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 7 to 14 November 2006 the Commission adopted a
D E C I S I O N
I
The architectural ensemble of the Old Mosque with burial ground in Lubarda, Municipality Bužim, is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).
The National Monument is located on cadastral plot.no.1516, Land Register entry no. 416, cadastral municipality Lubarda, Municipality Bužim, 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 Government of the Federation shall be responsible for providing the resources for drawing up and implementing the technical documentation required for the protection and presentation of the National Monument.
The Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (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, which shall apply to the area defined in Clause 1 para. 2 of this Decision:
- all works are prohibited other than conservation and restoration works, routine maintenance 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 BiH;
- works to make good the damage caused to the building on 9 June and 7 July 2006 shall mandatorily be carried out in order to restore the property to the condition it was in prior to the said demolitions.
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 I 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
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. 07.2-2-148/06-13
10 November 2006
Sarajevo
Chair of the Commission
Ljiljana Ševo
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.
On 26 June 2006 the Commission received a petition from Izudin Bosnić and 180 inhabitants of Lubarda ward, Bužim.
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 (transcript of title deed, Bužim Municipality, with copy of cadastral plan),
- Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs, details 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 (1)
The old mosque is in Lubarda, 3.5 km north-west of Bužim.
The National Monument is located on cadastral plot.no.1516, cadastral municipality Lubarda, Land Register entry no. 416, Municipality Bužim, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Historical information (2)
The congregation here is said to be one of the oldest in Bužim municipality. There is said to be evidence of this in the shape of an inscription on a stone built into the present-day mosque, which relates that the first mekteb (Islamic primary school) in the village was built in 1797. Unfortunately, this inscription was lost at some time in the past (Hadžić, p. 65).
The mosque in Lubarda was built in 1938 on the site of an old timber-built mosque. Evidence that there was an earlier mosque on this site is to be found in the fact that the first known „hojja of the congregation of imperial lubarda“ was one Began-hojja Hadžić, who held the post from 1889 to 1899, fifty years before the present-day mosque was built. The second imam was one Omer ef. Bajrektarević, who served from 1899 to 1912, as evidenced by a document issued by the Vakuf Commission of the district of Bosanska Krupa.
There is documentary evidence of the date of construction of the present-day mosque in the records kept by one Alirizah Harčević, imam of Lubarda at the time it was built. The records note that the majlis of the congregation convened for the first time on 11 March 1938 and adopted decisions to build a mosque on the site of the old one and to set up a construction committee. The records contain extensive information about the donors and craftsmen who built the mosque(3).
The old mosque was demolished on 10 May 1938, and on 11 May 1938 the foundation stone of the new one was laid. The records note that the mosque was built during the reign of His Majesty King Petar II Karađorđević and when Fehim ef. Spaho was religious leader.
2. Description of the property
The mosque in Lubarda belongs to the type of single-space mosque with sofas and wooden minaret set on a stone plinth outside the mosque. The mosque is rectangular in ground plan, measuring approx. 8.00 x 9.00 m. It lies north-west/south-east. It is approx. 5.50 m in height in the interior. It is entirely constructed of quarry stone with walls 90 cm thick on average. The walls are rendered inside and out with lime cement plaster, and were whitewashed on the inside. The mosque had a hipped roof clad with tiles. It is not known what the roof cladding originally consisted of.
There was a portico on the main entrance facade, with a wooden pent roof of which the truss was supported by the north-west mosque wall and six uprights.
The mosque had a very simple interior. The mihrab is undecorated, and is distinguished from the rest of the wall face only by the curved mihrab niche and by being painted a different colour.
The space available for prayer was increased by building a wooden mahfil extending along more than one third of the overall length of the building, on the north-west side. This was reached by its own wooden staircase. The primary load-bearing structure consisted of a transverse beam over which joists were laid, to which floorboards were nailed. Given the considerable span between the south-west and north-east walls, the transverse beam was supported by wooden posts with decorative capitals and headtrees. The mahfil had a simple wooden railing on the upper side, the height of which is not known. The components of the mahfil were painted with blue and red oilpaint. The floor and ceiling were wooden, and the floor of the mosque was covered with kilim carpets.
The mosque has 16 windows in all, at two levels, seven below and nine above. The window openings terminate in an unusual triangular shape; it is not known whether this was their original shape or a later alteration. There is a double wooden door to the north-west forming the entrance to the mosque.
The mosque in Lubarda had a wooden minaret with a height of approx. 15 m. It was composed of vertical boards fixed to a primary timber structure of posts and struts. The minaret had an open šerefe (balcony), and was topped by a cone-shaped roof clad with galvanized iron, with an alem (finial). The minaret had a cut stone plinth measuring approx. 2 x 2 m.
The mosque is surrounded by a recently built wall within which is a small harem with ten or a dozen nišan tombstones made of bihacite stone, dating from the early 20th century.
3. Legal status to date
The property has not previously been subject to protection measures.
4. Research and consideration and restoration works
All works to date on the property have been carried out by the local inhabitants without a project design or supervision by the heritage protection authority.
5. Current condition of the property
The old mosque in Lubarda is currently being demolished by a group of local people; according to the local imam, this is pursuant to a decision by the majority of the local inhabitants. The rest of the inhabitants are opposed to its demolition.
On 6 October 2006 the situation was as follows:
- Despite the letter sent by the Commission to the Federal Ministry of Regional Planning, Bužim Municipality and the Majlis of the Islamic Community of Bužim, clearly stating that all demolition work on the property must cease forthwith, it is clear from a comparison with the condition of the property as shown on the photographs of works carried out up to 26 June 2006, submitted to the Commission along with the petition, that demolition work on the mosque has been continuing, with the roof of the mosque and about 25% of the mihrab and south-west wall, the wooden ceiling of the mosque and the entrance sofas all demolished since June;
- All the building material is being stored on site;
- An inspection of the property revealed that the walls are built of stone, that they are 75-80 cm thick, and that they were rendered inside and out with lime cement plaster. Horizontal wooden ties had been laid along the crown of the walls; these, like the rest of the timber, are in excellent condition, with no cracks, damp or fungal growths;
- no damage could be seen on the remainder of the building that might suggest any distortion to the structure, as a result of which the opinion of the Cantonal inspector that the stability of the building was at risk as a result of dilapidation and serious damage to the property is an unqualified, inaccurate view;
- the view of the Cantonal inspector that the property is of no architectural, historical or structural value was reached on the spot, without any research or inspection of documentation, and is thus scientifically without foundation.
6. Specific risks
There is a real danger, if steps are not taken as a matter of urgency to protect the property, that bad weather will cause it to fall into ruin.
III - CONCLUSION
Applying the Criteria for the adoption of a decision to proclaim 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
E. Symbolic value
E. i. religious value,
E. iii. traditional value,
E. v. significance for the identity of a group of people.
F. Landscape/townscape value
F. i. relation to other elements of the site,
The following documents form an integral part of this decision:
- Copy of cadastral plan,
- Land Register entry and proof of title,
- Photodocumentation submitted by the petitioner:
1. photograph of south corner of the property
2. photograph of the south corner of the property
3. photograph of the ruined ceiling of the property
4. view of the destroyed minaret
5. view of the plinth of the minaret
6. photograph of the interior of the mosque prior to demolition
- Photodocumentation of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, photographs taken by Mirzah Fočo, October 2006, using Sony Cybershoot H2 digital camera,
- Drawings:
1. ground plan of the mosque, ground-floor level, scale 1:100, drawn by M. Fočo
2. ground plan of the mosque, mahvil level, scale 1:100, drawn by M. Fočo
Bibliography
During the procedure to designate the property as national monument, the following works were consulted:
1904. Truhelka, Ćiro, Naši gradovi (Our Towns). Sarajevo, Naklada Knjižare J. Studnička and others. 1904.
1952. Kreševljaković, Hamdija, Prilozi povijesti bosanskih gradova pod turskom upravom. Prilozi za orijentalnu filologiju i istoriju jugoslovenskih naroda pod turskom vladavinom (Contributions to the History of Bosnian Towns under Turkish Administration, Contributions for Oriental Philology and the History of the South Slavs under Turkish Governance), II/1951, Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo, Sarajevo, 1952.
1953. Kreševljaković, Hamdija, Stari bosanski gradovi. (Old Bosnian Forts) Naše starine I, Institute for the Protection of Monuments of BiH, Sarajevo, 1953, 22.
1957. Vego, Marko, Naselja srednjovjekovne bosanske države (Settlements of the mediaeval Bosnian state) Svjetlost, Sarajevo, 1957, 105.
1982. Mujezinović, Mehmed, Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovine, (Islamic epigraphs of BiH) bk. III, 3rd ed., Veselin Masleša, Sarajevo, 1982.
1990. Bećirbegović, Madžida, Džamije sa drvenom munarom u Bosni i Hercegovini (Mosques with wooden minarets in BiH), Veselin Masleša, Sarajevo, 1990.
1991. Kreševljaković, Hamdija, Kapetanije u Bosni i Hercegovini (Captaincies in BiH) in Collected Works I, Veselin Masleša, Sarajevo, 1991.
1995. Popović, Marko, Srednjovekovne tvrđave u Bosni i Hercegovini (Mediaeval Forts in Bosnia and Herzegovina). Zbornik za istoriju Bosne i Hercegovine 1 (History of Bosnia and Herzegovina Collected Papers 1), Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Committee for History of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Beograd, 1995, 33-55.
2000. Hadžić Nijaz, Medžlis Bužim (1579-1999). džemati, džamije, imami (Bužim Majlis [1579-1999]. Congregations, mosques, imams) Bužim, 2000
(1) Bužim is the centre of the eponymous municipality in the extreme north-west of Bosnia and Herzegovina, bordered by the municipalities of Bosanska Krupa (to the east), Cazin (to the south), and Velika Kladuša (to the north and west), and by the Republic of Croatia (to the north-east). The area of the municipality is mainly hilly, and covers an area of 129 km2 with a population of 20.000. Population density is approx. 150 per km2. The municipality current consists of 14 wards: Bužim, Čava, Varoška Rijeka, Vrhovska, Lubarda, Elkasova Rijeka, Zaradostovo, Bučevci, Mrazovac, Radoč, Brigovi Bag and Jusufovića Most.
(2) For further historical background on Bužim, see the Decisions designating the architectural ensemble of the old Bužim fort and the mosque in Bužim as national monuments of BiH.
(3) The records note that the works were carried out by one Rade Mudrinić, a technician from Krupa, for the sum of 20800 dinars (in the currency of the day).
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