Status of monument -> National monument
Published in the Official Gazette of BiH, no. 77/11.
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 on 26 October 2010 the Commission adopted a
D E C I S I O N
I
The historic building of Zehra Bahtijarević’s house in Banja Luka is hereby designated as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).
The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 1, cadastral municipality Banja Luka IV (new survey), corresponding to c.p. 171/1 and 171/23, Land Register entry no. 1750, c.m. Banja Luka (old survey), City of Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, 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 Republika Srpska no. 9/02,70/06 and 64/08) shall apply to the National Monument.
II
The Government of Republika Srpska shall be responsible for providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary for the protection 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 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-restoration works, including routine maintenance works and works designed to ensure the sustainable use of the property, subject to the approval of the ministry responsible for regional planning in Republika Srpska and under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority of Republika Srpska.
IV
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.
V
Everyone, and in particular the competent authorities of Republika Srpska 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 Republika Srpska, the ministry responsible for regional planning in Republika Srpska, the heritage protection authority of Republika Srpska, 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 – 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.kons.gov.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
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, Martin Cherry, Amra Hadžimuhamedović, Dubravko Lovrenović and Ljiljana Ševo.
No: 06.1-02.3-71/10-24
26 October 2010
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.
On 9 March 2007 Zehra Bahtijarević of Banja Luka submitted a petition to the Commission to Preserve National Monuments to designate the house at no. 2 Prote Todora Srdića Street in Banja Luka as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Pursuant to this proposal, 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
Zehra Bahtijarević’s house is an example of Ottoman-period residential architecture in Banja Luka. Symmetrical in layout, it has a solidly-built ground floor and an “airy” first-floor jutty with ranks of windows overlooking the garden, courtyard and Vrbas river banks. The first-floor rooms surround the kamarija and divanhana. The remains of stone walls to the south-west of the building attest to the erstwhile presence of a “vodnica.” The current architectural appearance of the building and the historical facts associated with it indicate that it was built at the turn of the 19th to 20th century. It is also significant in that buildings dating from the Ottoman period are fast disappearing.
II – PRELIMINARY PROCEDURE
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 Land Register entry);
- Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs.
Pursuant to Article 12 of the Law on the Implementation of Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments Established Pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the following procedures were carried out for the purpose of designating the property as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina:
- A letter ref. 06.1-35-55/07-3 of 4 April 2007 requesting documentation and views on the designation of Zehra Bahtijarević's house in Banja Luka was sent to the City of Banja Luka (Mayor, Department of Town Planning and Cadastral Affairs), the Ministry of Regional Planning, Construction and the Environment of Republika Srpska, the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska, and Bahtijarević Zehra (No. 2 Prote Todora Srdića Street, Banja Luka);
- Under cover of a letter ref. 03-364-1716/07 of 7 April 2007 the Planning Department of the Banja Luka City Authority provided the Commission with an excerpt from the JUG-IV Regulatory Plan with excerpts from the Town Plan and Demolitions Plan and photographs of the building from the front and side, and under cover of a letter ref. 03-364-1716/07 of 19 July 2007, it supplied the Commission with a copy of the title deed no. 67/1 and of the cadastral plan B. Luka 105.
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 Bahtijarević house at No. 2 Prote Todora Srdića Street stands on the right bank of the Vrbas, about 100 metres upstream from the town’s bridge and about 200 metres south-west of the fort known as Kastel in Banja Luka, on a plot of level ground with an area of approx. 1306 m2, designated as cadastral plot no. 1, cadastral municipality Banja Luka IV, city of Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Historical information
In the late 16th century, following the construction of the Ferhad pasha Mosque and other public edifices in the Main Čaršija on the left bank of the Vrbas and of the bridge and transverse road from Pobrđe and the Arnaudija Mosque through the Main Čaršija and the Kastel (Castle) to the south-western quarters of the town, the part of Donji Šeher on the right bank of the Vrbas began to take shape, accelerating the urbanization of Banja Luka.
The Lesser Čaršija developed as the town’s fourth bazaar, following the Hunćanija (Imperial) Čaršija, the Sofi Mehmed pasha Čaršija and the Main (Ferhad pasha) Čaršija. The trade and crafts quarter known as the Lesser Čaršija had its own separate mosque, known, on account of its location in the čaršija, as the Sukija Mosque(1). It had three shops at street level, with the prayer hall above. The Sukija Mosque was demolished after World War II.
Comparing the layout shown on the 1884 Austro-Hungarian geodetic plan(2) with the current layout indicates that the boundaries of the plot where the Bahtijarević house stands remain unchanged(3), and that the location of the building is identical to that shown on the 1884 plan.
The area where the Bahtijarević house stands is also known as “Abacija.” “Several houses stood back from the beautiful banks of the Vrbas: the Bahtijarević, Ibrišagić, Hadžiselimović, Ekić, Kovačević and Šešivarević houses, along with the houses named after the carrier Bego Misirlić and Hasan Šibić, after whom the road was known as Misirlića or Šibića sokak [side street]. Before World War II that bank was known as ‘Abacija,” a name also given to a café-guest house right on the bank of the Vrbas, run by the brothers Afgani and later by other proprietors.”(4)
The reference to the Bahtijarević family also relates to the Mayor of Banja Luka, Himzaga Bahtijarević, his son Edhem Bahtijarević and the sevdalinka “Vrbas voda nosila jablana.” (5)
Zehra Bahtijarević’s house at no. 2 Prote Todora Srdića in Banja Luka was surveyed in September 2009. The building methods and architectural features observed during this survey indicate that it was built in the late 19th century. The building was damaged by the 1969 earthquake. The façade is not plastered at first-floor level, revealing that the original infill of the timber-framed first floor consisted of unfired brick, which had been replaced by a solid brick wall about 12 cm thick. However, the timbers were not replaced, and the type of carpentry joints used were clearly of the type that first came into use during the Austro-Hungarian period in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The double windows with overlights are also typical of buildings from the turn of the 19th to 20th century.
2. Description of the property
The plot on which the Bahtijarević house is located (c.p. no. 1, c.m. Banja Luka IV) is separated from Prote Todora Srdića Street (formerly Abduselama Blekića Street) by a wooden fence and a hedge. Access to the plot is through a wooden gate on the eastern boundary of the plot.
The building is symmetrical in layout(6), with a ground floor of approx. 8.65 x 11.87 + 2.25 x 3.41(7)m) and a first floor of approx. 9.30 x 12.50 m with a jutty of approx. 31-33 cm on all four sides.
The ground floor has substantial unfired brick transverse bearing walls approx. 45-55 cm thick dividing the building into three parts. The outside walls are approx. 60-72 cm thick.
The front door – a doorway of approx. 140 x 210 cm with a double-valved wooden door in the south wall – opens into the hajat of approx. 314 x 727 cm with a ceiling height of approx. 258 cm, in the middle section of the building. The ceiling of the hajat consists of wide boards lying crosswise (east-west) with the joints between them concealed by simply moulded wooden slats. A doorway of approx. 94 x 172 cm in the west transverse bearing wall(8) with a single-valved wooden door leads from the hajat into a storeroom of approx. 3 x 7.27 m, divided by a thin (12 cm) partition wall into two rooms of approx. 3 x 3.86 m and 3 x 3.29 m used as box rooms. The storeroom is lit by a single window with internal masonry measurements of approx. 51 x 51 cm and a parapet height of approx. 185 cm in the south wall.
The north wall of the hajat, which is approx. 66 cm thick, contains a wall niche of approx. 88 cm wide, 185 cm high and 57 cm deep. Since the wall at the back of the niche is a mere 8-9 cm thick, and the niche is directly below the first-floor window of the divanhana on the north side of the building, the niche was probably originally a window or a doorway that was later bricked up.
Another doorway of approx. 80 x 188 cm with a single-valved wooden door in the east transverse bearing wall(9) leads into the eastern part of the ground floor. This is divided by a partition wall approx. 16 cm thick into a room of approx. 3.54 x 3.92 m and a kitchen of approx. 3.60 x 3.19 m, with a doorway of approx. 79 x 192 cm between the two.
Light enters the room through two windows in the south wall and one in the east wall, all of approx. 85 x 155 cm (woodwork measurements) and a parapet height of approx. 66 cm. According to Zehra Bahtijarević, there was once a window, later bricked up, where there is now a wall niche in the east wall, approx. 80 cm wide, 160 cm high and 44 cm deep.
A ground-floor extension measuring 1.87 x 2.65 m on the inside built onto the north side of the house has been fitted out as a modern bathroom. The bathroom is lit by a window of approx. 57 x 54 cm (woodwork measurements) with a parapet height of approx. 130 cm in the east wall, and has a door leading into the kitchen.
A double-flight L-shaped wooden staircase at the back of the hajat, along the north and west walls, with steps approx. 97 cm wide, leads to the first floor kamarija and divanhana. The staircase rests on a transverse wooden beam(10) at ceiling-joist level.
Structurally, the first floor consists of three parts: an east section, with two rooms (from north to south, these rooms measure approx. 4.67 x 4.60 m and 4.67 x 4.15 m respectively), a central section (the divanhana and kamarija) and a west section with two rooms (from north to south, these rooms measure approx. 4.42 x 4.88 x 4.42 x 390 cm respectively).
The kamarija faces onto the garden, and is separated from the divanhana by an openwork wooden partition approx. 2.68 cm wide, 2.50 cm high and 7-8 cm thick.
The position of the chimney in the larger room(11) on the west side of the building, abutting onto the outside west wall, the bricked-up doorway in the west wall of this room, and the position of the remains of stone walls to the west of the house, suggest that there might once have been a kitchen in this room, and that there was a “vodnica” in the garden by the north-west corner of the house, with access to the house via the kitchen.
Unlike other regions of Bosnia, where the kitchen is usually on the ground floor, rising through two storeys, in the Bosnian krajina (former military frontier region) and Banja Luka, the room with a hearth, the kitchen or “house,” was almost invariably on the first floor(12).
The vodnica, where water was stored in jars and where the privy was located, is no longer extant. In every typologically similar house a single flight of stairs led down from the vodnica to the garden.
Evidence for this lies not only in the ruins of stone walls forming a rectangle in plan of approx. 1.50 x 3 cm, and surviving to a height of approx. 0.20-1.50 m, set in lime mortar, but also on the geodetic plan(13) of Banja Luka from the 1980s, where a rectangular extension of approx. 3.30 x 3.50 m is shown at the north-west corner of the house.
The house was built of traditional materials – stone and unfired brick for the ground floor walls, and half-timbering with unfired brick infill for the first floor walls. The first-floor walls are approx. 18-19 cm thick, and the ceilings of the first-floor rooms are approx. 250 cm high. Every room apart from the hajat has a ceiling of lime cement mortar laid over a reed base.
The wooden roof is a purlin roof with sloped studs, resting on the wall plates, and with a ridge purlin. The rafters are reinforced by wooden struts between the purlins and the ridge purlin. The roof is clad with pantiles, and the eaves have no guttering.
The two-light windows with overlights are set in six axes on the south façade, four on the east façade, and four on the north façade. The windows in the west wall have been bricked up(14).
3. Legal status to date
It is not known whether the building has previously been protected, listed or evaluated.
The Demolition Plan forming an integral part of the Jug IV (South IV) Regulatory Plan (area between Cara Lazara St, East Transit, Gavrilo Principa St and the right bank of the Vrbas), lists the building at no. 2 Prote Srdića Street in Banja Luka as earmarked for demolition(15).
The section of the Regulatory Plan for the banks of the River Vrbas in Banja Luka dealing with the plan for spatial planning and the layout of green areas provides for the construction of a children’s playround on the site of the building at no. 2 Prote Srdića Street (Zehra Bahtijarević’s house)(16).
III – CONCLUSION
Based on the documentation consulted and the condition of the property, and 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
E. Symbolic value
E.v. significance for the identity of a group of people
G. Authenticity
G.iii. use and function
G.iv. traditions and techniques
G.v. location and setting
G.vi. spirit and feeling
G.vii. other internal and external factors
The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:
- Ownership documentation
- Land Register copy no. 3322/07, for plot no. 171/1, Land Register entry no. 1750, c.m.. Banja Luka; issued on 13.03.2007 by the Land Registry Office of the court of first instance in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Copy of cadastral plan, scale 1:1000, c.p. no. 1, c.m. Banja Luka IV, plan no. B. Luka 105, issued on 04.07.2007 by the Department of Geodetics and Proprietary Rights Affairs, Banja Luka branch, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Title deed – transcript, no. 10-952-2-9398/2007 of 4. 7. 2007 for plot no. 1, c.m. Banja Luka 4; issued on 04.07.2007 by the Department of Geodetics and Proprietary Rights Affairs, Banja Luka branch, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Photodocumentation
- Photographs of the property taken on 25 September 2009 by architect Emir Softić, using FujiFilm FinePix S8100fd digital camera, and final-year architecture student Nermina Katkić, using Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H10 digital camera.
- Technical documentation
- Technical drawings of Zehra Bahtijarević’s house at no. 2 Prote Todora Srdića Street in Banja Luka (plan of ground and first floors), measured and surveyed on 25 September 2009 by final-year architecture student Nermina Katkić and architect Emir Softić; drawings by Nermina Katkić;
Bibliography
1991 Evaluation of the cultural heritage with protection measures for drafting the Regulatory Plan for Banja Luka city centre, Institute for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Monuments of Banja Luka, Banja Luka, 1991
1996 Various authors. Urbanistički razvoj Banje Luke (Urban development of Banja Luka). Published by Banja Luka Municipality and the Institute for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Monuments of Banja Luka, Banja Luka, 1996
2004 Stošić, Verica, M. Zoran, S. Mačkić. Banjaluka koje ima i koje nema u 1000 slika (fotografije i razglednice) (Banja Luka now and then in 1000 images [photographs and postcards]. Banja Luka: 2004
2005 Husedžinović, Sabira. Dokumenti opstanka (vrijednosti, značaj, rušenje i obnova kulturnog naslijeđa) (Documents of Survival [value, significance, destruction and restoration of the cultural heritage]). Zenica: Zenica Museum, 2005
2007 Jug IV (South IV) Regulatory Plan (area between Cara Lazara St, East Transit, Gavrilo Principa St and the right bank of the Vrbas), City of Banjaluka, Lord Mayor, Administrative Service, Department of Area Planning: excerpt from South IV Regulatory Plan, Annex: Excerpt from Area Plan and Demolition Plan
(1) “Suki Sagir means the lesser čaršija, Ayverdi calls it the Kučuk Mosque, which is possible, since the Kučuk house was nearby, and the family of this name might have founded the mosque, or it might mean “small mosque” (kuçuk-mali) (Ayverdi E.H, Avrupa' da Osmanli Mimari, 33).” (Husedžinović, Sabira, Dokumenti opstanka. Vrijednosti, značaj, rušenje i obnova kulturnog naslijeđa, Zenica: Zenica Museum, 2005, 130).
(2) Husedžinović, op.cit., 152 (drawing of the Main and Lesser Čaršijas, linked by a bridge, with mosques as the “parent” buildings – 1884 geodetic plan.)
(3) from that of 1884.
(4) from: Selman, Mehmed, Banja Luka – Uspomena i stvarnost sa Mejdana, Travnik: 2001.
(5) “In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Mayor of Banja Luka was the distinguished hajji Himzaga Bahtijarević, who had a grand two-storey house with several fine rooms. One of his sons, who sent to school in Vienna, was Edhem aga Bahtijarević, a very friendly person who often socialized with his peers. Some played a musical instrument and sang, and the Bahtijarević’s held very enjoyable soirées in their house, especially on Fridays. The girls met in the house opposite, listening to the music and singing and gave vent to their imagination as they sang this song:
Vrbas voda nosila jablana,
Na jablanu kujundžija Mujo,
Na jablanu kujundžija Mujo.
Kujundžija, tako ti tvog nama,
Skuj ti meni ašik momka mlada.
Uzmi urnek iz našeg džemata.
Sa ljepote Smail-efendije,
Sa visine age Edhem-age,
Sa dva bega dva Džinica mlada.
Sa ponosa bega Mustajbega,
Sa jordama bega Hasan-bega,
Skuj ti meni takvog momka mlada."
(Source: "Banjalucki sevdah u vremenu", Institut sevdaha – Fondacija Omera Pobrica, Visoko, 2004.)
(6) The layout of houses in Banja Luka dating from the Ottoman period is usually symmetrical. (Husedžinović, Sabira, Dokumenti opstanka. Vrijednosti, značaj, rušenje i obnova kulturnog naslijeđa, Zenica: Zenica Museum, 2005, 164).
(7) An extension on the north side of the building, measuring approx. 2.25 x 3.41 m on the outside, built some time between 1990 and 2009. The extension does not feature on the geodetic plan of Banja Luka drawn up in the 1980s. (Geodetic plan of Banja Luka, Banja Luka-105, 6 D 22, Scale 1:1000, Republic Geodetics Authority of BiH, 1977)
(8) (wall approx. 45 cm thick)
(9) (wall approx. 55 cm thick)
(10) The beam rests on the substantial longitudinal walls of the central section of the ground floor. It is exposed on the underside, projecting by about 20 cm and with a width of about 23 cm.
(11) Room of approx. 4.68 x 4.42 m in the north-west corner
(12) Husedžinović, op.cit., 164
(13) Geodetic plan of Banja Luka, Banja Luka-105, 6 D 22, Scale 1:1000, Republic Geodetics Authority of BiH, 1977.
(14) The door leading to the former vodnica and one of the windows of the first-floor room on the south-west side of the building have been bricked up.
(15) Regulacioni plan “Jug - IV" City of Banjaluka, Mayor, Administrative service, Department of Area Planning, excerpt from Jug IV Regulatory Plan, annex: area plan, provided on 11 May 2007.
(16) The Regulatory Plan for the banks of the River Vrbas in Banja Luka for the planning period 2009-2019 was adopted by decision of the Banja Luka City Council no. 07-013-402/10 of 27 May 2010. Regulatory Plan report, drawn up by Projekt a.d. Banja Luka in April 2010. (The decision adopting the Regulatory Plan was published in the Official Gazette of the City of Banja Luka no. 14 of 1 June 2010.)
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