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 4 to 6 February 2013 the Commission adopted a

D E C I S I O N

I

The historic building of the Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).

The National Monument consists of the church.

The movable property of the church is not subject to the protection measures set forth in this Decision.

The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 1536 (new survey), corresponding to c.p. nos. 509/1 and 510/1 (old survey), cadastral municipality Maglaj, title deed no. 1474/05, Land Register entry no. 1228, Municipality Maglaj, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The parish hall built in the 1980s on the same site as the church (c.p. no. 1536), and the movable heritage kept in the church, are not subject to statutory protection and the provisions of this Decision do not apply to them.

The provisions relating to protection measures set forth by the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of the Federation of BiH nos. 2/02, 27/02, 6/04 and 51/07) shall apply to the National Monument.

II

The Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the Government of the Federation) shall be responsible for providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary for the protection, conservation and presentation of the National Monument.

The Commission to Preserve National Monuments (hereinafter: the Commission) shall determine the technical requirements and secure the funds for preparing and erecting signboards with basic details of the monument and the Decision to proclaim the property a National Monument.

III

To ensure the on-going protection of the National Monument on the area defined in Clause 1 para. 3 of this Decision, the following protection measures are hereby stipulated.

-       all works are prohibited other than conservation-restoration works, routine maintenance works, works designed to ensure the sustainable use of the property, and works designed for the presentation of the monument, with the approval of the federal ministry responsible for regional planning and under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina;

-       works that could have the effect of altering the site are prohibited, as is the erection of temporary or permanent structures not designed solely for the protection and presentation of the National Monument;

-       on the adjoining plot, designated as c.p. nos. 1534, 1537 and 1543, the erection is permitted of new buildings with a maximum of storeys, maximum dimensions of 10 x 12 m, and a maximum height of 6.50 m. to the base of the roof structure

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 the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Canton, and urban and municipal authorities, shall refrain from any action that might damage the National Monument or jeopardize the preservation thereof.

VI

The Government of the Federation, the federal ministry responsible for regional planning, the Federation heritage protection authority, and the municipal authorities in charge of urban planning and land registry affairs, shall be notified of this Decision in order to carry out the measures stipulated in Articles II to V of this Decision, and the authorized municipal court shall be notified for the purposes of registration in the Land Register.

VII

The elucidation and accompanying documentation form an integral part of this Decision, which may be viewed by interested parties on the premises or by accessing the website of the Commission (http://www.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. 06.2-02.3-53/13-7

5 February 2013

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 19 March 2004 the Serbian Orthodox Church, Maglaj parish, submitted a proposal/petition to the Commission to designate the Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj 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 St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj was built between 1906 and 1908 in the historicist style, one of many churches built in the late 19th and early 20th century of which relatively few are still extant. It belongs to the type of single-aisled vaulted church with side choirs, a bell tower at the west end, and an apse at the east end. It was built of brick and stone.

The building was badly damaged during the 1992-1995 war, when the walls were destroyed down to about 50 cm below the cornice. It was restored in its original form and to its original use as a place of worship. The church is important to the history of Maglaj as a religious building, and is a significant feature in the townscape.

The building was rehabilitated on the same site, on the foundations and walls of the previous building, with the same footprint, on the basis of preliminary investigative works including a survey of the remains of the building, and an analysis of old photographs.

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, Land Register entry and transcript of title deed),

-       details of the current condition and use of the property, details of its destruction during the war and of its rehabilitation, and of the project, materials and building methods used during its rehabilitation,

-       historical, architectural and other documentary material on the property,

-       details of prior statutory protection of the property,

-       the views in writing of the owner, expressing full agreement with the designation of the property as a national monument of BiH.

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 took the following steps:

-       Published an announcement in the Official Gazette of BiH no. 103/12 of 24 January 2013 to inform the public that the procedure to designate this and other properties as national monuments was under way and appealing to the owners and other interested natural and juristic persons, bodies and institutions to submit their views on the designation of the property as a national monument to the Commission within 30 days.

-       Sent a letter ref. 06.2-35.2—5/12-36 of 28 February 2012 requesting documentation and views on the designation of the Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj, was sent to the Serbian Orthodox parish of Maglaj, Maglaj Municipality - department responsible for urbanism and cadastral affairs, the Land Registry office of the Municipal Court in Maglaj, the Federal Ministry of Regional Planning and the Institute for the Protection of Monuments under the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport.

As of the date on which this Decision was rendered, the Commission had received the following documentation:

-       Letter ref. 03-23-2-272/12 of 2 March 2012 from the Federal Ministry of Regional Planning notifying the Commission to Preserve National Monuments that it has no information or documentation on the property.

-       Letter ref. 07-40-4-1668-1/12 of 6 March 2012 from the Institute for the Protection of Monuments under the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport supplying copies of drawings of the Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj from the Repair Project of 2003 (ground plan, cross section, four elevations) and two photographs taken in 1998.

-       Letter dated 2 March 2012 from the Serbian Orthodox parish of Maglaj supplying the following documentation for the Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj:

1. copy of cadastral plan no. 14 of 14 March 2012

2. proof of title no. 1474/05 of 14 March 2012

3. Land Register entry nos. 1228, 1229 and 1230.

4. photographs taken in 2003

5. textual section from the Main Project for the Reconstruction and Repair of the Orthodox Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj, 2003, produced by FABING Sarajevo design, engineering and consultancy.

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 Church of St Elijah the Prophet is in the new part of Maglaj, on the left bank of the River Bosna.

The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 1536 (new survey), corresponding to c.p. nos. 509/1 and 510/1 (old survey), cadastral municipality Maglaj, Land Register entry no. 1228, title deed no. 1474/05, Municipality Maglaj, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Historical background(1)

Maglaj came under Austrian rule after fierce fighting lasting from 3 to 5 August 1878. During the Austro-Hungarian period the entire economic and social structure of society in BiH changed, but no distinction was made between the rural and the urban economy until World War I. In 1878 the railway line linking Bosanski Brod with Sarajevo was laid through Maglaj, and on 15 October that year a post and telegraph station was opened there. The iron bridge on the Brod to Sarajevo railway line was built in1909.

The modern age and industrial development defined the final appearance of the town, with the older part located on the right bank and the new on the left bank of the river, linked by a road bridge, and of entirely different structure functionally, architecturally, historically and in terms of townscape.

Maglaj parish was founded by ruling of the Dabar-Bosnia Metropolitanate in Sarajevo in 1883. The first priest to serve the parish was Serafim Marković of Vozuća, who died on 15 November 1886. A few days later, on 27 November, the Consistory in Sarajevo resolved to appoint Simo Bjelajac as the new parish priest in Maglaj. Since the parish did not have its own church at that time, the residents of Maglaj parish decided to build one. Work began on the Church of St Elijah in 1906 and was completed in 1906, when the church was consecrated. It was built in the historicist manner, with the general features of mediaeval Byzantine architecture, as was typical of Orthodox churches built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The St Elijah’s Church was badly damaged during the 1992 to 1995 war, being shelled and set on fire. The top of the bell tower caved in, and the roof timbers were burnt.

The rehabilitation of the church began in mid 2003, and it was reconsecrated by Bishop Vasilije Kačavenda of Zvornik and Tuzla on 30 September 2007.

2. Description of the property(2)  

The Church of St Elijah belongs to the type of single-aisled vaulted church with side choirs, a bell tower at the west end, and an apse at the east end. It is rectangular in plan, measuring approx. 11.00 x 15.10 m on the outside, including the apse, with its long axis east-west. The walls were built of stone and brick. The surviving walls were used in part following war damage to the property. The walls were destroyed down to about 50 cm below the cornice. The walls of the bell tower and the north and south walls of the church were built of rubble stone to a height of 2.50 m above ground, and the rest of the walls were built of brick. The south and north walls are 76 to 84 cm thick, the west wall is about 80 cm thick, and the apse walls are about 62 cm thick. All the walls are rendered and painted on the outside and plastered and painted on the inside.

The nave of the church is vaulted, with a gabled roof over. The choirs and apse have separate polygonal roofs. The entire roof frame was built of timber, and the roofs are clad with sheet copper.

The church has two portals. The main entrance is at the west end, and the secondary entrance is to the south. This side entrance, which is little used, opens straight onto the nave. The portals are arched, with simple decoration. The main portal, which is set back in the façade, is more elaborately decorated than the side portal, being framed by a round arch joined by flanking engaged columns about 2 metres in height, which project out from the bell tower piers by about ¾ of their circumference. The shafts of the columns, which are 167 in height and 15 cm in diameter, are undecorated. The capitals are in the form of volutes. The solid wood double-valved door, which measures about 150 x 220 cm, is rectangular with a wooden semicircular lunette over. The door is of simple design, without decoration, but merely divided into two panels, square below and rectangular above. The side portal consists of a solid wood rectangular door measuring 110 x 220 cm with a semicircular wooden lunette over.

The interior of the church consists of a parvis with a gallery above, the nave, and the sanctuary in the apse.

The parvis at the west end of the church is entered through the main entrance. The main entrance to the church occupies the middle of the parvis, framed by the bell tower piers. The parvis forms a single space with the nave, and is accentuated visually by the gallery above. Measuring 8.25 x 1.85 m on the inside, it is articulated into three sections by the two substantial bell tower piers: the central entrance section, and two lateral sections to left and right of the entrance. The square piers, which measure 80 x 80 cm in section, are linked centrally at gallery level by a round arch. The wooden staircase in north lateral section of the parvis, leading to the gallery, is about 98 cm wide with treads about 25 cm deep, and has a wooden railing.

The gallery is of the open type, carried on the bell tower piers and outside walls of the parvis. The bell tower piers rise through the gallery, which is used by the church choir and also provides access to the bell housing. The gallery measures approx. 8.25 x 3.35 m, with a ceiling height of approx. 2.00 m. The gallery floor joists and decking floor together are 57.5 cm thick. The wooden railing and hand rail of the gallery are finished in the same way as the staircase.

The nave, which occupies the central section of church, is wider than the parvis on account of the side choirs to the south and north, which are 45 cm wide, giving a width for the nave at that point of approx. 9.15 cm. The nave is covered by a groin vault approx.7.40 m in height. The semicircular ambo in the long axis of the church is at the east end of the nave.

The sanctuary, which is one step (10 cm) higher than the nave, is separated from the nave by a wooden iconostasis. The sanctuary, with the proscomidion, diaconicon and altar table, occupies the apse, which is covered by a semidome. The proscomidion and diaconicom consists of niches 70 cm wide and 35 cm deep in the east wall. The stone altar table, which measures approx. 80 x 70 cm, occupies the middle of the sanctuary.

The façades are rendered and decorated with vertical mouldings at every corner of the outside walls. All the doors and windows are surmounted by a half-round moulding. The outside walls are approx. 6.50 m high from ground-level to the base of the roof; the gabled roof itself is 10.20 m in height. The stone socle is 50 cm high.

The north and south façades each have one window in the parvis section and two wooden windows lighting the choirs. These windows are round-headed, and measure 70 x 200 cm. The outside walls of the parvis also have round-headed blind niches. The north and south façades also each have a small semicircular window with a blind oculus above. The south façade also has a wooden door. The three-sided apse at the east end of the church has an interior radius of approx. 2.4 m, and walls of approx.4.45 m from ground-level to the base of the roof. The apex of the conical apse roof, which is about 1.5 m below the ridge of the gabled roof of the main body of the church, is clad with sheet copper. The apse has three round-headed windows of approx. 70 x 125 m, on three sides of the apse. The west façade of the church has two round-headed windows measuring approx 80 x 12 cm symmetrically flanking the bell tower. The bell tower itself has a biforate window above the main entrance, consisting of two single-light rectangular, rounded-headed halves. The blind oculus above the biforate window is decorated.

The bell tower in the axis of the church, at the west end, is a massive square tower approx. 17.5 m in height, with sides of 2.4 m, carried on four substantial piers. The brick walls are 85 cm thick. The dome, which rests on a slender octagonal drum, is made of wood and clad with sheet copper. The bell housing occupies the octagonal section, which has one louvred, round-headed window on each side. The bell tower is approx. 14.40 m in height to the apex of the dome, while the wrought iron cross that tops it is 2.00 m in height. Above the wooden portal on the west front of the bell tower is a biforate window with a circular blind recess above. The decorative arch above the biforate window and the circular recess each have shallow geometric mouldings executed in the façade render.  

Description of the iconostasis(3)  

The iconostasis of St Elijah’s Church in Maglaj was made in 2007. The frame was made by Zdravko Popović of Banja Luka, and the icons are the work of Goran Pešić, an icon and fresco painter from the east (Serbia, Metohija).

The frame of the iconostasis is made of wood. The icons affixed to it were painted on lessonite, and depict a variety of scenes. They are in two tiers.

-       Lower tier, from north to south:

1. St Elijah the Prophet

2. Archangel Michael

3. Mother of God and Christ

4. Royal doors with the Annunciation

5. Christ Pantocrator

6. St Stephen the Archdeacon

7. St John the Baptist

-       Upper tier, from north to south:

1. St Nicholas

2. St Simeon the God-receiver

3. SS Peter and Paul

4. St Luke

5. St Basil of Ostrog

6. Last Supper

7. Nativity of the Mother of God

8. Venerable Sinaite Sisoje

9. St George the Great Martyr

10. Raising of Lazarus

11. St Basil the Great

-       The scene of the Last Supper is surmounted by a cross.

The vault of the church was painted in 2007 and 2008 by of Goran Pešić, an icon and fresco painter from the east (Serbija, Metohija). The apse and nave were painted by 2012.

In 2007, too, Christ’s tomb with the scene of the Ascension was produced (the work of Zdravko Popović of Banja Luka, as was the Bishop’s throne with the figure of Bishop St Nectarios (the work of Sava Živković).

3. Legal status to date

The Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj was not entered in the Register of Immovable Cultural Monuments by the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of BiH, nor was it subject to statutory protection.

4. Research and conservation-restoration works

The Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj was badly damaged during the 1992 to 1995 war, being shelled and set on fire. The top of the bell tower (dome and drum) caved in, and the roof timbers were burnt, as were all the doors and window frames. The walls were destroyed down to about 50 cm below the cornice. The walls of the building subsequently crumbled in places as a result of exposure to the elements.

The reconstruction of the church was carried out on the basis of the Main Project for the Reconstruction and Repair of the Orthodox Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj, 2003, produced by FABING Sarajevo design, engineering and consultancy.

The reconstruction was preceded by a conservation-restoration project produced by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments under the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport.

5. Current condition of the property

The findings of an on-site inspection by Commission staff in March 2012 are that the property is in good condition both inside and out, is kept well maintained, and is in use.

6. Specific risks

None.

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.i.       quality of workmanship

C.ii.      quality of materials

C.iii.      proportions

C.v.      value of details

E.         Symbolic value

E.ii.      religious value

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

F.         Townscape/ Landscape value

F.iii.      the building or group of buildings is part of a group or site

G.         Authenticity

G.i.       form and design

G.ii.      materials and content

G.iv.     location and setting

The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:

-       Ownership documentation

-         Copy of cadastral plan, scale 1:1000, plan no. 14, c.p. 1536, c.m. Maglaj, Municipality Maglaj, Zenica-Doboj Canton, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, issued by the Department of Town Planning, Geodetics and Proprietary Rights, Maglaj Municipality, on 14 March 2012

-         Proof of title no. 1474/05, issued by the Department of Town Planning, Geodetics and Proprietary Rights, Maglaj Municipality, on 14 March 2012

-         Land Registry entry nos. 1228, 1119 and 1230 (for c.p. 509/1 and 510/1, old survey), c.m. Maglaj, issued by the Land Registry office of the Municipal Court in Zavidovići on 16 March 2012

-       Photodocumentation

-         Photographs of the Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj taken in March 2012 by members of staff of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments

-       Technical documentation

-         The Institute for the Protection of Monuments under the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport supplied copies of drawings of the Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj from the Repair Project of 2003 (ground plan, cross section, four elevations)

-         The Serbian Orthodox parish of Maglaj supplied the textual section from the Main Project for the Reconstruction and Repair of the Orthodox Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj, 2003, produced by FABING Sarajevo design, engineering and consultancy

Bibliography

During the procedure to designate the historic building of the Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj as a national monument, the following works were consulted:

1900.    Mihályi. Máramarosi diplomák a XIV. és XV. századbόl. Máramaros-Sziget: 1900.

1951.    Kreševljaković, Hamdija. “Prilozi povjesti bosanskih gradova pod turskom upravom” (Contributions to the history of Bosnian towns under Turkish rule), Contributions to oriental philology. Sarajevo –II (1951)

1965.    Bojanovski, Ivo. “Stari grad Maglaj: Istraživački i konzervatorski radovi 1962. i 1963.” g. (Maglaj fort: investigative and conservation works 1962 and 1963), Naše starine. Sarajevo – X (1965)

1980.    Kreševljaković, Hamdija. Kapetanije u Bosni i Hercegovini (Captaincies in BiH). 2nd ed. Sarajevo: Svjetlost, 1980.

1999.    Ljuca, Adin. Maglaj na tragovima prošlosti (Maglaj in the footsteps of the past). Prague: 1999

New Testament: Novi zavjet, prijevod Svetog arhijerejskog sinoda Srpske pravoslavne crkve 1997.

http://www.rastko.org.yu/bogoslovlje/novi_zavet/jevandjelije_po_mateju.html

31.10.2008.

(1) For more on the historical background for the Church of St Elijah the Project in Maglaj, see the decisions by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments designating the architectural ensemble of Maglaj fort in Maglaj and the historic building of the Uzeirbegović konak in Maglaj as national monuments.

(2) The description is of the building as restored in 2003, on the basis of the following documentation: main project for the reconstruction and repair of the Orthodox Church of St Elijah the Prophet in Maglaj, 2003, produced by Fabing Sarajevo design, engineering and consultancy. This was preceded by a project for repairs to the church, produced by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments under the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport, from which it can be seen that the new church is a copy in size and appearance of the 1906-1980 church.

(3) The movable property of the church, consisting of the iconostasis and icons, is not subject to the protection measures set forth in this Decision.