Status of monument -> National monument
Published in the Official Gazette of BiH, no. 12/09.
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 9 to 15 September 2008 the Commission adopted a
D E C I S I O N
I
The historic monument of the Clock Tower in Donji Vakuf 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. 435 (old survey), corresponding to c.p. no. 2852/1 (new survey), Land Register entry no. 480, cadastral municipality Donji Vakuf, Municipality Donji Vakuf, 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, routine maintenance works, and works designed to display the monument, with the approval of the Federal Ministry responsible for regional planning (hereinafter: the relevant ministry) and under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
To ensure the on-going protection of the National Monument, a buffer zone is hereby established consisting of the cadastral plots bordering the protected site of the National Monument. Within this buffer zone provision shall be made to preserve the existing built structure, with the possibility of remedial works on the properties using indigenous materials and those traditionally used.
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. 198.
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 and Ljiljana Ševo.
No: 02-02-172/08-6
10 September 2008
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.
The Commission to Preserve National Monuments issued a decision to add the Clock Tower in Donji Vakuf, Municipality Donji Vakuf, to the Provisional List of National Monuments of BiH under serial no. 198.
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:
- Details of 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 and the current owner and user of the property (copy of cadastral plan and Land Register entry),
- 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
Donji Vakuf stands on the banks of upper course of the river Vrbas, at the beginning of the Uskoplje valley. The rest of the municipality is located on the slopes of Mt. Vitrog to the west and Mt. Vlašić to the north-east.
The Clock Tower is on the slopes of a hill in the centre of the town, in a place known as Bagina strana.(1) The local road leading to the residential area of Čolaci runs very close to the property.
The property is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 435 (old survey), corresponding to c.p. no. 2852/1 (new survey), Land Register entry no. 480, cadastral municipality Donji Vakuf, Municipality Donji Vakuf, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Historical information
In antiquity the main military and trade routes from Split through the Kupres straits, Prusac, Kopčić and Kaštel to Travnik led through these parts.(2)
Several prehistoric sites have been recorded in the urban area of Donji Vakuf. At Katića bašča, a prehistoric necropolis was discovered with several flat graves containing skeletons.(3) A bronze torque was found there, as was a coil of bronze wire. A prehistoric grave was also found in Klimenta street in Donji Vakuf, with a skeleton and beside it a short bronze sword dating from the late Bronze Age.(4)
Little is known of Donji Vakuf in mediaeval times. Catarino Zeno refers to Gornji and Donji Novi when passing through Semin as he made for Prusac in 1528.(5) Donji Vakuf was in the župa (county) of Uskoplje, a narrow river valley 27 km long and 2 km wide at its widest point.(6) The oldest settlement took shape at Klimenta and around Bukvića hill.(7) There are ten necropolises with about 322 stećak tombstones(8) in the immediate environs of the town, and the remains of a basilica in Oborci.
The kasaba (small town) of Novosel or Donji Vakuf, as the place was first recorded in the early 16th century, was founded by a member of the local aristocracy, Ibrahim-beg, son of the famous bey of the Krajina (frontier) region Malkoč-beg, and grandson of Kara-Osman, regarded as the earliest forebear of this aristocratic Bosniac family, whose turbe is in Kopčić near Prusac. In Donji Vakuf Ibrahim-beg built his own vakuf (pious endowment) properties – a mosque and mekteb (Qur'an school), laying the basis for the settlement to be designated as a kasaba. When the bridge was built over the Vrbas, Donji Vakuf gained in importance and its urban development began. Several properties are referred to in a 1574 census: a bridge, a caravanserai and a tekke near Ahkisar (Prusac), vakuf establishments of an ancestor, Omer-beg, son of Malkoč-beg, i.e. Ibrahim-beg's brother, and it would be quite proper to assume that all these properties were in Donji Vakuf, even though they were described as being near Akhisar.(9)
The town came into being in the 16th century, and at the beginning of the Ottoman period was part of the Novka captaincy of the Klis sanjak.
The first significant description of Donji Vakuf is in the travel chronicles of Evliya Çelebi, who noted that “there is no larger kasaba than this in the Bosnian sanjak.”
Donji Vakuf was known not only as Vakifi-Zir, but also as Donje Skoploje and Vakifi Kebir (Veliki Vakuf or Great Vakuf). The very name of the town indicates that it owed its origins to the institution of the vakuf.(10)
On or around 20 September 1878, the Austro-Hungarian army marched through Donji Vakuf. Until the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian administration, Donji Vakuf had belonged to the kajmakamat (area under the jurisdiction of a kajmakam, the vizier's or vali's representative or district prefect) of Travnik, headquartered in Prusac. Bosnia was divided into six districts, subdivided into kotors and branch offices. Donji Vakuf became an urban municipality, and a branch of the Banja Luka kotor.(11)
Clock towers are tall, slender buildings with a clock, usually square or more rarely octagonal in plan. They were usually erected in the centre of the čaršija, the trades and crafts zone of a town, alongside the mosque, and were endowed by individual vakifs (legators), though some are to be found elsewhere, like the clock tower in Maglaj, which was erected in the bailey of the Maglaj fort, or the ones in Tešanj, Gradačac and Počitelj, and indeed the one in Donji Vakuf.
They first appeared in this part of the world in the late 16th century, initially in Banja Luka, followed later, in the 17th and 18th centuries, by clock towers in several other towns.(12)
Judging from the masonry and the outward appearance of the Clock Tower in Donji Vakuf, it was built in the 18th century, a finding confirmed by Kreševljaković. It is recorded as being no longer in working order after 1917. It was left roofless for a long time, exposed to the elements, but was restored in 1952 thanks to the involvement of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments. Neither the clock nor the bell was returned to the tower, however, but are housed in the mediaeval collection of the National Museum in Sarajevo. The bell was cast in 1720.(13)
A new clock mechanism with a digital operating system and satellite signal giving the accurate time was mounted in the clock tower in March 2004.(14)
2. Description of the property
The Clock Tower in Donji Vakuf is a single-space property, square in plan, with sides of 3.2 m and a height of about 10 metres. It is in the shape of a tower, tapering gradually towards the top of the masonry section.
The rectangular entrance to the property is to the west, through an iron door measuring 0.98 x 2.13 m. The door is about 40 cm off-centre towards the north-west corner, and is certainly not the original door. Nothing is known about the appearance and material of the original door, but it was probably wooden. The door has a stone threshold about 50 cm above ground level.
The Clock Tower was built of unevenly-shaped limestone blocks, rendered on the outside with lime mortar. The stone and binder are left exposed on the inside, for in common with most properties of this type, the inside walls were not plastered. The corners are accentuated by ashlar quoins of similar size, set alternately one way and the other, with very wide joints.
The walls are about 0.70 thick at ground-floor level, gradually reducing in thickness towards the top of the building to 0.60 m at the topmost stage.
The top stage of the tower, where the clock mechanism is housed, is reached via a steep wooden staircase set alongside the walls of the tower. The staircase has three landings.
The inside of the tower is lit by several windows. There is a single rectangular window in the north wall, measuring 0.52 x 0.82, on the topmost stage (where the clock mechanism is housed). There are two windows in the east wall, one above the other, reminiscent in appearance of loopholes. These measure 0.45 x 0.45 on the inside and about 0.10 m wide on the outside.
The clock tower has three circular clock-faces facing the town to the east, west and south.
The clock tower has a hipped roof clad with shingles. It was destroyed during the 1992-1995 war, and a new roof was laid in 2000. The space beneath the hipped roof is enclosed by wooden lattice-work, 0.85 m in height. Below are eaves, also clad with shingles.
3. Legal status to date
The property is listed under the heading Clock Tower in Donji Vakuf, and was protected by the National Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and Natural Rarities of NR Bosnia and Herzegovina under the terms of ruling no. 1459/50 of 28 October 1950.
By ruling of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of NR Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 02-745-3 of 18 April 1962, the Clock Tower in Donji Vakuf was entered in the Register of immovable cultural monuments under no. 214.
4. Research and conservation and restoration works
- in 1952 the roof of the clock tower was reconstructed;
- after the 1992-1995 war works were carried out on the façade, roof structure and wooden staircase as part of the project entitled Clock Tower: Witness to Time, with support from the Living Heritage programme (a local development programme using local resources), a joint programme of the King Baudouin Foundation (Belgium) and the Open Society Fund in association with the NGO Foundation;
- in 2000 a new clock mechanism was installed in the clock tower.
5. Current condition of the property
It was found during an on-site inspection conducted in September 2008 that there is a risk of further deterioration of the structure of the Clock Tower, caused by the ravages of time, the elements and inadequate works.
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
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.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.v. location and setting
The photographic documentation and drawings listed below form an integral part of this Decision:
- Drawings:
- protected zone of the historic monument of the Clock Tower in Donji Vakuf,
- copy of cadastral plan,
- copy of Land Register entry,
- ground plan of the property;
- Photographs:
- photographs of the Clock Tower and its surroundings taken in 2004,
- photographs of the Clock Tower and its surroundings taken in 2008.
Bibliography
During the procedure to designate the monument as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:
1951. Mazalić, Đoko. “Biograd-Prusac, stari bosanski grad” (Biograd-Prusac, an Old Bosnian Town), Jnl of the National Museum in Sarajevo, new series, Vol. VI. Sarajevo, 1951
1957. Kreševljaković, Hamdija. “Sahat-kule u Bosni i Hercegovini” (Clock Towers in BiH), Naše starine (Annual of the National Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and Natural Rarities of NR Bosnia and Herzegovina) IV. Sarajevo, 1957.
1957. Vego, Marko. Naselja bosanske srednjovjekovne države (Settlements of the Mediaeval Bosnian State). Sarajevo, 1957.
1988. Arheološki leksikon Bosne i Hercegovine (Archaeological Lexicon of BiH), vol. II, “Arheološka nalazišta, regije 1-13” (Archaeological Sites, Regions 1-13 ). Sarajevo, 1988
1996. Çelebi, Evliya. Putopis – odlomci o jugoslovenskim zemljama (Travelogue – Excerpts on Yugoslav countries). Sarajevo Publishing: Sarajevo, 1996.
1998. Mujezinović, Mehmed. Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovine (Islamic epigraphics of BiH), bk. II, 3rd ed. Sarajevo Publishing: Cultural Heritage Series, Sarajevo, 1998.
2001. Čepalo, Husein. “Kulturno-historijski spomenici općine Donji Vakuf”, Prilozi za historiju spomenika Donjeg Vakufa (Cultural and Historical Monuments of Donji Vakuf Municipality [Contributions to the History of Monuments]). Donji Vakuf, 2001.
(1) There are also some archaeological sites at Bagina strana, which is a place of great importance to the local residents as the site where they hold the traditional event known as ‘Sultan mevlud.' According to the locals, this is an ancient custom. The residents of Donji Vakuf assemble on the south slopes of Bagina strana on the first day of spring, 21 March.
(2) Čepalo, Husein, Kulturno historijski spomenici općine Donji Vakuf, Donji Vakuf, 2001.
(3) “The graves were found by chance, and some were destroyed.” Arheološki leksikon Bosne i Hercegovine, vol. II, “Arheološka nalazišta, regije 1-13”, Sarajevo, 1988, 180
(4) Arheološki leksikon Bosne i Hercegovine, vol. II, “Arheološka nalazišta, regije 1-13”, Sarajevo, 1988, 180
(5) Vego, Marko, Naselja bosanske srednjovjekovne države, Sarajevo, 1957, 98
(6) ”Hence the name of the county, Uskopolje” (from usko, narrow, and polje, a plain or a flat depression surrounded by higher ground in a karst landscape). Mazalić, Đoko, “Biograd-Prusac, stari bosanski grad,” Jnl of the National Museum in Sarajevo, new series, vol. VI, Sarajevo, 1951, 147.
(7) Čepalo, Husein, Kulturno historijski spomenici općine Donji Vakuf, Donji Vakuf, 2001, 29.
(8) Bešlagić, Šefik, Stećci – kataloško-topografski pregled, Sarajevo, 1971, 127-127.
(9) Čepalo, Husein, Kulturno historijski spomenici općine Donji Vakuf, Donji Vakuf, 2001, 31.
(10) Mujezinović, Mehmed, Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo, 1998, 278.
(11) Čepalo, Husein, Kulturno historijski spomenici općine Donji Vakuf, Donji Vakuf, 2001, 35.
(12) Until the 1992-1995 war there were 19 clock towers in Bosnia and Herzegovina: two in Travnik, and one each in Banja Luka, Donji Vakuf, Foča, Gornji Vakuf, Gračanica, Gradačac, Livno, Jajce, Maglaj, Mostar, Nevesinje, Počitelj, Prozor, Prusac, Sarajevo, Tešanj and Trebinje. In addition, there were another two in existence in 1878, later demolished: one in Stolac and another in Sarajevo, by the White Mosque (Kreševljaković, 1971, 496).
(13) Hamdija Kreševljaković, Naše starine IV, Annual of the National Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and Natural Rarities of NR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, 1957, 17-31.
(14) The local Donji Vakuf community applied for permission to install a clock mechanism in the protected cultural monument of the clock tower in Donji Vakuf, which was granted by the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ref. A.N.39-1/03, Sarajevo, 25 February 2003), pursuant to Article 11 paras. 6 and 9 and Article 51 para. 1 of the Law on the Protection and use of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage (Official Gazette of SR BiH no. 20/85).
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