Status of monument -> National monument

Published in the “Official Gazette of BiH”, no. 3/10.

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 to13 July 2009 the Commission adopted a

D E C I S I O N

I

The architectural ensemble of the Catholic church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Brčko is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).

The National Monument consists of the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with murals, the parish hall and an outbuilding with the churchyard, and movable heritage consisting of eight wooden polychrome sculptures.

The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot nos. 1298 (15/284 in the old survey), 1299 (part of 15/211 in the old survey), 1300 (part of 15/79 in the old survey), and 1301 (part of 15/79, 15/207 and 15/208 in the old survey), title deed no. 520, cadastral municipality Brčko 1, Brčko District 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 Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 2/02 and 19/07).

II

The Government of Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the Government of Brčko District) 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 Government of Brčko District shall be responsible for providing the funds to draft and implement the necessary technical documentation 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 notice boards 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, which shall apply to the area defined in Clause 1 para. 3 of this Decision:

-       conservation and restoration works, routine maintenance works, works designed to ensure the sustainable use of the property, and works designed for the presentation of the National Monument shall be permitted subject to the approval and under the expert supervision of the authority responsible for area planning in Brčko District;

-       during conservation and restoration works on the buildings in the complex (with the exception of the outbuildings north-east of the parish hall), their original appearance shall be preserved or restored as regards the treatment of architectural details, the colour of the walls, the treatment of open spaces, the treatment of the openings, the treatment of the façades, the structure and pitch of the roof and the type of roof cladding, using original materials and applying original methods of treatment of the materials and binders and their use wherever possible;

-       the erection of temporary or permanent structures not designed solely for the protection and presentation of the National Monument is prohibited.

On the adjoining plots, designated as c.p. nos. 1296/1, 1296/2, 1297/1, 1297/2, 1297/3, 1297/4, 1297/5, 1297/6, 1297/7, 1297/8, 1297/9 and 1297/10, the construction of new buildings that could be detrimental to the value as a monument of the National Monument in size, appearance or any other manner is prohibited.

IV

The removal of the movable heritage items referred to in Clause 1 para. 2 of this Decision (hereinafter: the movable heritage) from Bosnia and Herzegovina is prohibited.

By way of exception to the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Clause, the temporary removal from Bosnia and Herzegovina of the movable heritage for the purposes of display or conservation shall be permitted if it is established that conservation works can be carried out to a higher standard and more quickly and cheaply abroad.

Permission for temporary removal under the conditions stipulated in the preceding paragraph shall be issued by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, if it is determined beyond doubt that it will not jeopardize the movable heritage in any way.

In granting permission for the temporary removal of the movable heritage, the Commission shall stipulate all the conditions under which the removal from Bosnia and Herzegovina may take place, the date by which the items shall be returned to the country, and the responsibility of individual authorities and institutions for ensuring that these conditions are met, and shall notify the Government of Brčko District, the relevant security service, the customs authority of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the general public accordingly.

V

All executive and area development planning acts are hereby revoked to the extent that they are not in accordance with the provisions of this Decision.

VI

Everyone, and in particular the competent authorities of Brčko District, shall refrain from any action that might damage the National Monument or jeopardize the preservation and rehabilitation thereof.

VII

The Government of Brčko District, the authority responsible for regional planning in Brčko District and, the heritage protection authority shall be notified of this Decision in order to carry out the measures stipulated in Articles II to VI of this Decision, and the Authorized Municipal Court shall be notified for the purposes of registration in the Land Register.

VIII

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)

IX

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.

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.07.1-2-40-09-45

8 July 2009

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.

On 24 January 2008 the Commission received a proposal/petition from Matija Antić of Brčko to designate the Catholic church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Brčko as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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.

Statement of Significance

The church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Brčko is the only Catholic church in Brčko town.

Work began on building the first Catholic church in Brčko in 1883 and was completed in 1885. It was badly damaged, along with the parish hall, in World War I, and in 1933 a new church was built to a design by Karel Pařik, one of the leading architects of historicism in the architecture of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the late 19th and early 20th century. The historicist approach is to be seen in the articulation of the façades and the form of the openings, with original features in the form of certain details. This building, with its plastered façade, is decorated with more elaborate mouldings than any of Pařik's other buildings of this period in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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.

-       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 property are as follows:

1. Details of the property

Location

The architectural ensemble consists of the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the parish hall and an outbuilding with the churchyard, located in the centre of Brčko, bounded by Bosne Srebrene, Ljudevita Gaja and Nadbiskupija J. J. Štrosmajera streets.

To the west of the architectural ensemble is a small well-laid-out square. The immediate environs consist of retail premises, family houses, blocks of flats and an administrative complex (the Court, Registrar's Office etc) on the site of the former town barracks.

Historical information

Brčko town is in north-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the confluence of the rivers Brka and Sava, at 96 m above sea level. It is the largest town in this part of the country.

Brčko has been inhabited without a break since prehistoric times. This is corroborated by the discovery of the remains of Roman tombstones and glass paste artifacts on the site around the Atik mosque.

The earliest reference to Brčko as a toponym, according to one source, is in 1548(1), or in 1620, according to another source, in one of the descriptions of the Bosnian pashaluk(2). Brčko underwent a surge in development between 1620 and 1716. Two public baths, a tower, a mosque and several residential buildings date from that period(3).(4)  

Present-day Brčko parish was established in 1861 as a local chaplainry by being carved out of Zovik parish, since when registers have been maintained. The first patron saint of the parish was St Michael the Archangel; it is now the Sacred Heart of Jesus(5).

In 1883 the family of Ivan Lepušić, who was working as a primary school teacher in Brčko, moved here from Zagreb. He produced the weekly newspaper Bosanac, the first Croat newspaper in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the first newspaper of any kind in Brčko.

During this period a Catholic quarter known as the Catholic varoš began to take shape between the main Bijeljina and Tuzla roads in the town. To the west, the varoš extended to the town centre, and to the east, to the railway line.

Among the buildings erected in the Catholic varoš were the EŠ housing estate, the Bosna point building, the barracks of the former JNA, and a military housing estate. Among the older buildings are the Catholic school or cloisters (now the radio station), the Catholic church and the Napredak Croatian Cultural Society building (the former JNA building), along with a number of private houses. Among the families who did most for the development of the Catholic varoš in Brčko are the Cvijetić, Lepušić, Berks, Šandrk and Luiđi [Luigi?] families.

The Sisters of Mercy had a convent in Brčko as well as a senior and junior primary school, between 1886 and 1945. Between 1939 and 1974 they also worked in the local hospital. Nuns from the Society of Servants of the Infant Jesus were also active in Brčko parish between 1958 and 1965(6).

Between 1906 and 1949 there was an active branch of the Napredak Croatian Cultural Society in Brčko parish, which was revived in 1991, operating since 1993 under the name Ravne-Brčko. The Catholic association known as the Croat Eagles was also active in Brčko parish between the two world wars(7).

Work began on building the first Catholic church in Brčko in 1883 and was completed in 1885. It was named the church of St Michael the Archangel. It was badly damaged, along with the parish hall, in World War I, and in 1933 a new church was built to a design by Karel Pařik(8).

In March 1926 the Brčko parish office applied to the Ordinary for help in obtaining a design for the church. There were several designs, and before the month was over Pařik's initial drawings had been received, to be adopted by the church board in June. Pařik had drawn up two versions of his design for the building, but the drawings have not survived. Following an initial misunderstanding with the church board in Brčko, the design was finally completed in January 1927 in line with one of the two versions(9). At the request of the church board, Pařik also took on the supervision of the construction of the church(10).

In 1934 a second sacristy was added. The church was consecrated on 14 October 1933, when it acquired the name of the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was built next to the old St Michael's church(11).

Karel Pařik produced designs for the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1921 and 1937(12). He did not act only as designer, but also provided expert opinions and reviews of designs by other architects and supervised the building of edifices, especially for the church in Brčko. He thus had a major impact on the general quality of design and building for the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which he enjoyed the backing of the Vrhbosna Archbishop's ordinariate, where his work was highly regarded, as many documents attest.

In his designs for churches, Pařik remained true to the basic historicist concept of single-nave or triple-aisled churches, with a rectangular or square sanctuary, except in the case of the recessed semicircle of the Brčko church and the protruding semicircle of the sanctuary of St Joseph's church in Sarajevo and the church in Ostrošac. The position, number and form of the towers varied from a single tower to the side or central or as a pair of the same or different size. It is clear that he sought to make each design different by varying the historicist layout and composition.

This overall approach to design led Pařik to different results. In the case of the Brčko church, the composition of the frontispiece was a faithful execution of a design clearly displaying Hansenian influences(13), while the other volumes (aisles, apse and sacristy) were treated differently. The historicist approach is to be seen in the articulation of the façades and the form of the openings, with departures from the original in the form of certain details. This building, with its plastered façade, is decorated with more elaborate mouldings than any of Pařik's other buildings of this period in Bosnia and Herzegovina(14).

During the 1992-1995 war the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the parish hall were shelled, looted and vandalized, and the Catholics of the parish were forced to flee their homes.

The parish of the Sacred Heart in Brčko is currently being run by a diocesan priest, and covers the town of Brčko and the villages of Čađavac, Dizdaruša, Grčica and Gredice(15).

2. Description of the property

The architectural ensemble consists of the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the parish hall and an outbuilding with the churchyard.

The church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was designed as a triple-aisled vaulted basilica in which the central nave is higher than the aisles, and a semicircular altar apse. In layout it consists of the main nave with a narthex, a baptistery to the left of the entrance, and steps to the tower and choir gallery over the narthex to the right of the entrance, a nave, two aisles, a sanctuary which is semicircular on the inside and rectangular on the outside, and two sacristies.

The church lies north-west/south-east, and measures 33.60 x 16.30 m, apart from the frontispiece which is 17.20 m wide on account of the projecting part of the tower.

The main entrance to the church is at the north-west end, from the platform at the top of the steps. There is a side entrance to the south-west. The bell tower is to the side (right or south-west) of the main entrance, and is square in plan.

The nave is divided from the aisles by a colonnade of substantial piers (2 x 4 m) linked by round arches.

The sanctuary is a few steps higher than the nave, and is semicircular on the inside. It is flanked by square sacristies. The choir gallery over the entrance is supported by two central pillars connected to the side walls by round arches. The solid gallery railing is finished at top and bottom by a narrow moulded cornice. Light enters the choir gallery through a rosette and two windows above it. Two windows in each bay of the aisles let daylight into the nave. The only window in the sanctuary is an oculus high in the wall.

The piers have lesenes or pilaster-strips(16) on the side facing the aisles, merging into the barrel vaults of the nave and into the arches defining the bays in the aisles. A narrow moulding at window-sill height runs along all the inside walls and features at the same height on the piers. There is also a moulded cornice at the base of the barrel vault of the nave, extending along all the walls.

The main façade of the church is articulated into three registers, the topmost of which is the bell tower to the side, next is the nave, and the lowest of which is formed by the somewhat inset areas of the choir gallery. The articulation of the roofscape adds further dynamism to the spatial composition. The nave has a triple-paned roof. The two central bays have pent roofs, and the end bays have gabled roofs, with their gables articulated with moulded flanking corners [?]. The sacristies have gabled roofs with a moulded string course echoing the lines of the roofs of the corner bays.

All the spatial elements – the nave, aisles, sanctuary, sacrities and tower – are clearly articulated on the outside. The nave and sanctuary are of the same height, but since the sanctuary has straight walls on the outside, that end of the church forms a high cuboid volume above the lower sacristies to each side. The walls of the sacristies are inset slightly by comparison with the sanctuary wall.

The bell tower is square in plan, and is set to the side, south-west of the entrance front, connected to the church by a low, inset element. Visually, the tower is articulated by string courses into five stages.

All the windows are round-headed except the small lowest window of the tower, the oculus in the sanctuary and the rosette above the portal; some have only a single opening, others have two or three lights.

The rectangular entrance was given a portal with a round-arched moulded lintel and a gabled string course above it. All the door- and window frames are moulded, and not even the smallest decorative detail on the mouldings has been omitted, such as the suspended accents below the string courses and cornices or in the niches. The side entrance to the church is inset and not accentuated decoratively; instead, the wall around it is painted in the same grey as the socle.

Since Pařik supervised the building of the church, he had the opportunity to ensure that every detail was carried out to the letter. As a result, the façades are articulated by pilaster-strips, by insetting the window frames and some of the parapets, by the moulded string course at window-sill height in the aisles, and by the moulding of the roof cornice. The topmost register of the nave and tower have decoratively accentuated corners connected by arcades.

The building is largely of brick, rendered and painted white on the outside, with the socle painted grey. The steps outside are faced with marble, as is the floor of the church. The interior walls are plastered and painted, with varnished wood panelling up to dado height. The piers are faced with marble. The ceiling is partly painted with scenes from the Bible.

In this building, Pařik took advantage of the opportunity to execute down to the final detail a work of which the artistic idea was based on the aspiration for further creative development of historicism. The historicist layout served as the starting point for a new composition of volumes in which Hansen's influence can be seen on the entrance façade, but in which a new articulation of the nave, aisles, sanctuary and sacristies can also be seen(17).

The parish hall, which stands in the south-western part of the churchyard, is a simple two-storey building with a hipped roof clad with tiles. The walls are rendered and painted grey, without decoration. The only dynamic of the planes of the façade comes from the two ranks of rectangular windows and the quoins. The façade is articulated by the roof cornice, two shallow cordon string courses marking the different storeys (basement, ground floor, first floor) and the stone socle around the entire building.

To the north-east of the parish hall are outbuildings (sheds and garages), to which the protection measures do not apply since they have no historical or architectural value. They are single-storey buildings of simple design without any decoration on the façades and with hipped roofs clad with tiles.

The churchyard also contains the altar of the earlier church.

Description of the murals and sculpture

The murals and decoration of the church of the Sacred Heart belong to the oeuvre of Albert Gruber(18), an artist from Brod who came to Brčko at the invitation of Bishop Ivan Šarić.

Documents in various archives, along with his surviving works, provide evidence of the artistic career of Albert Gruber(19). His artistic training consisted of a correspondence course with the Mal und Zeichen Unterricht GmbH school in Berlin, obtaining a diploma in 1922. In 1923 he took a job as a painter-varnisher at the railway coachworks, where he met Julius Hoffmann, founder and first curator of the Brod Town and Archaeological Museum, with whom he was to remain close both personally and professionally. Gruber blended the earnest, authoritative figure of his friend into one of his canvases(20), and also used him as a model for other figures.

An important element in the choices and paths that influenced Gruber’s artistic expression was the arrival of a number of grammar school teachers, art teachers and artists (the Russian émigrés Nikolai Gorbachevski and Alexander Zolotariyev, Josip Muravić, Brod’s first trained artist, and Jerolim Miše, a teacher at the State Grammar School in Brod), who were to make a powerful impact on the cultural life of Slavonski Brod.

A feature of Albert Gruber’s art is that he is unexplicit in both his selection of topics and his artistic expression and hand. He was equally adept with the large- and the small-scale compositions for which he was commissioned, at ease with both oils on canvas and murals, and painted both religious and secular subjects with equal conviction.

At times Gruber’s art was constrained by the firm lines of academism, at others let loose into the consistent tones of expressionism or, rarely, into the precipitate lines of Cézannism.

Danijela Ljubičić-Mitrović writes of Gruber’s work that “his surviving works are in oils on canvas or, more rarely, on the solid base of plywood. Gruber very rarely worked in watercolour. Portraits form the bulk of his oeuvre, probably reflecting the many commissions he received. He also painted landscapes, though rarely as the dominant subject, but usually as part of genre scenes – whether scenes of Slavonic rural life or the then popular oriental scenes. Like his colleagues in Brod, Rizah Štetić and Petar Klarić, Gruber made visual records of Bosnia, in which oriental architecture predominates, along with scenes of women and men in folk costume. He was inspired by his frequent visits to Bosnia, where he was commissioned to paint the interiors of many churches.”(21)

On completion of the parish church in Brčko, Albert Gruber was commissioned to produce the frescoes and mural decorations. He treated the areas of wall by painting the ceiling with the figures of saints within separate medallion-like panels, along with two scenes from the life of Christ (the Resurrection and the scene of Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane) and two scenes in the genre manner (St Vincent de Paul and St Ignatius Loyola).

The central scene of the Sacred Heart, which also defines the ecclesiastical space, is in the altar conch. The artist also accentuated the architectural elements of the church with clear geometrical motifs (the intrados of the arches, for example). Later refurbishments have altered the interior (the wall decorations have been painted over), but the original appearance can be seen on a surviving photograph. The fresco paintings, on the other hand, are in good condition thanks to the restoration works carried out by Augusta Gerden in 2004.

In her study of the painting in the church in Brčko, Danijela Ljubičić-Mitrović writes: “The vault of the nave features medallions with the standardized figures of saints, whereas the work above the altar is Gruber’s original concept ... The building of the church was commissioned by Bishop Ivan Šarić, who is the dominant figure, beside the central figure of Jesus Christ. Gruber portrays the bishop holding up a model of the church towards Christ. This composition in Brčko predates his portrait of Šarić and the models for the medallions. It is interesting to note that Gruber used himself for the figure of Christ, and that the museum workers Julius Hoffmann and Vailje Antipov can be identified in the faces of the saints.”(22)  

The frescoes of saints and their attributes have survived on the vault over the nave:

-       Albert Gruber, St Elijah, 1930-1933, fresco. Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart.

-       Albert Gruber, St Joseph with the infant Jesus, 1930-1933, fresco. Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart.

-       Albert Gruber, Unidentified saint kneeling before the Virgin Immaculata, 1930-1933, fresco. Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart.

-       Albert Gruber, St George, 1930-1933, fresco. Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart.

-       Albert Gruber, St Elizabeth of Hungary (Thüringia), 1930-1933, fresco. Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart.

-       Albert Gruber, St Catherine of Alexandria, 1930-1933, fresco. Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart.

-       Albert Gruber, St Stephen the First Martyre, 1930-1933, fresco. Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart.

-       Albert Gruber, St Rocco, 1930-1933, fresco. Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart.

-       Albert Gruber, St Nikola Tavelić, 1930-1933, fresco. Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart.

-       Albert Gruber, Unidentified saint kneeling before Christ crucified, 1930-1933, fresco. Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart.

Two scenes from the life of Christ and His Passion feature in the aisles, on the walls separating the sanctuary from the nave. Both compositions bear the artist’s signature, GRUBER ML, bottom right.

-       Albert Gruber, Christ at Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, 1931-1933, tempera. Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart.

-       Albert Gruber, The Women before Christ’s Empty Tomb (Visitatio sepulchri), 1931-1933, tempera. Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart.

There is very little information on the sculptures in the church. The statue of St Antony of Padua bears the artist’s signature, which has helped to attribute the surviving statues to Josip Kaplan, one of the sculptors of the Kaplan company, which was active in the early 20th century. Josip Kaplan, who occasionally features in reference works, occupies a questionable place in the history of art, in that he is sometimes described as a sculptor and painter, and sometimes in the less pretentious role of supplier of paintings of the Way of the Cross and various pious articles(23).

Eight sculptures remain in the church of the Sacred Heart in Brčko:

-       Josip Kaplan, St Michael, 1930s, polychrome wood, carved, 176 x 78 x 79 cm, Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart

-       Josip Kaplan, St Teresa, 1930s, polychrome wood, carved, 110 x 43 x 31 cm, Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart

-       Josip Kaplan, Sacred Heart of Mary, 1930s, polychrome wood, carved, 110 x 43 x 31 cm, Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart

-       Josip Kaplan, St Joseph with the infant Jesus, 1930s, polychrome wood, carved, 110 x 43 x 31 cm, Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart

-       Josip Kaplan, Sacred Heart of Jesus, 1930s, polychrome wood, carved, 110 x 43 x 31 cm, Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart

-       Josip Kaplan, St Antony of Padua with the infant Jesus, 1930s, polychrome wood, carved, 118 x 45 x 40 cm, Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart

-       Josip Kaplan, Virgin Immaculata, 1930s, polychrome wood, carved, 105 x 31 x 22 cm, Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart

-       Josip Kaplan, Dead Christ, 1930s, polychrome wood, carved, 93 x 33 x 30 cm, Brčko: parish church of the Sacred Heart

3. Legal status to date

There is no information concerning any legal protection of the property to date other than that there were plans to place it under the protection of the municipality in the late 1970s(24).

4. Research and conservation and restoration works

No conservation or restoration works have been carried out on the building apart from routine maintenance works. During the 1992-1995 war parts of the façade of the church were damaged by shelling. The damage was made good and the façade was restored after the war. The windows were also restored by replacing the damaged panes and metal frames. The original tiles were replaced by corrugated iron in 2003.

5. Current condition of the property

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

-       the façades have suffered from the effects of the elements and lack of maintenance;

-       the roof timbers are in good condition. The roof is clad with corrugated iron, replacing the original tiles;

-       the walls are wood panelled to dado height (the height of the window sills), which they were not originally. The walls are also visibly affected by damp;

-       the floor is paved with stone on which there are signs of damp (oxidation of the stone) by the walls;

-       the cordon string course below the windows is badly damaged in places by damp, with the plaster completely fallen away here and there;

-       some of the window frames and panes were replaced in the most recent interventions, and are in good condition;

-       a concrete staircase leads to the gallery. There is major damage from damp in the stairwell;

-       there is obvious damage from damp throughout the church on the walls and ceiling, especially in the right-hand aisle and the gallery. A PROsystem apparatus has been installed in the church to dry out the interior;

-       the biforate window on the west side of the tower is damaged, with two small parts missing.

6. Specific risks

-       atmospheric water

-       rising damp

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.iii.      proportions

C.iv.     composition

C.v.      value of details

D.         Clarity

D.iii.     work of a major artist or builder

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

E.         Symbolic value

E.ii.      religious value

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

F.         Townscape/ Landscape value

F.ii.       meaning in the townscape

G.         Authenticity

G.i.       form and design

G.iii.     use and function

The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:

-       Proprietary/ownership documentation: copy of cadastral plan, c.p. 1298, 1299, 1300, 1301 (new survey), c.m. Brčko 1, plan no. 16, scale 1:500 (old survey c.p. 15/284, part 15/211, part 15/79, 15/207, 15/208), title deed no. 1447, issued on 17.12.2007 by the Public Registry Department of the Government of Brčko District, Brčko District, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Land Register entry for plots 15/79, 15/207, 15/208, 15/284, 15/211, c.m. Brčko, Land Register entry no. 520, Order no. 096-0-Nar-08-0164-5, issued on 21.01.2008 by the Land Registry Office of the Court of First Instance in Brčko, Brčko District, Bosnia and Herzegovina;

-       Photographic documentation: photographs taken on 18.12.2007 by architect Bojan Jakšić (using OLYMPUS CAMEDIA C-730 digital camera with ultrazoom) and 22.05.2009 by architect Orjana Lenasi (using OLYMPUS CAMEDIA C-4040ZOOM digital camera) and art historian Aleksandra Bunčić (using CANON PowerShot SX10 IS digital camera);

-       Drawings: Drawings from the amended Brčko Town Plan II – plan for the organization, refurbishment and use of urban space, print-out of the scanned drawings from the project proposal for the Roman Catholic church in Brčko – ground plan, March 1926.

Bibliography

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

1971.    Dr. Marković, Jovan. Brčko – najveći grad Bosanske Posavine, Gradovi Jugoslavije (“Brčko, Largest Town in the Bosnian Posavina,” Towns and Cities of Yugoslavia). Belgrade: Institute for the Publication of Textbooks of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, 1971, 175 – 178.

1983.    Blago na putevima Jugoslavije (Treasures on the Roads of Yugoslavia), encyclopaedic tourist guide. Belgrade: Jugoslavija Publishing, 1983.

1983.    Odluka o provođenju urbanističkog plana Općine Brčko (Decision on implementation of the town and country plan for Brčko Municipality), Official Gazette of Brčko Municipality. Brčko: 1983.

1985.    Prostorni plan Općine Brčko, Stanje prostornog uređenja, kulturno-istorijsko i prirodno naslijeđe (Spatial Plan for Brčko Municipality: state of spatial planning, cultural, historical and natural heritage). Sarajevo: Institute for Architecture, Town Planning and Spatial Planning of the Faculty of Architecture in Sarajevo, 1985.

1987.    Odluka o provođenju prostornog plana Općine Brčko (Decision on implementation of the spatial plan for Brčko Municipality), Official Gazette of Brčko Municipality. Brčko: 1987.

1987.    Krzović, Ibrahim. Arhitektura Bosne i Hercegovine 1878-1918 (Architecture of BiH 1878-1918) (catalogue). Sarajevo: Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1987.

1989.    Dimitrijević, Branka. Arhitekt Karlo Pařik (Architect Karlo Pařik), dissertation. Zagreb: Faculty of Architecture of the University of Zagreb, defended 1991 (preparatory work for the dissertation used as source of information, Sarajevo, July 1989)

1989.    Hadžimuhamedović, Amra. Struktura historijske gradske jezgre Brčkog (Structure of the Historic Urban Centre of Brčko), seminar paper for post-graduate study on the development of architecture and settlements. Belgrade: Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade, 1989.

1996.    Jakobović, Zlatko. Kroz brčansku posavinu (Through the Brčko Sava Valley Region), 1996.

1999.    Elaborat Republičkog zavoda za zaštitu spomenika RS za proglašenje dobara nacionalnim spomenicima BiH – Ambijentalna cjelina Srpska Varoš – Brčko (Study by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of Republika Srpska for the Designation of Properties as National Monuments of BiH – townscape of Srpska Varoš, Brčko)

1999.    Spasojević, Borislav. Arhitektura stambenih palata austrougarskog perioda u Sarajevu (Architecture of residential mansions of the Austro-Hungarian period in Sarajevo). Sarajevo: Rabic, 1999.

2003.    Ristić, Dušan. Brčko – Stari srpski trgovci u Brčkom (Old Serb Merchants in Brčko). Brčko: 2003.

2004.    Marić, Franjo. Vrhbosanska nadbiskupija početkom trećeg tisućljeća (The Vrhbosna Archbishopric at the Beginning of the Third Millennium). Sarajevo: Archbishopric of Vrhbosna, 2004.          

2004.    Krzović, Ibrahim. Arhitektura secesije u BiH (Secessionist architecture in BiH). Sarajevo: Cultural Heritage Series, 1987.

2006.    Rekonstrukcija, restauracija i adaptacija zgrade «Dvorana» Krsamnović u Brčkom (Reconstruction, Restoration and Adaptation of the Krsmanović Hall in Brčko). Brčko: 2006.

2007.    Kudela, Jiři; Dimitrijević, Branka; Vacik, Ivo. Arhitektura – Karl Pařik 1857-1942, Čeh koji je gradio evropsko Sarajevo (Architecture – Karel Pařik 1857-1942, the Czech who built European Sarajevo). Sarajevo: Embassy of the Czech Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2007.

Kurto, Nedžad. Graditelji Sarajeva, arhitekt Karlo Paržik (1857-1942) (Builders of Sarajevo, Architect Karel Pařik [1857-1942]. Sarajevo: Cultural Heritage

Documentation of the Archive of Bosnia and Herzegovina

(1) Blago na putevima Jugoslavije, Enciklopedijsko-turistički vodič, 1983, 274

(2) The description of the settlement related to the ferry on the river Sava and inhabitants of the settlements, who were mainly ferrymen.

(3) Hadžimuhamedović, Amra, Struktura historijske gradske jezgre Brčkog, seminar paper for post-graduate studies, Development of Architecture and Settlements, Belgrade: Faculty of Architecture, 1989

(4) For more on Brčko see the Decision designating the historic building of the Town Hall in Brčko as a national monument of BiH.

(5) Marić, Franjo, Vrhbosanska nadbiskupija početkom trećeg tisućljeća, 2004

(6) Ibid.

(7) Ibid.

(8) Karel Pařik (Veliš, Czech Rep., 4 July 1857 – Sarajevo, 16 June 1942) graduated from the Architecture Department of the Vienna School of Art, and then from the Academy of Fine Arts, Architecture Department, in Vienna in 1882, under Prof. Theophil Freiherr von Hansen.  He worked for the state from 1886 until his retirement in 1916, in the Civil Engineering Department of the Provincial Government, Sector for Building Design and Construction.  He taught at the State Technical High School in Sarajevo, teaching architectural drawing and the study of architectural forms during the academic years 1890/91 and 1919-20 (Spasojević, 1999, 202).

Karel Pařik is noted in particular for his commitment to the historical styles of the neo-Renaissance, neo-Gothic and so on. Although he did design some properties in other styles (the pseudo-Moorish etc), to the end he remained true to academic eclecticism. His major works are the Pension Fund building, the City Assembly building, the Great High School building, the Orthodox seminary (now housing the Faculty of Economics), the Evangelist Church (now housing the Fine Arts Academy, the Beledija. His greatest success is the complex of buildings of the National Museum, dating from 1913 (Spasojević, 1999, 20)

Kurto, Nedžad, Graditelji Sarajeva, arhitekt Karlo Paržik (1857-1942), Sarajevo: Cultural Heritage, 395.

(9) Dimitrijević, Branka, Arhitekt Karl Pařik – Dissertation defended in Zagreb, 1991 (preparatory work for the doctoral dissertation used as source of data, Sarajevo, July 1989) – In May that year the administrative affairs of procuring a building permit were resolved, and the foundation stone was laid in June...

(10) Dimitrijević, Branka, op.cit. – Architect  Karel Pařik added a postcript to a letter to his son Karel, then living in Belgrade, written on 7 May 1928: “Tomorrow I travel to Brčko to build a church which is, incidentally, the only church work that has brought me something.” One of the works contractors for the main vault of the church and the whole interior, apart from the floor, was Luigi Candotti of Tuzla.

(11) Jakobović, Zlatko - Kroz brčansku posavinu, 1996 edition. – The new church had only one bell tower, though the original idea was to give it two. The blueprints for the church with two towers are also extant.  However, because of lack of funds, the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was built with only one tower.  A Catholic school was built not far from St Michael's church. This school was founded by the Sisters of Mercy who came to Brčko from Zagreb. The Roman Catholic primary school was in operation from 1886 to 1946. The third representative building in the Catholic varoš is the Napredak building, which also housed a Hungarian and a Czech reading room. The Hrvat Croatian Choral and Tamburitza Society also operated under the auspices of Napredak.

(12) Dimitrijević, Branka, op.cit. -.... designed twenty churches, three chapels, two monasteries, nine vicarages and nine extensions or renovations of churches

(13) Theophil Freiherr von Hansen – of Danish extraction, Hansen designed some of the best-known edifices of the 19th century in Vienna and Brno and was one of the world’s first architects to introduce Byzantine elements into modern architecture. These influences were adopted by his pupil, the Czech Karel Pařik.

(14)  Dimitrijević, Branka, op.cit., 1989

(15) Marić, Franjo, op.cit., 2004

(16) A lesene or piedroit, unlike an anta or pilaster, has no base or capital, has no entasis, and is not a true pilaster

(17) Dimitrijević, Branka,op.cit., 1989, 315

(18) Albert Gruber (Baja in Bačka, 18.08.1907-1945)

(19) To mark the centenary of Albert Gruber's birth, the Museum of Brodsko Posavlje mounted an exhibition and published a catalogue with details of the artist's work and reproductions of some of his paintings.

(20) Albert Gruber, Portrait of Julius Hoffmann, 1940, oil on canvas, 52 x 72 cm. Slavonski Brod: Museum of  Brodsko Posavlje, GU 76

(21) Danijela Ljubičić-Mitrović, Albert Gruber: Život s kistom, Slavonski brod: Museum of Brodsko Posavlje, 2007, 7-8

(22) Danijela Ljubičić-Mitrović, op.cit., 2007, 15

(23) Jasmina Jergovski, “Sakralna baština župe sv. Ivana Krstitelja u Novom Čiču” in Croatica Christiana Periodica, Vol. 59., No. May 2007. The paper may be accessed via the official portal of the periodical, which is published in the Republic of Croatia, www.hrcak.srce.hr/file/34451 (11.11.2009)

(24) 1977, 32  - SAMOUPRAVNA INTERESNA ZAJEDNICA KULTURE, BRČKO. [a samoupravna interesna zajednica in ex-Yugoslavia was a “community (group) of self-managing organizations (that their resources to satisfy mutual needs and that usu. assume quasi-governmental functions, esp. in education, health care, insurance, housing, public utilities, transportation, culture, science, etc.. Morton Benson, Srpskohrvatsko-engleski Rečnik, Prosveta, Belgrade, 3rd ed., n.d.]