings, which merit particular attention from the architectural point of view, in Bosnia and Herzegovina …”(Kreševljaković, 1954, p. 71)

(2) There were usually machicolations above the entrance to the tower, from which boiling water could be poured in the event of an enemy attack on the tower (Kreševljaković, 1954, pp. 71-73)

(3) According to the owner of the tower,there is a family tradition relating that the first owner of the tower, Pašića-kaduna, can claim the greatest credit for the quality of masonry of the tower. She hired the best masons who had been building towers for many years, and ordered them to wait for a year after building the first floor, to allow for the stone to settle, and then to continue with the rest of the masonry. The stone blocks were dressed with knife-sharp edges, so that the entire tower from roof to base creates a single straight line as if drawn on paper. (There are no historical sources to confirm this claim.)