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 11 to 17 September 2007 the Commission adopted a

D E C I S I O N

I

The historic building of the Captain's tower in Bihać 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. 1/99 (old survey), cadastral municipality Bihać town, Land Register entry no. 1303, corresponding to c.p. no. 5135 (new survey), Bihać Municipality, 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, 6/04 and 51/07) 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 measures are hereby stipulated, pertaining to the area defined in Clause 1 para. 3 of this Decision.

• all works are prohibited other than conservation and restoration works, including works designed to display the monument, subject to 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
• on the plots designated as c.p. nos. 5120, 5121 and 5124 (new survey), the construction of any new building that may be detrimental to the National Monument by its use, size or appearance is 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. 47.

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: 07.2-2-923/03-21                                                                           

12 September 2007      

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 tower of Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić to the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, numbered as 47.

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 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 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 register entry)
• 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.

The findings based on the review of the above documentation and the condition of the property are as follows:

1. Details of the property

Location

The Captain's tower is in the lower part of the town of Bihać, on  the left bank of the river Una, within the former city walls. It is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 1/99 (old survey), cadastral municipality Bihać town, Land Register entry no. 1303, Bihać Municipality, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Historical information

Most historians are of the view that the earliest reference to the toponym Bihać dates from 1260, in a charter of Hungary's King Bela IV. In mediaeval times the town developed as a free royal borough with a fortress and two monasteries, one Dominican and one Franciscan, several churches, a large number of commercial and residential buildings, and several defence towers. 

In the 16th century Bihać and its surrounding fortified towns became part of the so-called Military Frontier consisting of a defensive zone fortified against the increasingly frequent incursions by Ottoman troops. 

The Ottoman Army, led by the Bey of the Segedin Sanjak, Hasan Pasha Predojević, occupied the town in June 1592. Over the next three centuries Bihać was to be an important fortress in the extreme west for the Ottoman Empire and the point of departure for Ottoman incursions and steady pressure on the borders of Croatia. 

The specific feature of this fortified town that distinguishes it from others in Bosnia and Herzegovina dating from the Ottoman period is that it preserved its previous urban structure within the city ramparts. New building did not disrupt the existing outer limits of the fortress, even though the ramparts were reinforced by new bastions and towers. Within the ramparts, despite the erection of new buildings, the urban structure remained essentially unaltered. 

Although it is one of the oldest buildings in Bihać, the date when the Captain's tower was built is not known(1). It may be stated on the basis of available historical maps of the town and its environs that it was built before 1697.

The chronicler Ivan Tomašić is of the view, which he bases on H. Strauss and Bihačke kule i gradine (Bihać's Towers and Castle) (publ. Oblitelj, Zagreb 1923), that the Captain's tower was built around 1205 and that it was one of four towers in Bihać, three of which were destroyed in 1291/92.

Kreševljaković notes that there were three towers in Bihać, the remains of the Bihać fort referred to above. "The first of the towers was demolished in 1870, the second in 1889, and the third is still standing, being used as a prison. This tower was the headquarters of the captains of Bihać.  It was built before 1592." (Hamdija Kreševljaković, 1954, p. 71).

Kreševljaković goes on to observe: "... But since the towers provided little living space, separate buildings were erected for that purpose in the immediate vicinity of the tower, known as odžak or konak. …The towers were tall buildings, but the odžaks extended horizontally. The tower always had several storeys, but the odžak (konak) was normally a two-storey building. The ground plan of the tower was almost invariably square, and only rarely rectangular, which that of the odžak was always rectangular. … The towers were stone-built, but the odžaks were built of stone, unbaked (adobe) brick and timber. …” (Kreševljaković, Hamdija: 1954, p. 71)(2).

For this reason, a konak (residential building) was erected close to the tower, the foundations of which abutted onto the walls of the old fortress(3). The konak was built in 1860(4).

In his Bihać i Bihaćka krajina, B. Lopašić records that the town was surrounded by double walls, about 4 m high on the outside and 7.5 m on the inside, with four towers: the Dunđerska, Zabija, Captain's and Kanli towers, and nine bastions: Bendbaša, Ičhizar, the Main Gatehouse, the Main bastion, the Džibagić bastion, Zelengrad, the White bastion, the Handanagić bastion and the Muhsinović bastion. He also writes: "A distinct type of building is the four-storey tower on the south-east side of the town, facing the Una. It is not known whether the Croats built it or, later, the Turks.  It contained the pasha's or sandžak apartments, and is now used as the district court prison."

With the arrival of the Austro-Hungarians, the tower was converted into a prison. From then on, until well after Bihać had spread beyond its ramparts, the Captain's tower was used solely as a prison(5). It remained in use as the district prison until 1959.

In the 1970s the building was restored and converted for use as a museum.

2. Description of the property

The Captain's tower in Bihać belongs to the type of fortified building that is square in section with a steep hipped roof. The tower is an integral part of the historic ensemble of the old town of Bihać, which consists of the tower, the remains of fortifications to the south and east of the tower, the remains of an old water channel, the church of St Anthony, a turbe, and the site and remains of the old Konak.

The tower has four storeys - a ground floor and three upper storeys, each of which consists of a single room and a staircase. It has no basement.

The ground floor of the tower measures 10.00 x 10.05 m. The entrance is to the east and is about 1.20 m wide. The ceiling height on the ground floor is about 3 metres. The walls are about 1.50 m thick.  There are no windows on the ground floor.

The first floor of the tower measures 10.00 x 9.70 m on the outside, and 6.90 x 7.25 m on the outside. The walls vary in thickness from 1.20 to 1.40 m.  Light enters the first floor threough two small windows to the west of the building andn one small and one large window to the east. The large window is set centrally in the wall and is of the ssame size as the door. The window jambs and lintels are not decorated, and are made of bihacite stone.

The second floor of the tower measures 9.50 x 9.50 m on the outside and 7.50 x 7.50 m on the inside. The walls vary in thickness from 1.00 to 1.10 m. The ceiling height on this floor is approx. 2.50 m. 

The top floor of the tower measures about 9.10 x 9.10 m on the outside and 7.50 x 7.50 m on the inside. The walls are about 0.80 m thick. This floor contains the room where the captains held office, as a result of which only this room is plastered on the inside with lime plaster.

The tower was built of limestone blocks. Several types of this stone can be seen on the facade, with prominent pointing in lime cement mortar. There is a band of bihacite masonry in the middle section of the tower. To the west is a small area containing some blocks of yellow sandstone.

There are windows in the top part of the building only, most of them square in shape, with the exception of two windows on the east side of the tower, which are rectangular and much larger than the others(6). To the south of the building, by the south-east corner, is a smaller opening, probably a loophole. The lower part of the west facade has a plaque with a relief depicting a pelican.

The whole building has a polygonal wooden roof frame clad with bitumenized shingles.

3. Research and conservation and restoration works

In 1969 a project to repair the tower was drawn up headed by Anđela Horvat(7) of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of Zagreb.

Ruling no. UP-I-02-73-1/73 of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina granted permission to build a staircase in the Captain's tower in line with the blueprints, subject to the following conditions:

• the staircase must be made of sound oak wood by a qualified workforce,
• the outer surfaces must retain the natural colour and structure of the timber,
• the entire surface must be treated with a wood preservative and fire-retardant compound,
• experts from the Institute are to make interim checks,
• the costs are to be born by the Regional Museum of Bihać, as the works investor.

4. Legal status to date

The Captain's tower in Bihać was listed in the register of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina under serial no. 62.

By Ruling of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 890/51 of 24 October1951 the property was placed under state protection.

By Ruling of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 02-705-3 of 18 April 1962 the property was protected and registered as a cultural monument. This decision entered into force on 23 October 1962.

The property is on the Provisional List of National Monuments of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments under serial no. 47.

5. Current condition of the property

The property is in good condition.

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.ii. quality of materials

C.iii. proportions

C.iv. composition

C. v. value of details

C.vi. value of construction

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

E. Symbolic value

E.iii. traditional value

E.v. significance for the identity of a group of people

F. Townscape/ Landscape value

F.i.  relation to other elements of the site

F.iii. the building or group of buildings is part of a group or site

G. Authenticity

G.i. form and design

G.ii. material and content

G.iv. traditions and techniques

G.v. location and setting

The photodocumentation and drawings listed below form an integral part of this Decision:

-          Condition of the property in 1954 – plan of ground floor, first floor, second floor and third floor, Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Federal Ministry of Culture and sport;

-          Condition of the property in 1954 – cross-section a-a, Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Federal Ministry of Culture and sport;

-          Photographs of the property taken in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2007 by Mirzah Fočo, architect.

Bibliography

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

1890.    Lopašić, Radoslav, Bihać i Bihaćka krajina (Bihać and the Bihać Frontier Region), Zagreb, 1890.

1942.    Truhelka, Ćiro, Sredovječni spomenici Bosanske Hrvatske (Mediaeval Monuments of Bosnian Croatia), Hrvatsko kolo XXIII, Zagreb, 1942.

1953.    Kreševljaković, Hamdija, Stari bosanski gradovi. (Old Bosnian Forts) Naše starine I, Sarajevo, 1953, 7-45.

1953.    Kreševljaković, Hamdija, Kule i odžaci u BiH (Towers and Manors in BiH), Naše starine 1954, p. 71 – 86.

1985.    Ančić Mladen, Bihaćki kraj od 1262. do početka XV. stoljeća (The Bihać Region from 1262 to the early 15th century), Jnl of the Archives and Archivists' Society of BiH, XXV, Sarajevo, 1985

1999.    Bihać, photomonograph, published by Bihać Municipality and Bihać Town Gallery, 1999

(1) Local tradition has it that the Captain's tower, or rather fortified Bihać, saved Hungary's King Bela IV when he was pursued to the very ramparts by fast-riding Tatar cavalrymen. As a token of his royal gratitude, Bela IV proclaimed Bihać a free city and allowed his symbol, a black raven, to be carved into the stone wall of the tower.  For some reason, perhaps the stonemason's lack of skill, the raven looks more lika pelican, which leads one to wonder whether the plaque was a later addition, brought from elsewhere and mounted on the front of the tower.

(2) There were more than 100 towers in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 19th century, the headquarters of captains or other commanders and feudals. Kreševljaković notes that only about ten of these remained when he was conducting his research; there are now even fewer.

(3) It was a large two-storey building with a steeply-pitched hipped roof. 

(4)  „...A handsome building of hewn stone...“(Lopašić, p. 38)

(5) During World War II, fascists committed horrific crimes in the Tower, killing several thousand innocent people, patriots from the communes of Bihać and neighbouring Krajina and Lika. Famous patriots were imprisoned and tortured in the Bihać tower.

(6) When the tower was converted into a prison, the Austro-Hungarian authorities walled up these small openings and made larger ones with iron bars. This caused the loss of much of the building’s original value.  Works in 1969 restored the building to its original appearance.

(7) Horvat Anđela (18. 3. 1911. Krašić – 26. 9. 1985. Zagreb) academician,  art historian and conservator