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 14 to 20 March 2006 the Commission adopted a
D E C I S I O N
I
The burial ensemble of the Sijerčić Turbes with grave in Sijerčići, Novo Goražde Municipality, is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).
The National Monument consists of two turbes and a harem.
The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 1673, title sheet no. 184/1, cadastral municipality Kopači, Novo Goražde Municipality, 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 National Monument, Protection Zone I is hereby stipulated, consisting of the area defined in Clause 1 para. 3 of this Decision. The following protection measures shall apply in this zone:
- all works are prohibited other than research, conservation and restoration works, routine maintenance works, and works designed to display the monument, 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.
IV
All executive and area development planning acts not in accordance with the provisions of this Decision are hereby revoked.
VI
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 thereof.
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 – V 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
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 nos. 725 and 726.
X
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.
XI
This Decision has been adopted by the following members of the Commission: Zeynep Ahunbay, Amra Hadžimuhamedović, Dubravko Lovrenović, Ljiljana Ševo and Tina Wik.
No: 07-2-02-771/03-3
15 March 2006
Konjic
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.
The Commission to Preserve National Monuments issued a decision to add the Sijerčić turbes, Sijerčići, Odžak to the Provisional List of National Monuments under serial no. 254.
Pursuant to the provisions of the law, the Commission proceeded to carry out the procedure for reaching a final decision to designate the Property as a National Monument, pursuant to Article V of Annex 8 and Article 35 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments.
II – PROCEDURE PRIOR TO DECISION
In the procedure preceding the adoption of a final decision to proclaim the property a national monument, the following documentation was inspected:
- Documentation on the location and current owner and user of the property (copy of cadastral plan and copy of land registry entry)
- Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs, data of war damage, details of 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 Sijerčići is close to the town of Goražde(1), in the eastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The turbes stand to theleft of the road leading dowm from the settlement of Jabuka to Goražde.
The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 1673, title sheet no. 184/1, cadastral municipality Kopači, Novo Goražde Municipality, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Historical information
The favourable climatic conditions and location alongside the river Drina, fertile soil, abundance of forestry, and other natural resources meant that many settlements evolved along the upper Drina valley from ancient times onwards. The Drina valley has always been the main route in eastern Bosnia linking the coastal area, Serbia and Montenegro with Sarajevo and other regions.
The earliest signs of habitation in these parts date from the stone age, as evidence by a large number of finds in the settlements of Popov Dol, Zupčići and Podhranjen. Later, the area was settled by the Illyrians. Many Roman remains, too, have been found along the upper Drina, above all in the Ustikolina region.
In the mediaeval period, Gornje Podrinje (the upper Drina valley) was part of the Rascian state, while from 1376 to 1391 it was ruled by King Tvrtko. Following his death, the region was governed by Hum dukes from the Hranušić – Kosača family (Mujezinović, p. 83).
Goražde is believed to have fallen to the Ottomans in the summer of 1465. In December 1477, the district belonged to a nahija of the Herzegovina sandžak.
The official census (tahrir defteri) of Herzegovina dating from December 1477 provides an overview of the state of affairs and population numbers of Goražde 12 years after it became part of the Turkish state(2). Taking into consideration the few indigenous families, such as the Sijerčić and their branches the Baščelija and Obarčani, major Muslim settlement in Goražde began in the 17th century (R. Živojević, Goražde u prošlosti i danas, 1964. Sarajevo). No old original epigraphic material has survived in the town itself. Until just before World War II, there were two mosques in Goražde referred to since the 18th century as mosques of Sijerčić beg(3).
The Sijerčić family originates from the village of Sijerčići, where the two turbes bearing their name are to be found.
2. Description of the property
Turbes(4) belong to the group of memorial buildings(5).
Turbes may essentially be divided into enclosed and open types.(6) The two turbes belonging to the Sijerčić family, located in the hamlet of Odžak near Goražde, are of the enclosed type. The turbe known as the Upper, which stands right by the barrier separating the harem from the rural road, contains the mortal remains of Sinan-beg Sijerčić, founder of the mosque in Goražde.
The Upper Turbe is hexagonal in ground plan and built mainly of limestone, which was originally lime-plastered. In some places tufa blocks are to be seen in the upper reaches of the walls. During later interventions, whitewashed lime cement mortar was used instead of lime mortar.
The sides of the turbe are approximately 2.80 m in length and the walls are approx. 60 cm thick. The entrance door is rectangular, measuring approx. 70 cm in width and 1.70 m in height, terminating in a round arch. The stone door jambs and lintel cannot be seen, having been plastered over.
To the left of the entrance door are three windows set alternately, two narrow ones resembling loopholes and one rather wider terminating in a hemisphere. The windows are 50 cm high and 30 cm wide. They formerly had wrought iron bars.
The upper turbe has a timber roof structure, although in his Islamska epigrafica, Mujezinović states that “both turbes have domes on the interior.“
Inside, the turbe is plastered with lime cementn mortar. The floor is of quarry stone slabs set in cement emulsion. The roof cladding is sheet metal covered with wooden shingles. The roof structure, consisting of wooden rafters, is exposed on the interior. There are no epitaphs on the turbe.
The lower turbe also contains the mortal remains of Sijerčić's, father and son (Mujezinović, p. 85). This turbe too is hexagonal in ground plan and has a wooden roof clad with sheet metal. The original cladding was shingles. Below the roof is a blind dome built tufa and plastered. The sides of the turbe measure approx. 2.80 m,and the walls are approx. 70 cm thick.
The entrance to the turbe measures 0.80 x 1.40 m. The entrance door terminates in a segmental arch. Although this turbe too was plastered, the plaster has fallen away from the entrance facade, leaving the structure of the door jambs and lintel visible. The door jambs consist of a single piece of stone, 25 cm thick and approx. 100 cm in height. The lintel is a segmental arch composed of three sections. To the left of the turbe, as on the upper turbe, are three windows arranged in the same fashion – two loophole-like narrow windows and a rather wider one terminating in a hemisphere. This turbe is rather taller than the upper one and has a more steeply pitched roof. In the interior, wooden tie beams can be seen in the upper reaches of the walls. The floor of the turbe is of quarry slabs set in cement emulsion.
There are some thirty small nišan tombstones in the harem around the turbes, most of them made of the local sandstone known as miljevina. One of them, made of Skopje marble; itis 65 cm in height and 9 x 9 in cross section, is incised with the shahada (La illaha ill'Llah, Muhammadun rasula'Llah – there is no god but God, and Muhammad is His prophet).
One of the tombstones made of miljevina, belonging to Sijerčić Ebu - Bekir Baša, is incised with the epitaph:
“Deceased Ebu Bekir baša, son of Sinan-baša Sijerčić (Siyerce-zade), may God have mercy upon him. Year 1242 AH (1826/27).
A woman’s tombstone with an unmarried girl’s cap also bears the shahada (La illaha ill'Llah, Muhammadun rasula'Llah – there is no god but God, and Muhammad is His prophet), below which is the date AH 1272 (1855/56). The remaining tombstones are of more recent date and mainly without epitaph.
3. Legal status to date
The turbes in Sijerčići, Odžak, Ustiprača are on the Provisional List of National Monuments of BiH under serial no. 254.
4. Research and conservation and restoration works
In 1970 the walls and dome of the turbe in Sijerčići were repaired by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of BiH (details from the periodical Naše starine no. 13,1972).
Other interventions have been carried out by members of the Sijerčić family, which meetgs around the turbes each year.
5. Current condition of the property
Long-term lack of maintenance has led to various damage to the turbes in the shape of numerous cracks and splits. On both turbes, probably as a result of using inappropriate building materials (cement and cement emulsion), there is extensive rising damp, particularly in the lower turbe. The plaster has fallen away from parts of the walls where they are in direct contact with the soil, as a result of rising damp. The buildings lack good-quality woodwork.
The timber roof structure – rafters – of the upper turbe is in good condition. The sheet metal roof cladding is extensively rusted.
6. Specific risks
Rising damp
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
E. Symbolic value
E.i. ontological value
E.ii. religious value
E.iii. traditional value
E.v. significance for the identity of a group of people
F. Townscape/ Landscape value
The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:
- Copy of cadastral plan
- Copy of land register entry and proof of title;
- Drawings by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of BiH:
1. ground plan of the turbes, scale 1:50, Mirzah Fočo, architect
2. cross-section, scale 1:50, Mirzah Fočo, architect
3. façade, scale 1:50, Mirzah Fočo, architect
- Photodocumentation of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of BiH, May 2005, taken by Orjana Lenasi
Bibliography
During the procedure to designate the property as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:
1964. R. Živojević, Goražde u prošlosti i danas (Goražde past and present), 1964. Oslobođenje, Sarajevo
1972. Naše starine no. XIII, Sarajevo, 1972.
1998. Mujezinović, Mehmed, Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovine, knjiga II – Istočna i centralna Bosna (Islamic epigraphics of BiH, Bk. II – eastern and central Bosnia), Sarajevo Publishing 1998,
(1) Goražde is roughly halfway along the upper river Drina
(2) At that time there were 197 households and 30 unmarried persons in Goražde.
(3) One of them was destroyed during World War II, and the other was renovated, completely altering its appearance.
(4) Turbe – Ar. turbā, mausoleum, roofed tomb (Škaljić, p. 624)
(5) «Turbes are masonry, or rarely timber-built, mausolea, usually octagonal in ground plan, either enclosed or open with a stone baldaquin on four pillars. As a rule, enclosed turbes stand alongside mosques (turbes around Hagia Sophia in Istanbul for the families of Ottoman rulers), while turbes on pillars are invariably in burial grounds. Normally two, or rarely several deceased are buried together in a turbe».( Knoll, Petar 1929.).
(6) Well-known enclosed types are those of Gazi Husrev-beg and Murat-beg in Sarajevo, Ferhat pasha in Banja Luka (now destroyed), and Sinan-beg in Čajniče (now destroyed). The two turbes in Alifakovac and one by the Sinan tekke in Sarajevo, and a number of turbes in Travnik, belong to the open type.
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