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 16 to 22 May 2006 the Commission adopted a

D E C I S I O N

I

The residential ensemble of the Sabura house in Sarajevo 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. 1711 (new survey) corresponding to c.p. 14 mahala XCVI (old survey), Land Register entry no. XCVI/53, cadastral municipality Sarajevo II, Municipality Stari grad Sarajevo, Sarajevo, 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

To ensure the on-going protection of the National Monument, the following protection measures are hereby stipulated.

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, including 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,
• the property may be used for residential, educational and cultural purposes in a manner that will not detrimental to the integrity of the building and its meaning in the townscape.

Protection Zone II consists of the plots bordering the plot on which the National Monument is located. In this zone the following protection measures shall apply:

• alterations/extensions to existing buildings and the erection of new ones that could be detrimental to the National Monument in dimensions, appearance or any other way are prohibited.

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.556.

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: 06.2-2-24/05-7

23 May 2006

Sarajevo

Chair of the Commission

Amra Hadžimuhamedović

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 issued a Decision to add the Sabura house in Sarajevo to the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, numbered as 566.

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
• Documentation on the current owner and user 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 ensemble of the Sabura house is at no. 6 Sabura st, in the residential quarter of Kovači. The entrance to the courtyard of the Sabura house is from the west, from Sabura street.  The house lies with its long axis north-south, with the main entrance to the west.

The Sabura house is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 1711 (new survey) corresponding to c.p. 14 mahala XCVI (old survey), Land Register entry no. XCVI/53, cadastral municipality Sarajevo II, Municipality Stari grad Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Historical information

Sarajevo came into being on the site of the mediaeval market-town and settlement of Vrhbosna in the 15th century, but it took shape during the 16th century.

The urban structure of the city in the Ottoman period was based on the principle of organization into several residential groups of mahalas, spatially and functionally linked with the separately organized commercial zones of the city. Each mahala consisted of 30 to 40 houses, a mosque, a mekteb (Islamic primary school), a primary school, a bakery and a public fountain. According to the 1895 census, Sarajevo then had 106 mahalas (Kurto, 1997, 23).

The Sarajevo čaršija (commercial and artisanal centre) was formed in the mid 15th century, and developed very rapidly, its growth peaking in the second half of the 16th century. About 80 different crafts were pursued in the Sarajevo čaršija, organized into powerful guilds known as esnafs.  The crafts were organized by type, or esnaf, in such a way that each street contained only one, or more than one closely allied, crafts: Kazandžiluk (coppersmith's street), Kujundžiluk (goldsmiths' street), Kazazi (haberdashers' street), Franačka čaršija («Frankish» commercial quarter), Halači (fullers' street), Mudželiti (bookbinders' street)... there were in all 45 such streets, composing the Sarajevo čaršija. The products of Sarajevo's artisans and craftsmen not only met the needs of the people of Sarajevo themselves, but were also exported to other parts of the world.

Among Sarajevo's guilds was the coppersmiths' esnaf, consisting of kazandžijas (coppersmiths), kalajdžija (tinsmiths), and traders in their products. The earliest written records of the coppersmiths’ esnaf in Sarajevo date from 1632, although it was presumably in existence as early as the 16th century. In 1848 this esnaf had 60 members (Kreševljaković, 1951, p. 197).

The residential part of the town took shape on the surrounding slopes, spreading from the centre outwards. When building residential properties, efforts were made to ensure they had as much light and greenery as possible.

            Many travel chroniclers have written of the beauties of Sarajevo's gardens. Passing through Sarajevo in 1550, the Italian travel chronicler Katarino Zeno wrote that each house had its own garden and čardak (verandah), and that the gardens were as beautiful as those of Padua.

The interiors of the houses were particularly richly furbished. This interior beauty was made pleasing by the carved furniture, diverse fabrics and kilim carpets, and many articles of silver and copper, made in the workshops of Sarajevo's kujundžija and kazandžija artisans.

The mahalas, and later the streets, were named after prominent families living in them for many years (sometimes for 100 or 200 years). Three mahalas in Sarajevo were named after the prominent coppersmiths’ families living in them: the Ramić, Sabura and Hadžišabanović families.

The Sabura house was purpose-built as the family house of the Saburas, an old Sarajevo esnaf family of coppersmiths and traders in copper wares.

The oldest Saburas were the brothers Hajji Mehmed and Hajji Sulejman. Hajji Mehmed died before 1769, and had five sons: Hajji Musafa, Bego Ibrahim-aga, Hajji Smail, Salih and Hajji Abdulah.  The brothers Hajji Musafa and Bego Ibrahim-aga inherited their father’s workshop and were co-owners, along with their uncle Hajji Sulejman, of the entire property of the Sabura family. After the death of Hajji Musafa, an inventory was drawn up, and the entire estate was valued at 9,612.938 akči or 400.533 groschen.

In addition to the house, garden and mill, they had another garden in Medreseti, a magazine storehouse in Tašlihan, a shop and magazine near the Careva (Imperial) bridge, shops, magazines, land and buildings in the villages around Sarajevo.

The last male descendant of the Sabura family was Hajji Ibrahimaga, who died in 1867; his daughter Hasiba, who died in 1905, was the last of the Saburas (Kreševljaković, 1951. p. 204).

In the burial ground facing Saburina street were nine graves with nišan tombstones incised with the epitaphs of eight members of the Sabura family, buried between 1769 and 1867.

The Sabura house passed to the Žiga family by marriage.

The Sabura house was originally built as a residential complex consisting of several buildings and facilities: the women’s and men’s houses, the courtyard, garden, and outbuildings. The women’s quarters fell into complete dilapidation after 1918. Some of the interior fittings from this building were transferred to the ethnographic section of the National Museum in Sarajevo.

All that now remains of the entire complex of the Sabura house is a single building, the men’s quarters with courtyard, which was built in about 1750.

The building was already in poor condition before the 1992-1995 war, during which it took a direct hit, which damaged the roof structure, façade walls and windows.

2. Description of the property

The residential ensemble of the Sabura house in Sarajevo is one of the few surviving examples of residential architecture of the Ottoman period in Sarajevo. The house lies north-south, with the main entrance to the west.

It was originally built as a residential complex composed of several buildings: the haremluk (women's quarters) and selamluk (men's quarters), with a large stable alongside it. The haremluk and selamluk each had two courtyards. The courtyard forming part of the women's quarters of the house had an area of approx. 200 m2, and was paved with square slabs. This courtyard contained a two-storey storeroom built of cut stone with a tufa barrel vault.  The same courtyard also contained a halvat (room) of square ground plan, measuring approx. 7 x 7 m. The kitchen of the Sabura house contained a fountain with three pipes and a stone trough. The large garden was surrounded by a high wall of unbaked (adobe) brick and stone with a shingle-clad coping. All that now remains of the entire complex of the Sabura house is a single building, the men’s quarters with courtyard (Kreševljaković, 1951. p. 202)

The Sabura house measures approx. 11.65 x 8.70 m on the outside. In spatial layout, it features the basic module typical of much of residential architecture of the 17th and 18th century, consisting of a sizeable room for the head of the household, the family and guests, with a smaller room alongside it for the servants, for receiving guests. This concept applied to the first floor of the Sabura house (with a large room known as the čardak-ćošak [enclosed verandah] and a smaller room alongside known as the kahve odžak [lit. «coffee hearth»]).

The courtyard leads into a semi-open area known as the hajat at ground-floor level. The hajat runs along part of the entire length of the west front of the building, and measures approx. 9.5 m in length, varying in width from 2 to 3.5 m. The hajat is open to the west, where there is a wooden railing with arched sections reaching to the ceiling. The hajat leads into a fair-sized room known as the halvat and a smaller room known as the mutvak (kitchen).

The halvat is on the north-east side of the building, and measures approx. 5.4 x 6.2 m.  It has five rectangular single-casement windows, approx. 90 cm wide and 140 cm high. The windows are fitted with iron grilles on the outside. Two windows face south, two east, and one north.

The kitchen (mutvak) is in the north-west corner of the building and is entered from the hajat through a wooden door. The mutvak measures approx. 2.6 x 3.4 m, and has two windows approx.85 cm wide and 140 cm high, facing north and fitted with iron grilles on the outside. The earthenware stove in the mutvak was against the east wall, where there is a chimney.

The first floor of the Sabura house consists of a divanhana with kamarija, a čardak-čošak, and a smaller room known as a kafe-odžak.

The hajat leads via a single-flight staircase up to the semi-open area on the first floor known as the divanhana. The divanhana, and the kamarija that lies beyond it. Facing east, occupy the entire west front of the building. The divanhana faces the west courtyard, and measures approx. 8.35 x 2.60 m. It has a wooden partition on the west side, consisting of three arched sections. A simple wooden partition with two arched sections and three steps separates the divanhana from the kamarija, which faces the western part of the courtyard and measures approx. 3.6 x 2.8 m. It is closed off by a wooden partition with three large windows to the front. Only the east side is closed off by a wooden partition worked in the same way as mušebak (lattice-work).

The divanhana leads into the čardak-čošak, which is in the north-east corner of the building.  The čardak-čošak and the kamarija appear from the outside to compose a single entity. The čardak is a room measuring 7.6 x 5.5 m which projects out from the main body of the building, oriel-style. Its longer side lies north-south.The čardak-čošak is entered through a round-arched wooden door decorated with carved floral motifs and wrought-iron studs. The čardak has nine rectangular wooden windows 95 cm in width, with grilles on the outside. It has a wooden floor and a decorative šiša (slatted) ceiling with a sofraluk (central feature). The musandera is also decorated. It consists of a wooden partition along the west wall, behind which are dolafs (small cupboards), dušekluci (cupboards for storing bed linen during the day), open shelves, a hamamdžik (washroom) and an earthenware stove.

The divanhana leads into the small kafe-odžak, which measures approx. 3.5 x 3.8 m and occupies the north-west corner of the building. It measures approx. 3.8 x 3.0 m. The hearth (odžak) is  the east wall of this room.

One of the central features of this residential architecture are the prominent eaves and openness of the building to the courtyard.

The house was built of traditional materials: stone, wood and unbaked (adobe) brick. The structural system of the house is typical of old Sarajevo residential architecture.

The foundations are of quarry stone. The socle area of the walls is of hewn stone. The solid walls of the ground floor, which are approx. 55 cm thick, are of unbaked clay bricks, with horizontal oak tie beams. The first floor is half-timbered, with an infill of unbaked brick. The first floor walls are approx. 25 cm thick. The floor of the upper storey consists of close-packed half-logs packed with clay (the clay is mixed with lime, making it fire-resistant). The building has a hipped roof with a timber roof frame, clad with tiles.

Timber was used for the roof frame, uprights, kamarija (verandah), divanhana (spacious first-floor landing), flashings on the doksat (oriel window) and for the interior furnishings. All this was of cut timber (mainly deal). The ceilings of all the rooms in the Sabura house were šiše-style (wooden laths) fixed to the underside of the ceiling joists. Wood was also used for the floors throughout the building, which are of wide deal boards.

All the door and window frames, and the windows and doors themselves, were of wood.  Wood also has a decorative function in the building. The doors leading to the čardak-ćošak are covered with wood carving, as are the pillars in the divanhana.

The Sabura house is surrounded on three sides by high courtyard walls, approx. 2 m in height, to the west, south and east. The west wall facing Saburina street is older, made of brick with a hollow tile coping. The south and east walls are of more recent date, composed of uprights and plastered walls, with no coping. There is a building very close to the Sabura house on the adjoining plot to the north, where there is no courtyard wall.

The courtyard consists of two sections, the western, outside the Sabura house, at the entrance, and the eastern, behind the house.

The entrance to the western part of the courtyard of the Sabura house is from the west and south. The eastern part of the courtyard is reached through a temporary garage to the south, between the house and the courtyard wall.

The entrance portals in the courtyard walls are approx. 2.0 m wide and approx. 2.0 m high. The portal consists of double doors with a gabled coping clad with hollow tiles.

3. Legal status to date

By Ruling of the City Institute for the Protection and Use of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Sarajevo, the bulding was placed under protection (no. 29/77 of 18.07.1977)

The Regional Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina to 2002 lists the Sabura house in Sarajevo as a Category III monument.

The Sabura house in Sarajevo is on the Provisional List of National Monuments of BiH under serial no. 556.

4. Research and conservation and restoration works

In 2002 experts of the Cantonal Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Sarajevo were responsible for works to repair and reconstruct the roof and roof frame of the Sabura house.

The works were carried out in line with the project documentation:, Project for the repair and reconstruction of the roof and roof frame of the Sabura house in Sarajevo, drawn up by the Cantonal Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Sarajevo in 2002.

The roof and roof frame and all elements of the roof, the dormers, chimneys, flashings, guttering and downpipes were all repaired and reconstructed. The entire roof cladding was replaced and approx. 30% of the roof frame was replaced.

Since the Sabura house is regarded as of value from the point of view of authenticity, further repair and restoration works, along with the reconstruction of missing and destroyed elements, were carried out in 2005.

These restoration and conservation works applied to almost the entire building. Some of the basic restoration and conservation works were:

• installing new windows
• making the facade and doksat
• part of the kamarija on the first floor.

During the course of these works on the building, wherever possible the existing elements of the floor joists and of the kamarija, staircase, divanhana and walls of the building were retained. All parts that had to be dismantled and restored or replaced by new ones were precisely surveyed and marked prior to dismantling, and returned to their original positions or replaced by new ones of the same materials and dimensions, as applicable.

5. Current condition of the property

The Sabura house is in fairly good condition, following restoration works carried out in the summer of 2005.

The restoration works did not extend to the whole of the building, so that some parts are in rather poor condition. This is true of the floors, ceilings and furnishings on the first floor: the čardak-ćošak and kahve-odžak.

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.iii. proportions

C.iv. composition

C.v. value of details

D. Clarity (documentary, scientific and educational value)

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.iv. traditions and techniques

G.v. location and setting

I. Completeness

I.i. physical coherence

I.iii. completeness

The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:

o        Copy of cadastral plan

o        Copy of land register entry

o        Photodocumentation (photographs of the building taken from 1999 to 2005)

o        Blueprint of the current state of the property obtained in electronic form from the Cantonal Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Sarajevo

o        Technical documentation (Project for the repair and reconstruction of the roof and roof frame of the Sabura house, Cantonal Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Sarajevo

Bibliography:

During the procedure to designate the residential ensemble of the Sabura house in Sarajevo as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the following works were consulted:

1951.   Kreševljaković, Hamdija, Kazandžijski obrt u BiH (The coppersmiths’ craft in BiH), Jnl of the National Museum, VL VI/1951.

1998.   Mujezinović, Mehmed, Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovine (Islamic epigraphics of BiH), bk. I, 3rd ed, Cultural Heritage Series, Sarajevo Publishing, 1998.

2002.   Cantonal Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Sarajevo, Project for the repair and reconstruction of the roof and roof frame of the Sabura house in Sarajevo, 2002

Documentation of the Cantonal Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Sarajevo