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 4 to 10 July 2006 the Commission adopted a
D E C I S I O N
I
The site and remains of the historic monument of the Avdić Mosque in Plana, Municipality Bileća, 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. 4/88 (old survey), Land Register entry no. 726, cadastral municipality Plana, Municipality Bileća, 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 providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary to protect, conserve, rehabilitate and display the National Monument.
The Commission to Preserve National Monuments (hereinafter: the Commission) shall determine the conditions and provide 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, which shall apply to the area defined in Clause 1 para. 2 of this Decision.
- all works are prohibited other than rehabilitation works on the property, 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,
- on the adjoining plots, the construction of new buildings that could in size, appearance or any other way be detrimental to the National Monument is prohibited.
The Government of Republika Srpska shall be responsible for ensuring that a Rehabilitation Project is drawn up for the National Monument.
During rehabilitation of the National Monument, the following conditions must be fulfilled:
- The historic monument of the Avdić mosque in Plana shall be rehabilitated on its original site.
- During rehabilitation, the original proportional relationships and original appearance of the property shall be retained, with identical horizontal and vertical dimensions, on the basis of documentation on its former appearance, with the possible use of modern materials as similar as possible to the original materials.
- Stone slabs shall be used to clad the roof of the building.
- The surface layers of soil shall be removed to reveal the original foundation walls of the mosque.
- All pieces and fragments found on the site of the mosque or any other place, including fragments of the walls and other parts of the mosque, shall be recorded, studied, conserved and reincorporated into the reconstructed building wherever possible.
- Fragments that are too badly damaged to be reintegrated shall be appropriately conserved and displayed within the architectural ensemble.
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 the urban and municipal authorities, shall refrain from any action that might damage the National Monument or jeopardize the preservation 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 – 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 Article V, Paragraph 4 of Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, decisions of the Commission are final.
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: 07.2-2-683/03-4
5 July 2006
Sarajevo
Chair of the Commission
Amra Hadžimuhamedović
E l u c i d a t i o n
I – INTRODUCTION
Pursuant to the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Article 2, Paragraph 1 of 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, as well as the property entered on the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of BiH, no. 33/02), until the Commission reaches the 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.
On 17 March 2003 the Commission received a petition from the Centre for Islamic Architecture in Sarajevo, and proceeded to carry out the procedure to designate the property as a national monument, pursuant to Article V para. 4 of Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 35 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments
Pursuant to the provisions of the law, the Commission proceeded to carry out the procedure for reaching the final decision to designate the property as a national monument, pursuant to Article V para. 4 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 the 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 land registry excerpt),
- Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs, data on war damage, data on restoration or other works on the property, etc.,
- Historical, architectural and other documentary material on the property.
The findings based on the review of the above documentation and on the condition of the property are as follows:
1. Details of the property
Location
The settlement of Plana is located on triborder area of the Bileća – Gacko – Stolac road.
The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 4/88 (old survey), Land Register entry no. 726, cadastral municipality Plana, Municipality Bileća, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Historical information(1)
According to Hivzija Hasandedić, the mosque in Plana was built in 1026 AH (1617), as could be seen from the inscription engraved on the stone arch of the mosque door. The mosque was destroyed by bandits or fugitives from the coastal region, and was rebuilt by the inhabitants on 1 Muharram 1210 AH (18 July 1795)(2).
Hasan ef. Fazlagić performed the duty of imam and mualim (teacher) in Plana from 1907 to 1917. After him, the imams were Šaćir ef. and Ali ef. Dreca, Rešid ef. Imamović and Mustafa ef. Zahić. Zahić, the last imam of the mosque, was killed by outlaws(3) in 1941. The legator endowed four fields named Luka, Cijepac, Podolje and the Osmanagić fields, and a graveyard with a well next to the mosque for the upkeep of the mosque and for paying its officials. The endowment of this mosque also includes the graveyards in Krivača, Njeganovići, Šakotići and Trensula. The revenues collected from these properties amounted to 30 florins in 1913, and were paid as salary to the imam who performed the duty of imam duty there.
Hasandedić says: ”The mosque was destroyed again in 1941, when all Muslims from this place and the surrounding villages escaped the attacks of the outlaws.”
The mosque was reconstructed in 1964 in its original form. With effect from 1964, the Chief Imam of the mosque in Bileća occasionally performed the duty of imam. Hamza Avdić (1816-1876), Šobo Avdić, who died in 1800, Alija Avdić (1841 – 1926), Ziba Džubur and Arifa Čustović (1941) were buried in the mosque graveyard. The families of Avdić, Čaović, Durmiš, Đapo, Kovač and Kusturica used to live in Plana.
The mosque was completely destroyed in the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2. Description of the property
The mosque in Plana belonged to the type of single-spaced mosques with sofas and a square stone minaret. According to the information received from the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of BiH, the mosque previously had a wooden mahvil, from which the minaret was entered; in 1952, however, there remained no traces of it.
A prose inscription in Turkish was engraved on a 13 x 34 cm surface of the stone arch of the entrance door of the mosque, which read as follows:
“The noble mosque was reconstructed by the inhabitants of the village on 1 Muharram 1210 AH (18 July 1795); the mosque was originally built in 1026 AH (1617)”. (Mujezinović, page 356)
The central area of the mosque had a hipped roof with slab cladding. The external sofas originally also had a single roof structure, as can be seen on an old photograph of the mosque dating from before its destruction in 1941. Traces of that roof could be seen among the remains on the site.
The ground plan of the building (together with the sofas) was rectangular, with external dimensions of 11.30 x 7.20 metres. The central prayer area was almost square, with internal dimensions of 5.84 x 5.42 metres. The internal widths of the building were as follows: north-east wall – 5.42 metres, south-east wall – 5.84, south-west wall – 5.61 and north-west wall – 5.70 metres. The mosque walls were made of roughly dressed limestone with lime mortar used as binder, and were approximately 70 cm thick.
The walls were mainly pointed stone on the outside. The height of the wall in the central prayer area was 4.60 metres, while the height of the building, measured from the floor to the top of the roof ridge, was about 7.20 metres.
On the northwest side were sofas with internal dimensions of 4.00 x 5.50 metres. They were enclosed to the north-east and south-west by a 70 cm thick stone wall, while the wall on the north-west side was 65 cm thick. The sofas were floored with stone slabs. There were two window apertures on the north-west façade, the one to the left of the entrance door measuring 0.70 x 0.70 metres, and the one to the right somewhat larger at 0.76 x 0.70 metres. The internal dimensions of the window apertures were larger, with a daylight width of approximately 1.00 metre. The external dimensions of the entrance door were 1.06 x 1.89 metres, and the internal dimensions 1.26 x 2.55 metres. There was a 12 cm high stone threshold at the entrance door. The north-east wall was approximately 2.55 metres high.
The entrance to the mosque was in the north-west wall of the central part of the building, and was accentuated by a modest stone portal. The daylight width of the door was 0.67 x 1.60 metres. The height of the opening was less on the outside, measuring 1.32 metres. On the outside, the door terminated in a shallow round arch. The rise of the arch measured a mere 16 cm. A 12 cm high stone threshold was built into the lower side of the door.
One of the features of this and other stone mosques in this area is the very small number of windows. The main reason for this is the unfavourable climate – great heat in the summer and very cold and severe winters. There were windows only on the south-west and south-east sides of the mosque. The window apertures measured 0.90 x 1.30 metres (on the south-east side) and 0.55-0.60 x 1.30 metres (on the north-west side). In the upper part of the south-west wall, at a height of 3.30 metres above floor level, was a window aperture measuring 0.60 x 0.50 metres. The interior window lintels were in the form of a shallow arch. A square niche, 37 cm wide and 22 cm deep, could be seen in the south-west wall. The exterior window frames and lintels were made of cut stone blocks.
The mihrab of the mosque was 0.86 metres wide and 2.30 metres high. The mihrab was built of cut limestone blocks. The niche was in the shape of a hemispherical recess, 36 cm deep. The stone framework of the mihrab was 18 cm wide.
The minbar of the mosque was made of stone. According to data obtained from the file folder of the structure, prepared by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of BiH, the minbar was made of a combination of wood and stone, but there are no traces of any wooden components. The minbar was 0.72 metres wide and 2.17 metres long. The steps were between 22.5 and 24 cm wide and between 18 and 24 cm high. The total height of the stone part of the minbar was 1.83 metres.
The minaret of the mosque was approximately square in section(4), measuring ca. 2.51 x 2.33 metres. The minaret tapered gradually, measuring approximately 2.00 x 2.00 metres at the top. It was made of roughly dressed stone, with lime mortar as binder. The entrance to the minaret(5) was in the western corner of the building, at a height of 2.42 metres above the mosque floor. The entrance door to the minaret was 1.70 metres high and, like the entrance door of the structure, terminated in a round arch.
The masonry part of the minaret, measured on the outside, was about 11 metres high. There were four round-arched windows measuring approx. 50 x 100 cm at the very top of the minaret. The top of the minaret was in the shape of a shallow hipped roof clad with stone slabs and with a stone finial.
There is a small graveyard (harem) with about ten pairs of nišan tombstones, some of them with turbans but without any epitaph. The following epitaph is engraved on one of the tombstones with a pyramidal apex, which belongs to a certain Šobo Alić (Avdić):
„The deceased Šobo Alić (Ali-zade), recite al Fatiha for his soul. The year of 1298 AH (1880) Avdić“.(Mujezinović, page 356)
3. Legal status to date
By Ruling no. 583/52 of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of SR BiH dated 11 August 1952, the property was registered as a cultural monument.
By Ruling no. 02-699-3 of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments dated 18 April 1962, the mosque (remains) were registered in the Register of Immovable Cultural Monuments under number 34.
The Ruling entered into force on 23 October 1962.
4. Research and conservation and restoration works
No data other than those according to which it was reconstructed in 1795 and 1964.
5. Current condition of the property
The property was completely destroyed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are no visible remains on the site, so that it was very difficult even to locate it. It is possible that there are remains of the foundation walls below ground, but this could not be ascertained during the inspection of the site.The harem in Plana has been made good and restored on the initiative of the local inhabitants of the village.
6. Specific risks
The building has been completely destroyed
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 is based on the following criteria:
A. Time frame
B. Historical value
D. Clarity (documentary, scientific, educational value)
D.iv. evidence of certain type, style or regional manner
E. Symbolic 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
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
- Copy of land register entry
- File folder of the structure prepared by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of BiH
- Ruling on protection
- Ground plan of the ground floor of the mosque, scale 1:50, drawn by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport
- Cross-section, scale 1:50, drawn by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport
- Photodocumentation of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of BiH
Bibliography:
During the procedure to designate the property as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:
1879, Konstantin Jirečak, Die Handelstrassen und Bergwerke von Serbien und Bosnien wahrend des Mittelalters (Trade Routes and Mines of Serbia and Bosnia in the Middle Ages), Prague, 1879, page 40.
1903, Naselja srpskih zemalja (Settlements of Serbian Lands), book II, Serbian Academy of Science and Art, Belgrade, 1903, page 678.
1904, Bratić, A. Toma, Odlomci iz narodnih pravnih običaja u Hercegovini (Excerpts from the Folk Customs of Herzegovina), Jnl. of the National Museum, Sarajevo, 1904, page 278.
1906, Bošnjak, Sarajevo, 1906, no. 39.
1931, Vladislav Škarić, "Podaci za istoriju Hercegovine od 1566 do sredine 17 vijeka" (Information About the History of Herzegovina from 1566 to mid-17th century), Journal of the National Museum, Sarajevo, 1931, XLIII, page 59.
1932, Avdić, Ćamil, Plana kod Bileće (Plana near Bileća), Novi Behar, Sarajevo, 1932. nos. 7-8, page 100.
1952, Konstantin Jirečak - Jovan Radonić, Istorija Srba (History of the Serbs), 2nd edition, vol. I, Belgrade, 1952, page 324.
1955, Sloboda Mostar, no. 31 – Interesantna džamija kod Plane (An Interesting Mosque near Plana).
1959, Hazim Šabanović, Bosanski pašaluk (The Bosnian Pashaluk), Sarajevo, 1959, pages 158, 167.
1962, Dr Radovan Samardžić, Veliki vek Dubrovnika (The Great Era of Dubrovnik), Belgrade, 1962, page 140
1966, Glasnik VIS-a (Journal of the Islamic Supreme Council) Sarajevo, 1966. nos. 3-4, pages 177-178.
1967, Evliya Çelebi, Putopis (Travelogue), translated by Hazim Sabanović, Sarajevo, 1967, pages 437 and 438.
Husein Bracković, Tarihcei vuku'an Hersek ”Mala istorija dogadjaja u Hercegovini” (Short History of Events in Herzegovina) from 1831 to 1878, page 18.
1979, Anđelko Zelenika MA, "Osvrt na zbirku karata bećkog ratnog arhiva" (Overview of the Collection of Maps of the War Archive of Vienna) Tribuna, Trebinje, 1979, page 166.
1990, Hasandedić, Hivzija, Muslimanska baština u istočnoj Hercegovini (Muslim Heritage in Eastern Herzegovina), Sarajevo 1990
1998, Mujezinović, Mehmed, Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovine (Islamic Epigraphics of BiH), Book III, Sarajevo Publishing, 1998.
(1) For more information on Bileća and its surrounding see the Decision proclaiming the Predojević Mosque in Polje as a national monument.
(2) There are many traditions about its founder. According to one of them, the mosque was an endowment of Avdo Avdić, who was a member and originator of the Cuca family. According to another version of this story, the Avdićs belonged to the same tribe as the Orthodox families of Babić, Čokorilo, Đogović, Knežević, Stajić, Šarenac and Zimonjić, which was the reason that Bogdan Zimonjić, knez (headman, prince) of Gačko in the 19th century, never wanted to attack the part of Plana inhabited by the Avdićs. When Avdo converted to Islam, his descendants were named the Avdićs. There is a story according to which he built a mosque in Plana for himself, and a church dedicated to his mother a mere 500 metres away. The story further recounts that the endower was buried in the mosque graveyard, where his grave without a tombstone can still be found. (Bratić, page 287, Avdić, page 100). According to another story, the mosque was built by Hasan Pasha Predojević, who was a native of the village of Rudine, not far from Plana. This story is not well founded, as it is known that this person lived in the 16th century and that he was killed in 1593. A third story speaks of three Babić brothers, one of whom converted to Islam and built the mosque and church there. This story is also unfounded, since the Babić family is unknown in Plana.
(3) By the term outlaws, Hasandedić most probably means the members of the Chetnik movement, who, according to the data of the SUBNOAR (Federation of Associations of the Veterans of the National Liberation and Anti-Fascist War), destroyed the mosque.
(4) Square stone minarets are to be found only with mosques in Herzegovina. Such was the case with the Telarević Mosque in Bjeljani near Stolac, the mosques near Bileća: the Avdić Mosque in Plana, the mosque in Kljuni, Kružanj and Svinjarina; the mosques in the area of Nevesinje: the Perkušić Mosque in Nevesinje, the Čelebić Mosque in Donja Bijenja, the mosque in Kruševljani, and the mosque in Glavatićevo near Konjic; the Fatima Kaduna Mosque in Mostar
(5) According to the data obtained from the file folder of the structure, which was prepared by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of BiH, the minaret was entered from a wooden mahvil, which no longer existed in 1952.
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