Status of monument -> National monument

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 6 to 8 November 2012 the Commission adopted a

D E C I S I O N

I

The historic monument of the Gašić family house in Mrkonjić Grad 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. 26/65 and 26/68 (old survey), corresponding to c.p. 637 (new survey), title deed no. 376/0, cadastral municipality Mrkonjić Grad 2, Mrkonjić Grad, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The provisions relating to protection and rehabilitation 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, conservation, rehabilitation 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

The following protection measures are hereby prescribed to apply to the area defined in Clause 1 para. 2 of this Decision:

-       all works are prohibited other than conservation-restoration works on the existing façade, alterations to bring the buildng in line with modern living conditions, and works designed for the presentation of the monument, with the approval of the ministry of Republika Srpska responsible for regional planning and under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority of Republika Srpska.

The following emergency protection measures are hereby prescribed for the National Monument:

-       the property shall be cleared of rubbish and litter;

-       a detailed architectural survey shall be conducted of the building (identification and description of all damage);

-       a statics analysis shall be conducted of the structural parts of the building;

-       the building shall be protected from adverse external impacts;

-       a conservation-restoration project and restoration project shall be produced, which must provide for the existing dimensions and proportions of the building to be retained and its façades to be preserved;

-       the restoration project shall provide for the production and erection of a memorial plaque with historical details.

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 and 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 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. 06.3-2.3-73/12-37

7 November 2012

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.

On 1 September 2010 Gašić Radoslav of Sarajevo submitted a petition/proposal to the Commission to Preserve National Monuments to designate the mixed-use family house in Mrkonjić Grad as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Pursuant to the 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

The Gašić family house, built in 1910, is not only architecturally distinct from other Austro-Hungarian residential properties in Mrkonjić Grad, but also an important symbol of the War of National Liberation for Mrkonjić Grad and for Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole. Every member of the family played an active part in the war, in particular Dragica Gašić, who was decorated with the Order of the Republic with bronze wreath for her particular efforts in the public sphere and contribution to the general advancement of the country. At that time her house was used as a base where various materials were kept and the wounded and members of the underground were given shelter, as well as the venue for ZAVNOBiH (anti-fascist council) meetings. To this end she vacated the entire house, moving with her family into a cramped basement. At that time, too, the Gašić family also owned the building where the ZAVNOBiH Museum was established.

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 the current owner and occupant of the property (copy of cadastral plan and proof of title),

-       details of the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs, details of damage and of 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.

Pursuant to Article V para. 2 of Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 37 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission, before rendering a final decision designating a property as a national monument, the Commission is required to provide the owner of the proposed monument, the person submitting the petition, the institutions responsible for heritage, professional and academic institutions, experts and scholars, as well as other interested parties, to express their views. Accordingly, the Commission sent a letter ref. 06.3-35.2-10/2010-171 dated 14 September 2010 requesting documentation and views on the designation of the Gašić family house at no. 1 Kralja Petra I Karađorđevića St. as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the owner of the property, Mrkonjić Grad Municipality (department responsible for town planning and cadastral affairs, Land Registry office of the Municipal Court, mayor), the Ministry of Regional Planning, Construction and the Environment of Republika Srpska, and the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska.

In response, the Commission has received the following documentation:

-       letter ref. 075-0-Su-10-000 341 dated 16 September 2010 from the Municipal Court in Mrkonjić Grad, Land Registry office, notifying the Commission to Preserve National Monuments that it has no Land Register entry for the property in question;

-       a letter from the owner of the property, Radoslav Gašić, dated 22 September 2010, supplying technical documentation, cadastral details and other documentation for the Gašić family house, including:

-         application by Gašić Radoslav to classify the mixed-use family house as a cultural asset of Mrkonjić Grad, submitted on 5 December 2005 to Mrkonjić Grad Municipality, Department of Spatial Planning, Housing and Communal Affairs;

-         letter ref. 01-03-550/05 of 22 December 2005 from the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska to Mrkonjić Grad Municipality, Department of Spatial Planning, Housing and Communal Affairs, in response to the question whether to place the Gašić mixed-use family house in Mrkonjić Grad under a protection regime, stating that the Institute’s work plan for 2006 includes according value to the cultural and natural heritage of Mrkonjić Grad Municipality, which will include according value to the family house of Gašić Radoslav and Gašić Dušan;

-         letter ref. 06-624-8/05 of 29 December 2005 from Mrkonjić Grad Municipality, Department of Spatial Planning, Housing and Communal Affairs to Gašić Radoslav, notifying him that the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska has stated its intention to accord value to the mixed-use property of Gašić Radoslav and Gašić Dušan;

-         document ref. 03/9-372-97/00 of 13 October 2000 by Mrkonjić Grad Municipality, Department of Spatial Planning, Housing and Communal Affairs, at the request of the owner Gašić Radoslav, assessing the war damage to the Gašić family house at 224,360.00 dinars = 67,988.00 DM. The assessment was carried out by the War Damage Assessment Board under ref. 1089447 subref. 1739 of 10 May 1996;

-         document ref. 21.31/052-100/2010 of 24 September 2010 from the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska supplying the Commission to Preserve National Monuments with a list of real property relating to the ownership status of Gašić Radoslav;

-       document ref. 06-363-31/10 from Mrkonjić Grad Municipality, Department of Spatial Planning, Housing and Communal Affairs, notifying the Commission that it is not able to provide an opinion concerning the designation of the family house in Kralja Petra I Karađorđevića St., Mrkonjić Grad, as a national monument of BiH, and also stating that the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska had accorded value to the cultural and natural heritage of Mrkonjić Grad Municipality in 2009 but had not included the property in question in its evaluation;

-       in February 2011 the owner of the property, Gašić Radoslav, forwarded to the Commission to Preserve National Monuments the response from the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska to his application to subject the mixed use Gašić family house in Mrkonjić Grad to a protection regime. The Institute’s response, ref. 07/1.20-624-022/2011 of 21 January 2011, states that the Institute had produced a document entitled “According value to the cultural and natural heritage of Mrkonjić Grad Municipality” in which the property in question (the Gašić family house) was not evaluated as a cultural property since under the terms of the methodological approach adopted for according value to cultural properties it did not meet the criteria for designation as of monumental, architectural or townscape value (the original fabric and materials had not survived in their entirety and the architecture of the property was not innovative for the period at which it was built). The document states that since the building was largely in ruins, rather than protecting the site and remains or building a replica of the original property it would be better to erect a new building conforming in size and modularity to the surrounding properties and space;

-       the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska has not supplied the information requested;

-       the Department of Geodetics and Proprietary Rights, Mrkonjić Grad branch, supplied the Commission with proof of title and a copy of the cadastral plan on 28 December 2012.

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 Gašić family house is at no. 1 Kralja Petra I Karađorđevića St., Mrkonjić Grad, about 20 m from the ZAVNOBiH Museum(1).

The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot. no. 26/65 and 26/68 (old survey), corresponding to c.p. 637 (new survey), title deed no. 376/0, cadastral municipality Mrkonjić Grad 2, Mrkonjić Grad, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Historical background

The first session of the National Antifascist Council of the National Liberation of BiH – ZAVNOBiH – was held on 25 and 26 November 1943 in Mrkonjić Grad, following an AVNOJ session held in Bihać in 1942 and anti-fascist council sessions in what later become the republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

ZAVNOBiH was formally constituted as the central political representative body of the National Liberation Movement (NOP) of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but functioned in practice as the country’s highest government body, as would be formally recognized at the next two sessions, in Sanski Most and Sarajevo.

The first ZAVNOBiH session was attended by 247 committee members from all over BiH, of whom 173 had voting rights. The members adopted the ZAVNOBiH Resolution and Proclamation by the peoples of BiH affirming that henceforth BiH and its people could be represented at home and abroad only by ZAVNOBiH and AVNOJ. These documents also expressed the resolve of the peoples of BiH that their country, which is neither Serbian nor Croatian nor Muslim, but is Serbian and Muslim and Croatia, should be a fraternal community in which the full equality of all Serbs, Muslims and Croats would be assured(2).

The session elected a 58-member delegation to represent BiH at the Second AVNOJ session on 29 November 1943, and constituted the Presidency of ZAVNOBiH, composed of 31 members, appointed Dr. Vojislav Kecmanović as chair of the Presidency and Avdo Humo, Aleksandar Preka and Đuro Pucar Stari (“the elder”) as vice-chairs(3).

A board was formed to carry out the necessary preparations for the ZAVNOBiH session, which was responsible for arranging not only the venue, but also the accommodation, meals and other needs of the committee members. The board, which was run by Đuro Pucar, was composed of Skender Kulenović, Branko Ćopić, Jovan Marjanović, Mate Zaninović and Ante Šantić.

The building where the session was to be held belonged to the Gašić family, who ran a shop there. In 1941 the NDH (“Independent State of Croatia”) government seized the property and turned it into a storage facility. After the liberation of Mrkonjić Grad in August 1942 the building was turned into a Cultural Centre where political and cultural activities and various events were held.

The committee members attending the first ZAVNOBiH session were put up in houses, as the war had left the only hotel in ruins. Women collected what was needed for meals and personal hygiene, and the food was prepared in the Roljić house. The Brkić, Gašić, Bešlić, Roljić, Pupić, Arežinov and other families did their utmost to ensure the success of the session. Particularly prominent among them was Dragica Gašić, the owner of the property, who vacated the entire house to make way for the session, moving with her family into a cramped basement.

Gašić Dragica, who was born on 21 May 1911, was actively involved in achieving the aims of the NOP during World War II, from 24 October 1941 to 15 April 1942 and from 25 August 1942 to 15 May 1945, as a member and chair of the municipal AFŽ (women’s anti-fascist front) committee. Her house was used as a base where various materials were kept and the wounded and members of the underground were given shelter. She was decorated with the Order of the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia with bronze wreath for her particular efforts in the public sphere and contribution to the general advancement of the country.

According to Lazo Stupar, Dragica Gašić was one of the people of Mrkonjić to whom the greatest credit goes for the advance preparations for the first ZAVNOBiH session(4), which was held in a room belonging to her family. In the full sense of the word, therefore, Dragica thus hosted the first ZAVNOBiH session(5).

The Gašić house was built in 1910, when the family also owned the building in which the ZAVNOBiH Museum was founded.

2. Description of the property(6)  

The house is in a row of mixed-use buildings erected as infills in an already built-up area of the town.

Stylistically, it is in the historicist manner. It has a sprawling footprint consisting of three parts:

-       a part with a roughly square footprint, measuring about 8.5 x 9.5 m;

-       another which is rectangular in plan, measuring about 5.5 x 6.5 m;

-       a wooden veranda measuring about 7 x 3.7 m.

It has four storeys (basement, ground, first, attic), and measures about 11 m to the roof ridge and about 7 m to the eaves. The ground floor housed business premises, while the basement and first floor were residential.

The main entrance is through the veranda on the south-west side of the building, where there is a single door of 90 x 200 cm opening into the veranda. To the south-east another door of 90 x 200 leads into the stairwell, where a single-flight wooden staircase 100 cm wide leads to the first floor.

In the basement, there is access from a hallway or room of about 2.5 x 3.5 m to the other rooms – a room of about 4 x 3.5 m, a basement of about 3.5 x 3 m and a kitchen of about 4 x 3 m. A pantry of about 2.5 x 1.7 m off the kitchen led in turn into a toilet of 1.7 x 1.7 m.

The ground floor consisted of two separate business premises, rectangular in plan measuring about 3.5 x 8 m, entered from the north-west. Each had its separate entrance with a door of 90 x 260 cm.

One of these had access to the veranda, which led in turn to a kitchen of 3.8 x 4.2 m. there was also a toilet with a small lobby, together measuring about 3x 1.7 m in plan.

The other had a single-flight wooden staircase 65 cm wide leading to the first-floor landing.

The first floor consisted of three interconnecting rooms all roughly the same size: two measuring about 3.5 x 4.5 m and the third 4 x 3.5 m, entered through two doors of 90 x 190 cm from the landing of 2.7 x 3.5 m/

Access to the kitchen and toilet was from the stairwell.

A wooden staircase 65 cm wide led to the attic, where there was one room of about 5 x 2.5 m.

The façades were designed in the historicist manner. Judging from the working blueprint, the ground floor of the north-west entrance façade had two doors of 90 x 260 m and two windows of 90 x 175 cm and 175 x 170 cm (part of the latter was later partly bricked up and a door fitted instead). The first floor had four windows of 170 x 95 cm. The flat roof had a dormer window surmounted by a moulded tympanum with two windows separated by pilasters.

Since this was an infill, two façades had no openings other than in the south-west part of the building where the veranda was located, and one kitchen window of 70 x 100 cm. The south-east façade had four openings at basement level (two of 145 x 100 cm and two of 70 x 110 cm), and the ground floor had a single window of 70 x 110 cm and a wooden veranda with four windows of 170 x 180 cm. The identical window and veranda were repeated on the first floor. All the façade windows were rectangular two-light windows with overlights.

The first floor was separated from the ground floor by a moulded string course, above which was a narrow moulded string course along the first-floor window sills. The first-floor windows were flanked by shallow pilasters and surmounted by an architrave. Directly below the pilasters, below the window sills, were regulae each with three guttae. The pilasters had ionic capitals. The façade terminated in a moulded cornice below which, until 1953, was an inscription in Cyrillic: Risto 1910 Gašić. The façade was painted light blue, with all the decorations picked out in white.

The roof and ceiling joists were wooden.

The basement ceiling is 2.60 m high, those of the ground and first floors being 2.90 m high. The interstorey construction was about 30 cm thick, and the bearing walls about 50 cm thick. The timber roof was clad with tiles.

3. Legal status to date

The property has not previously been subject to statutory protection.

4. Research and conservation-restoration works

Nothing is known of any conservation-restoration works on the property.

5. Current condition of the property

The property is in very poor condition. The roof and ceiling joists were totally destroyed during the 1992-1995 war.

6. Specific risks

-       adverse effects of the elements

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

The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:

-       Copy of cadastral plan;

-       Copy of land register entry and proof of title;

-       Photodocumentation;

-       Drawings.

Bibliography

During the procedure to designate the historic monument of the Gašić family house in Mrkonjić Grad as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:

1964.    Ćulibrk, Svetozar. Zapisi sa Grmeča, Svedočanstva, kolo VI knjiga 2 (Records from Grmeč, Testimonies, round VI, vol. 2). Beograd: Prosveta, 1964.

Otašević, Duško. Političke i organizacione pripreme za održavanje ZAVNOBIH-a http://www.anubih.ba/speceditions/socialspeceditions/fulltext/social37/OtasevicDusko.pdf (Political and organizational preparations for ZAVNOBiH) accessed 15.08.2012.

1998.    Various authors. Bosna i Hercegovina od najstarijih vremena do kraja Drugog svjetskog rata (Bosnia and Herzegovina from ancient times to the end of World War II). Sarajevo: Bosanski kulturni centar, 1998.

(1) See the Decision designating the museum and assembly rooms of the National Anti-fascist Council of the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ZAVNOBiH) in Mrkonjić Grad together with the permanent museum display and interior fixtures and fittings as a national monument, adopted at a session of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments held in Sarajevo from 5 to 11 November 2002.

(2) Various authors, Bosna i Hercegovina od najstarijih vremena do kraja Drugog svjetskog  rata, Sarajevo: 1998, 375.

(3) Ćulibrk, Svetozar, Zapisi sa Grmeča, Svedočanstva, kolo VI knjiga 2, Beograd: Prosveta, 1964, 164.

(4) Lazo Stupar (journalist and satirist) b. 1936, had a long career as a teacher, editor and publisher of the Narodne novine newspaper.  He died in Mrkonjić-Grad in 1998.

(5) See the Decision designating the museum and assembly rooms of the National Anti-fascist Council of the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ZAVNOBiH) in Mrkonjić Grad together with the permanent museum display and interior fixtures and fittings as a national monument, adopted at a session of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments held in Sarajevo from 5 to 11 November 2002.

(6) The description of the property is drawn from a copy of the original outline design supplied to the Commission to Preserve National Monuments by the petitioner Radoslav Gašić, owner of the property.