Status of monument -> National monument
Published in the “Official Gazette of BiH” no. 60/08.
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 27 May to 2 June 2008 the Commission adopted a
D E C I S I O N
I
The historic site of the necropolis with stećak tombstones at Poljice, Veliko Jezero, Municipality Konjic, is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).
The National Monument consists of the historic site of the necropolis with 49 stećak tombstones (33 slab-shaped, 10 chest-shaped and 6 gabled).
The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 2079 (part), Land Register entry no. 210, cadastral municipality Odžaci, Municipality Konjic, 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 providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary for the protection, conservation and presentation of the National Monument.
The Commission to Preserve National Monuments (hereinafter: the Commission) shall determine the technical requirements and secure the funds for preparing and erecting signboards with basic details of the monument and the Decision to proclaim the property a National Monument.
III
To ensure the on-going protection of the National Monument on the site defined in Clause 1 para. 2 of this Decision, the following protection measures are hereby stipulated:
- all works are prohibited other than conservation and restoration works, including those 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 dumping of waste is prohibited.
The Government of the Federation shall be responsible in particular for ensuring that the following measures are implemented:
- drawing up a programme to determine the current condition of the property,
- conducting a geodetic survey of the current condition of the property,
- drawing up a project for the repair, restoration and conservation of the necropolis.
The repair, restoration and conservation project shall cover:
- archaeological investigations,
- clearing lichen and moss from the stećak tombstones and making good any damage,
- clearing the necropolis of self-sown vegetation and setting it in order,
- drawing up and implementing a programme for the presentation of the National Monument.
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.304.
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: 02-02-64/08-3
28 May 2008
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 to Preserve National Monuments issued a decision to add the Necropolis with stećak tombstones at Poljice, Veliko Jezero, Konjic Municipality, to the Provisional List of National Monuments under serial no. 304.
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 the current owner and user of the property (copy of cadastral plan and Land Register entry),
- 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.
- 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
Poljice is close to Veliko Jezero, on Mt. Visočica, at an altitude of 1691 m above sea level, at longitude latitude 43°34.804' and longitude 18°12.685'.
The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 2079 (part), Land Register entry no. 210, cadastral municipality Odžaci, Municipality Konjic, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Historical information
The area around the upper Neretva straddles two regions. Since prehistoric times, the roads linking central Bosnia with the Adriatic coast ran along the Neretva valley and its outer margins. With some alterations and adaptations to the route, major roads ran here in antiquity, mediaeval times and the Ottoman period, until the road was laid through the Neretva gorge from Jablanaca to the south in the 1880s. The central Bosnian ore-rich mining area, the fertile soils of the Neretva valley, and the rich mountain pastures, all led to the formation of many settlements throughout history, in line with the conditions and demands of their respective times, on the great bend in the Neretva between the mountain massifs of Bitovnja, Bjelašnica and Visočica to the north, and Prenj and Čvrsnica to the south(1).
In the early mediaeval period, the wider Konjic region consisted of the Neretva župa (county), part of the Zagorja župa (the area around Bjelimići) and part of the Kom župa (the area around Glavatičevo). The earliest reference to the Neretva župa is in the Chronicles of the Doclean priest, written in the mid 12th century. It lay between the župas of Rama and Kom. According to the Chronicles, the Podgorje district also belonged to it. By the mid 11th century the župa had presumably been incorporated into the Bosnian state. From then on until ban (governor) Tvrtko came to power in 1353, it enjoyed special status within the Bosnian state (Anđelić, 1982, 108-110). Around the mid 14th century, heightened economic and political activities on the part of Bosnia's rulers can be traced in the Neretva župa. In the early 15th century the borders were redrawn between the later “Crown lands” and the feudal lands of the Kosača family. From 1404 to 1463, the Bosnian part of the Neretva župa belonged to the Crown lands and the Hum Neretva and Kom belonged to the feudal lands of the Kosača – later Herzegovina. The border between these two districts was the river Neretva, from the boundary of the Kom župa to that of the Rama župa. The area along the left bank of the Neretva belonged to the Kosačas, and that on the right bank to the Crown lands. In the summer of 1463 an auxiliary Ottoman army commanded by Mahmut pasha Anđelović conquered both the Neretva districts and Kom. The area known as Hum Neretva, apart from the Borovac fort, and the western part of the Bosnian Neretva, were liberated in a counter-action between July and September that same year by Herceg (Duke) Stjepan. The region was finally conquered in mid 1465 in a campaign by the Bosnian sandžakbeg Isa-beg Ishaković in the Herceg's lands (Anđelić, 1982, 110, 115-156).
2. Description of the property
The necropolis is on Mt Visočica, near Veliko Jezero (Great Lake), to the north-east of and at the foot of Ljeljen hill. It contains 49 stećak tombstones (pl. stećci), 33 slab-shaped, ten chest-shaped and six gabled. The tombstones are of excellent workmanship, but are damaged and overturned (Bešlagić, 1971, 333). They lie east-west, with the except of three that lie north-south.
Eleven of the stećci are decorated: seven slabs, one chest-shaped and three gabled. The decorations consist of a border of twining vines with trefoils and diagonal lines, a frieze of twining vines with trefoils, rope twist, a border of zigzag lines, simple arcades, a crescent moon, and an unusual scene of a man holding a child and a man with a staff, with a horse and a bird.
Description of the stećci
Thirty-seven of the stećci were found on the site(2), of which six are gabled, 21 are slabs, one is chest-shaped with a plinth, and two are tall chests. Eight of the slabs recorded and three of the gabled tombstones are decorated.
1. Slab, undecorated, damaged on the top surface, measuring 177x127 h=8 cm;
2. Decorated slab, decoration on the top surface of diagonal lines along the edges of the slab, damaged top surface, measuring 175x145 h=16 cm;
3. Slab, undecorated, measuring 116x68 cm;
4. Overturned gabled tombstone with plinth, measuring 116x42 h=70 cm;
5. Decorated slab, decoration on the top surface of diagonal lines along the edges of the slab, cracked top surface, measuring 146x110 h=9 cm;
6. Decorated slab, decoration on the top surface of diagonal lines along the edges of the slab, cracked top surface, measuring 166x94 h=20 cm;
7. Decorated slab, broken into several pieces, badly damaged, with engraved figural scene, 162x95 cm;
8. Slab, undecorated, measuring 126x95 h=25 cm;
9. Slab, undecorated, measuring 164x87 h=5 cm;
10. Slab, undecorated, measuring 170x84 h=12 cm;
11. Slab, undecorated, measuring 170x100 h=13 cm;
12. Slab, undecorated, measuring 159x66 h=9;
13. Slab, undecorated, measuring 160x83 h=30;
14. Slab, undecorated, measuring 168x87 h=30 cm;
15. Slab, undecorated, measuring 188x77 h=7 cm;
16. Slab, undecorated, measuring 142x77 h=18 cm;
17. Overturned decorated gabled tombstone with plinth, decoration consisting of an arcade of round arches, more or less the entire surface covered with lichens and moss, measuring 134x54 h=87 cm;
18. Slab, undecorated, measuring 178x82 h=10 cm;
19. Slab, undecorated, measuring 164x82 cm;
20. Slab, undecorated, part buried, measuring 88x84 cm;
21. Chest on plinth, overturned, part buried, measuring 117x70 h=52 cm;
22. Slab, undecorated, measuring 168x95 h=25 cm;
23. Overturned decorated gabled tombstone with plinth, decoration consisting of a border of twining vines and diagonal lines, buried to the north, measuring 128x80 cm;
24. Slab, undecorated, measuring 125x54 h=93 cm;
25. Slab, undecorated, part buried, measuring 155x73 cm;
26. Tall undecorated chest, tilted and part buried to the south;
27. Overturned gabled tombstone;
28. Decorated slab, poorly visible decoration of diagonal lines, badly damaged top surface, measuring 174x107 h=10 cm;
29. Slab, undecorated, measuring 150 x 550 cm;
30. Slab, undecorated, measuring 170 x 80 cm;
31. Slab, undecorated, measuring180x104 cm;
32. Overturned gabled tombstone with plinth, measuring 173x85 h=146 cm;
33. Tall chest, undecorated, on plinth,measuring 170 x 80 cm;
34. Decorated slab, decoration on the top surface of diagonal lines along the edges of the slab, cracked top surface, measuring 175x110 h=20 cm;
35. Gabled tombstone with decoration on one side of a male figure holding a staff, with beside him a horse and a bird, and on the other side of a fleur de lis; a rope twist border along the transition to the triangular roof , measuring 172x83 h=76 cm. Scenes of human figures with horses or other animals are rare: Š. Bešlagić cites six, in Priluka near Livno, on Visočica, in Ljubinje, in Nekuk near Stolac (Bešlagić, 1982, 354);
36. Slab, undecorated, measuring 113x81 h=20 cm;
37. Decorated slab, with a decoration of diagonal lines on the top surface and one of twining vines along the edge of the top surface, measuring 197x102 h=20 cm.
3. Legal status to date
The Commission to Preserve National Monuments issued a decision to add the Necropolis with stećak tombstones at Poljice, Veliko Jezero, Konjic Municipality, to the Provisional List of National Monuments under serial no. 304.
The property was not protected by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and Natural Rarities of BiH, Sarajevo.
4. Research and conservation and restoration works
In the 1950s the Board of the National Museum in Sarajevo embarked on systematic studies of the necropolises with stećci in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Š. Bešlagić states that there is a necropolis is on Mt Visočica, near Veliko Jezero (Great Lake), to the north-east of and at the foot of Ljeljen hill, which contains 49 stećak tombstones (pl. stećci), 33 slab-shaped, ten chest-shaped and six gabled (Bešlagić, 1971, 333).
The Poljice necropolis with stećci at Veliko Jezero, Konjic Municipality, is listed but not protected by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport.
5. Current condition of the property
The findings from an on-site inspection conducted on 16 May 2008 are as follows:
- it was not possible to survey all the stećci because part of the necropolis was covered with snow,
- forty of the 49 stećci listed by Bešlagić were catalogued,
- some of the tombstones bore the signs of recent graffiti of names and numbers,
- the tombstones are more or less covered with lichens and moss,
- most of the top surfaces of the slabs are damaged to some extent (minor or more serious cracks and splits),
- of the six gabled tombstones catalogued, only one was not overturned,
- some of the stećci are partly buried (mainly slabs).
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.v. value of details
D. Clarity
D.ii. evidence of historical change
D.iv. evidence of a particular type, style or regional manner
E. Symbolic value
E.i. ontological value
E.ii. religious 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,
- Photo documentation, 11 photographs taken on site.
Bibliography
During the procedure to designate the monument as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:
1971. Bešlagić, Šefik, Stećci, kataloško-topografski pregled (Stećak tombstones, a catalogue and topographical survey), Veselin Masleša, Sarajevo, 1971.
1975 Anđelić, Pavao, Historijski spomenici Konjica i okoline (Historic Monuments of Konjic and its Environs), I, Konjic, 1975.
1982. Bešlagić, Šefik, Stećci. Kultura i umjetnost (Stećak tombstones – culture and art), Veselin Masleša, Sarajevo, 1982.
(1) The historical information section has been taken from the Decision designating the Archaeological Monuments in the Park at Varda below the Social Centre in Konjic as a National Monument
(2) note: on account of the snow covering part of the necropolis, it was possible only to see that there were another three stećci in addition to the 37 catalogued.
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