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Emperor’s bridge, the historical monument

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Status of monument -> National monument

Published in the “Official Gazette of BiH” no. 36/09.

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 10 to 16 March 2009 the Commission adopted a

 

D E C I S I O N

 

I

 

The historic structure of the Emperor's Bridge in Sarajevo 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. CXXXV/120 (old survey), corresponding to c.p. 2815 (new survey), cadastral municipality Sarajevo IX, Municipality Stari Grad, 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 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 setting up 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, the following protection measures are hereby stipulated:

-          repair, conservation and restoration works on the bridge are permitted subject to first conducting a study and 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.

 

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. 538.

 

X

 

This Decision shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Gazette of BiH.

 

This Decision has been adopted by the following members of the Commission: Zeynep Ahunbay, Martin Cherry, Amra Hadžimuhamedović, Dubravko Lovrenović, and Ljiljana Ševo.

 

No: 02-2-40/09-19                                             

March 2009

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 adopted a decision to add the Emperor's Bridge to the Provisional List of National Monuments of BiH under serial no. 538.

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.

 

Statement of Significance

The Emperor's Bridge in Sarajevo was built in 1897, in line with the street leading up to the Konak, a few metres upstream from the place where Isa bey Ishaković built a bridge in 1439-1462.

The old stone bridge was damaged or destroyed by flood on several occasions, and was finally demolished when a new regulatory plan was adopted for the regulation of the river Miljacka. The present bridge, some twenty metres upstream, was a pioneering attempt to apply reinforced concrete to bridge-building on the river Miljacka. The bridge has retained its original name, Careva ćuprija or Emperor's Bridge.

 

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:

-          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.;

-          Documentation on the location and current owner and user of the property;

-          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

The Emperor's Bridge spans the river Miljacka between the Šeher-ćehaja and Latin bridges, beside the complex of the Emperor's mosque and the Isa bey baths.

The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. CXXXV/120 (old survey), corresponding to c.p. 2815 (new survey), cadastral municipality Sarajevo IX, Municipality Stari Grad, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina(1).

Historical information

The area of present-day Sarajevo has been inhabited since Neolithic times (5100-4500 BCE), followed by Illyrian settlements in the 2nd millennium, Roman settlements in the first decade of the 1st century, and a mediaeval market town, along with the villages of Koševo, Bistrik, Bjelave, Radilovići and Brodac.

There was a settlement, town or market town by the name of Vrhbosna or Vrhbosanje in the mediaeval župa (county).  The earliest information relating to this settlement date from the 14th century.

The year 1462, when the vakufnama [deed of pious endowment] of Gazi Isa bey Ishaković was drawn up, is regarded as the date when Sarajevo began to develop as an urban settlement on a planned basis, spreading out along the Miljacka valley in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Isa bey Ishaković, who was the first governor of Bosnia, built a mosque on the left bank of the Miljacka, followed by a bridge over the river which was known as the Careva ćuprija or Emperor's Bridge.  From the mid 15th century, when the town began to take shape on the Miljacka following the Ottoman conquest, the road to the imperial city (Istanbul) became the backbone of the Balkans as a whole, and Sarajevo became the most important city in the north-western reaches of the Ottoman Empire, the Miljacka valley was such a busy route that considerable attention was paid to the roads and bridges.  During the Ottoman period there were thirteen bridges over the Miljacka, five of which were stone-built.

The nucleus of the new city was laid out by the river, with a clear distinction between its two basic functions, the administrative and political, and the commercial, with the Emperor's Bridge as the link between them.

In its original position, the bridge formed the axis between the door of the Emperor's mosque on the left bank and the gateway of the Kolobara caravanserai on the right bank.

Under the terms of his vakufnama, composed between 1 February and 3 March 1462, among the properties endowed by Isa bey Ishaković was the bridge; he also endowed mills in the village of Brodac, a hammam, a caravanserai, shops, and extensive landholdings in and around present-day Sarajevo, the income of which was to be used to maintain the bridge and other public amenities.

The bridge was still being referred to as the Isa bey Bridge some one hundred years after it was built, in a document dating from August 1557 (early Dhu-l-Hijjah 964 AH).  It is known to have been swept away by a flood in late 1619, when the Miljacka in flood destroyed six stone bridges, as related by a document dated 4 January 1620 now in the Zadar archives. By the following year the bridge had been rebuilt. Another great flood, on 18 Rabi’ al-Awwal 1206 AH (15 November 1791), again took with it all six bridges in Sarajevo except for the Šeher-ćehaja Bridge, as recorded by Bašeskija: this means, of course, that the Emperor’s Bridge was one of those that was destroyed. Hajji Husein aga Haračić built a stone bridge with three piers and four arches on the same spot, and in 1792/93 one arch, by the right bank, which had been damaged, was repaired by Hajji Mustafa Bešlija.

A plan was put forward at a session of the Municipal Council held on 8 March 1880 to regulate the Miljacka, entailing constructing an embankment from Bendbaša to Čobanija. The work was stepped up after the great flood of 1 November 1881, when a flash flood caused major damage.

The first works on the regulation of the river were carried out between the Latin Bridge and the Ćumurija Bridge. At the same time, a through road was laid on the embankment on the right bank, known as the Appel quay, a name later extended to the entire right bank of the Miljacka.

In 1893 the bank was made good on both sides, from Čobanija to Skenderija, but it was not until 1896 that major works were carried out to build an embankment from the Latin Bridge to the City Hall.  Footings were laid and piers were built, and a stone wall ranging in height from 3 to 5 metres was built over a distance of 3.5 km.

The old Emperor's Bridge was demolished in 1897, and was immediately replaced by the new Emperor's Bridge about twenty metres upstream, in line with the street leading to the Konak.

The bridge was a pioneering attempt to apply reinforced concrete to bridge-building in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Some sources state that it was designed by a Czech engineer, J. Pelikan/ Šuster. It was completed in 1897.

Between the two world wars the bridge was renamed the Bogdan Žerajić Bridge(2), a name it retained until 1992 when its original name was restored.

 

2. Description of the property

The Emperor's Bridge consists of a single reinforced concrete arch, about 28.80 m in length, with an almost level roadway reaching a height of about 5 metres midway along the bridge.

The bridge stands on classic stone footings on which limestone (white hreša) piers on which the arch rests were built against the embankment on each bank. The piers are additionally reinforced upstream and downstream by abutments, also of limestone. The piers are almost vertical, with quoins laid in alternate directions.

The structure of the arch is defined by the span of 25 metres and the rise of about 2.20 m. The intrados is of plain concrete, with no additional finish.

The roadway consists of a road, 7.43 m in width, flanked by 95 cm wide pavements on either side, making a total width of 9.33 m. The pavements are 16 cm higher than the road, which is paved with granite setts. The pavements are asphalted, but it is likely that they were also originally paved with granite setts, and would have been higher than now.

The only decorative feature are the side arches of quartzite, which are of uniform thickness at about 0.50 metres, and the pronounced string courses made of concrete slabs.

At each end of the bridge are solid stone posts with a height of 1.22 to 1.57 m, originally forming the bases of lamp-posts. Three of these have bases with a height of 0.30 to 0.35 m; one of the posts, downstream on the right bank, has no base. The posts vary in diameter from 0.55 to 0.59 cm. All are damaged, with cracks or part of the post broken off. On either side of the bridge on the left bank is a stone wall, 0.44 m thick and 0.70 m high, with a total length of 1.70 m.

The present-day iron parapet, 1.10 m in height, is not the original, which can be seen on old photographs.

 

3. Legal status to date

The Emperor’s Bridge is on the register of the Cantonal Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Sarajevo, under item 6.3.01, Communications Infrastructure (bridges, tunnels, railway stations, cable cars, railway lines, roads, streets…), item 6, Emperor’s Bridge, _ P 6 3 0 1 0 0 6 E – 1.

At its 15th session, held on 14 July 2000, the Commission to Preserve National Monuments adopted a decision to add the Emperor's Bridge to the Provisional List of National Monuments of BiH under serial no. 538.

 

4. Research and conservation and restoration works

No conservation or restoration works have been carried out on the bridge other than painting the parapet.

 

5.  Current condition of the property

The findings of an on-site inspection are as follows:

-          all the structural elements of the bridge apart from the piers are in very poor condition,

-          the reinforced concrete structure of the bridge is damaged, with numerous visible cracks,

-          the bridge is a busy two-way thoroughfare for motor vehicle traffic,

-          the reinforcing bars have been laid bare in several places and are exposed to the action of salt and precipitation,

-          all the stone columns on which lamp-posts formerly stood are damaged.

 

6. Specific risks

-          lack of maintenance,

-          adverse weather conditions,

-          heavy traffic.

 

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

D.         Clarity (documentary, scientific and educational value)

D. iv.     evidence of a particular type, style or regional manner

E.         Symbolic value

E. iii.     traditional value

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

F.         Townscape/ Landscape value

F.ii.       meaning in the townscape

 

The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:

-          Photodocumentation;

-          Drawings.

 

Bibliography

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

 

1978.    Kovačević-Kojić, Desanka, Gradska naselja srednjovijekovne bosanske države (Urban Settlements of the Mediaeval Bosnian State), Veselin Masleša, Sarajevo,1978.

 

1995.    Koštović, Nijazija, Sarajevo između dobrotvorstva i zla (Sarajevo Between Beneficence and Evil), El-Kalem, Sarajevo ,1995.

 

1989.    Gojković, Milan, Stari kameni mostovi (Old Stone Bridges), Naučna Knjiga, Belgrade,1989.

 

1998.    Čelić, Džemal, Mujezinović, Mehmed, Stari mostovi u Bosni i Hercegovini (Old Bridges in Bosnia and Herzegovina), Sarajevo Publishing, Sarajevo, 1998.

 

1998.    Various authors, Bosna i Heregovina od najstarijih vremena do kraja Drugog svjetskog rata (Bosnia and Herzegovina from Ancient Times to the end of World War II), Bosnian Cultural Centre, Sarajevo,1998.

 

http://sarajevo18781918.blogger.ba/arhiva/2005/09/11/72626


 

(1) All the bridges over the Miljacka are listed under the Miljacka itself, with the same designation.

(2) Bogdan Žerajić (1886 – 1910) was born in the village of Miljevac near Nevesinje. He attended primary school in Nevesinje, and grammar school in Mostar.  On 15 June 1910 he attempted to assassinate the imperial envoy, General Marijan Varešanin, on the Emperor's Bridge, and then committed suicide. This made him a role model for the members of Young Bosnia who assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie, on 28 june 1914. Bogdan Žerajić lies buried with members of the Young Bosnia movement in the Chapel of the St Vitus' Day Heroes in Koševo.



Emperor\'s BridgeSarajevo on old postcardsThe appearance of the old bridgeThe appearance of the old bridge
Emperor\'s Mosque and the bridge on the postcard from the Austro-Hungarian periodEmperor\'s Mosque and bridge, present conditionDownstream facadeUpstream façade
Base of the left side of the bridge   


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