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 ground site of the Kajtezović nišan tombstones, Donja Lučka, municipality Cazin, 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 no. 1054, Land Register entry no. 1491, title deed no. 562/02, cadastral municipality Pećigrad, 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 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. 2 of this Decision.  The following protection measures shall apply in this zone:

• the only works permitted are conservation and restoration works, works on the presentation of the National Monument, and the routine maintenance of the protected site, subject to approval from the Federation ministry responsible for regional planning and under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
• burials shall be permitted at a distanced of 5 metres from the old nišan tombstones,
• the existing wooden fence around the burial ground shall be repaired or a new one erected.

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 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. 758.

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.:07.2-02-65/05-4

15 March 2006                                                            

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.

The Commission to Preserve National Monuments issued a decision to add the Kajtezović nišan tombstones, Donja Luka, to the Provisional List of National Monuments under serial no. 758(1).

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.
• Inspection of the current condition of the property
• Copy of cadastral plan
• 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 Kajtezović nišan tombstones are in Pećigrad, in the town of Donja Lučka, Cazin Municipality, on the road leading from Pećigrad to Mala Kladuša.

The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 1054, title deed no. 562/02, Land Register entry no. 1491, cadastral municipality Pećigrad, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Historijski podaci(2) 

According to M. Mujezinović (Mujezinović, p. 84), all the tombstones on this plot are of relatively recent date and denote the following members of the Kajtezović family:

• Hasan, son of Ibrahim, died 1331 AH (1913),
• Sulejman, son of Mahmud, died 1336 AH (1917/18);
• Mahmud, son of Ahmed, died 1340 AH (1922);
• Husejin, son of Mahmud, died 1353 AH;
• Hasan, son of Mahmud, died 1355 AH (1936);
• Sulejman, son of Ibrahim, died 1370 AH (1950/51);
• Mehmed, son of Mahmud, died 1964.

2. Description of the property

A small group of nišan tombstones stands on a wooden-fenced plot very close to the road leading from Cazin to Velika Kladuša.

It is not unusual to find such groups of tombstones in this region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the Krajina (frontier region), they are known as «nišani krajputaši» (roadside tombstones).  They were usually erected alongside main roads, as the name itself suggests.  In the case of these memorial sites, the deceased were quite frequently buried elsewhere.

M. Mujezinović notes that there are 16 nišan tombstones in a fenced plot, eight men's and eight women's (Mujezinović, p. 84).   There are more of them now, given that the tradition of burial or of erecting tombstones to members of the Kajtezović family on this plot is still upheld (tombstones dating from1970 and 1981).

The decoration on the tombstones in Donja Lučka is very elaborate.  The men’s nišan tombstones are particularly striking, exceeding as they do three metres in height (Mujezinović, p. 84).

The tombstones are approximately 40 x 40 cm in section.  Their lower sections are adorned with decoration rich in floral designs.  The centre of the composition is usually occupied by an ibrik (ewer) at the centre of which is a small, usually octagonal rosette. The epitaph, in Turkish, occupies the central section of the tombstone.  This section is rectangular, and terminates in the shape of a round arch.  It is set back into the stone by about 3 cm.

The section above the epitaph is decorated with crescent moons with one or more stars.  All the tombstones have the roughly similar, elaborately decorated turbans typical of this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  The edges of the tombstones are decorated with ropetwist, which also features below the turbans.

The women’s nišan tombstones are smaller in size and located behind the men’s.  They too are richly decorated, but where the men’s have a turban, the women’s have the braiding denoting a woman.  The lower section of these tombstones, too, is decorated with floral designs and ewers with a rosette at the centre, but in this case the rosette is more elaborately decorated.  The central section of the tombstone is reserved for the epitaph.  The edges of the tombstones are decorated with ropetwist.

The tombstones are the work of local craftsmen, who evolved this characteristic type of nišan over the centuries. Their influence is also to be seen in the regions extending eastwards from Bosanska Krajina.  They are of bihacite, a type of stone that is very easy to work.  The outer surfaces of the stone are smoothed and worked with the same tools still used today to work stone in these parts (saw and grinding wheel).

3. Legal status to date

The Kajtezović nišan tombstones are on the Provisional List of National Monuments of BiH under serial no. 758.

4. Research and conservation and restoration works

The burial ground is kept regularly maintained.  It is not known whether any conservation or restoration works have been carried out on the nišan tombstones.

Mehmed Mujezinović, an associate of the former Republic Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of BiH, carried out an epigraphic survey of the tombstones in 19…

5. Current condition of the property

The group is in good condition.  The plot is kept well maintained and cleared of weeds.

The wooden fence surrounding the burial ground is damaged in places.

6. Specific risks

Traffic – the proximity of a very busy road.  Exhaust gases are giving rise to changes in the colour and structure of the stone.

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

D. Clarity

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

E. Symbolic 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

H. Rarity and representativity

H.i. unique or rare example of a certain type or style

            The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:

-    Copy of cadastral plan

-    Proof of title;

-    Photodocumentation from Cazin municipality (photographer unknown)

-    Photodocumentation of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments (photographs taken by Mirzah Fočo)

Bibliography

During the procedure to designate the monument as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:

1970.   Hilić, Hasan ef., Džamije u Velikoj Kladuši (Mosques in Velika Kladuša), Velika Kladuša, 1970

1998.   Mujezinović, Mehmed, Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovina III (Islamic epigraphics of BiH Bk. III), Sarajevo Publishing, Sarajevo, 1998

         Documentation of Cazin Municipality

(1) On the Provisional List of National Monuments, the property is listed under Velika Kladuša municipality. The tombstones are in Cazin municipality 

(2)  For more historical background on Cazin, see the Decision to designate the Architectural Ensemble of the Old Cazin Fort and Mosque as a National Monument