AT03 132 rev.                                                                                      Sarajevo, March 2010.

Regional Programme

for Cultural and Natural Heritage

in South East Europe

Integrated Rehabilitation Project Plan / Survey of the

architectural and archaeological heritage (IRPP/SAAH)

REPORT ON ASSESSMENT

OF THE ARCHITECTURAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL

HERITAGE

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

FOREWORD

This document of the Integrated Rehabilitation Project Plan / Survey of the architectural and archaeological heritage (IRPP/SAAH), jointly implemented by the European Commission and the Council of Europe within the programme framework, is addressed primarily to all IRPP/SAAH Project Co-ordinators appointed in countries participating in the Regional Programme for Cultural and Natural Heritage in South East Europe.

The proposed questionnaire provides indicative, but not exhaustive, guidelines with a view to identifying sources of information and partners and in order to gather preliminary material, which will be used to draft national assessment reports on the current status of the architectural and archaeological heritage.   

The national assessment reports will present in a synthetic manner, the legal and institutional framework related to the protection and enhancement of heritage, the existing management mechanisms and tools, the resources available – both at the professional level (including budgetary concerns) as well as the documentary level.  It will also take into consideration the political guidelines and the role attributed to heritage in society.  It is on the basis of this report that the second phase of the IRPP/SAAH will draw up the “Prioritised Intervention List”.

Project Co-ordinators may find other useful information for setting up the documentation of the future National Assessment Report in their countries in the Council of Europe publication Guidance on inventory and documentation of the cultural heritage.

The questionnaires have been prepared by the Dr John Bold (United Kingdom), and revised by Mr Daniel Drocourt (France) and Prof. Georges Lavas (Greece), designated by the European Commission and the Council of Europe as Project Leaders for the IRPP/SAAH. The Project Coordinator has          revised document: European Commission – Council of Europe Joint Programme: Integrated Rehabilitation Project Plan / Survey of the Architectural and Archeological Heritage (IRPP/SAAH) – Bosnia and Herzegovina – March 2004 and its revision from 2007; and a preliminary revised report has been submitted to the Ministry for Civil Affairs, entity ministries responsible for spatial planning and culture, the entity and cantonal institutions responsible for heritage protection, the entity inspection authorities and responsible authorities in Brčko Distrikt, with a view to completing and collating the data.

Mirela Mulalić Handan,

IRPPSAAH Project Coordinator for BIH

Translated from the English by:

Ženja Kasumović

Translated into English by:

Saba Risaluddin

INTRODUCTION

The name Bosnia and Herzegovina is of relatively recent date, coming into official use after the 1878 Berlin Congress conferred on Austria-Hungary the mandate to occupy this former province of the Ottoman Empire.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has a rich architectural and archaeological heritage, which it has inherited from various human occupations since the Palaeolithic period. All the prehistoric periods are represented there: Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, Neolithic and Eneolithic – the Copper Age, the Iron Ages and the Bronze Age.

In the second half of the 5th century AD the region was ruled for 40 years by the Ostrogoths, who left extensive evidence of their culture, recognisable in archaeological finds.  This was followed by the period of Slav immigration and permanent settlement in the region in the second half of the 6th and the 7th centuries. At least a century before the earliest reference to the famous Bosnian ban Borić (1154-1163), Bosnia had already become a distinct early feudal state, extending between the source of the river Bosnia and the Vranduk pass to the north, and the upper Drina and Borova Glava running east-west. At this time, Bosnia and Hum (later Herzegovina) were each evolving politically along their own lines, but by the early decades of the 14th century they had become part of a single polity. Mediaeval Bosnia reached its peak of political development in 1377 when Tvrtko I Kotromanić was proclaimed king. As an independent political entity, maintaining contacts with many of the states of Europe of the day, and with its own schismatic Bosnian Church independent in jurisdiction from both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, the Bosnian Kingdom lasted until 1463, when most of the country was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The most striking economic and cultural feature of this period is the emergence of towns and cities and of links between them. Almost every town and city in Bosnia and Herzegovina dates back to this period, either based on a village, a crossroads, or built on an entirely new site. Widespread urbanisation was made possible thanks to the establishment of the institutions of the vakuf or perpetual endowment, which determined how towns would evolve and funded their development. The basic layout was that of the oriental town, with its division into a business quarter known as the čaršija and residential quarters called mahalas, but always based on the previous Bosnian inheritance. Numerous religious and public edifices were built, as well as residential buildings.

Ottoman rule was replaced by Austro-Hungarian administration in 1878, lasting until 1918 when Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the State of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later to become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). In 1945, Bosnia and Herzegovina became one of the republics of the newly formed socialist Yugoslavia, and in 1992 it gained international recognition.

From prehistoric times to the modern day, Bosnia and Herzegovina abounds in cultural riches of varied provenance, as evidenced by the 8,800 immovable properties identified by the Regional Plan for BiH to 2002.

The architectural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina was systematically destroyed during the 1992-95 war. Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina marks a new era in the country’s on-going heritage protection.

HERITAGE

The state of the architectural heritage immediately before the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina may be analyzed by using the indicators in the inventory of the built heritage conducted by the Republic Statistics Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 31 December 1986. This covered 727 recorded properties, of which 507 were individual monuments and 220 were complexes or groups (with a total area of 272 hectares). Of the 727 recorded monuments, 46 were part of recorded groups. Based on the inventory data, the area under protection was 272 hectares or 0.31% of the total inhabited area of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The inventory covered 162 religious buildings and sites, 52 residential buildings and groups, and 36 commercial and civil engineering structures, most of which were military structures and groups.

The Regional Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina to 2002 included a list of properties of major importance and proposed four classification categories. The Plan identified 8,800 immovable cultural properties, of which 2,267 were listed properties.

Classified chronologically and by stylistic features, the built heritage consists of:

-       Palaeolithic and Mesolithic properties (30)

-       Neolithic properties (13)

-       Eneolithic-Chalcolithic age properties (16)

-       metal age – Bronze and Iron age – properties (161 hill forts)

-       Roman era, 284-480 CE (18 sites)

-       early mediaeval period – period of the Ostrogothic state, 490-535 CE (23 basilicas and 5 necropolises)

-       early Slav period, 7th-9th century (10 sites)

-       mediaeval period, 13th-15th century (172 forts, 95 necropolises with 58547stećak necropolises)

-       Ottoman period, 1463-1878 (60 urban-rural ensembles, 58 mosques and tekkes, 40 churches and monasteries, 2 synagogues, 44 necropolises and turbes [mausoleums], 14 public buildings, 24 educational buildings, 3 tower-houses, 11 clock towers, 20 bridges, 19 residential properties, 4 public edifices in the eclectic manner)

-       Austro-Hungarian period (27 urban heritage ensembles, 47 individual monuments)

-       historic rural ensembles (814).(1)

”Bosnia and Herzegovina’s built heritage was systematically destroyed during the 1992-96 war. According to the data gathered by the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina as of November 1995, 2,771 built heritage properties were partially demolished or damaged, 713 were totally destroyed and 554 were set on fire and are unusable. These data are based partly on on-site inspections, and partly on reports from individual organisations, religious communities, etc. The numbers in the reports, though not complete, indicate the extent of the devastation of the heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Monuments from the 15th to the 19th century, followed by those of the Austro-Hungarian period, suffered the worst destruction.

The urban nuclei of Sarajevo, Mostar and Jajce were devastated, along with many individual buildings that the Regional Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina had assessed as heritage of international importance. The centres of Stolac(2), Banja Luka(3) and Foča(4) were also destroyed. The centres of Trebinje, Tešanj, Maglaj, Bihać, Travnik, Derventa and Livno(5) were very badly damaged. Thus, out of a total of 60 valuable urban nuclei, 49 were destroyed or very badly damaged. All nine valuable urban-rural ensembles were seriously damaged, with Počitelj, Blagaj, Prusac, Jeleč, Jezero and Kraljeva Sutjeska suffering the worst damage.

Of the 58 most valuable mosques and tekkes, 22 were totally demolished, including 13 Category One buildings. All the other tekkes and mosques were damaged. Of the 40 most valuable churches and Orthodox and Catholic monasteries dating from the 15th to the 19th century, five were destroyed and four damaged (destroyed: the Orthodox monastery of Žitomislići, the Church of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God in the Bjelušine district of Mostar, the Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration of Christ in the village of Klepci near Čapljina, the Orthodox Church of St Nicholas in the village of Trijebanj and the Catholic monastery in Plehan near Derventa). The Catholic church of St John in Podmilačje, an important pilgrimage site since the 15th century with the main church dating from 1910, was also completely destroyed. The two synagogues in Sarajevo dating from the Ottoman period (the old Sephardi synagogue and the new Ashkenazi synagogue) were partly damaged.

Many cemeteries and funerary monuments also suffered major damage, and some of those listed as Category One were totally destroyed, such as the cemetery of the Sinan-bey mosque in Čajniče, the Sinan-bey turbe (mausoleum) in Čajniče, the turbe of members of the Sinan-bey family in Čajniče, the turbe of lbrahim in Foča, the turbe of Hasan Sheikh Kaimi-baba in Zvornik, three turbes alongside the Ferhad Pasha mosque in Banja Luka, the Halil Pasha turbe in Banja Luka, the Sephardi graveyard in Sarajevo, the old Orthodox cemetery in Bjelušine (Mostar) and the chapel of the Orthodox cemetery in Koševo (Sarajevo) was damaged.

The Old Bridge in Mostar, a monument of international importance, was destroyed; the Mehmed Pasha Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad was damaged and its piers are endangered since no steps have been taken to protect it following the construction of a hydroelectricity power station and dam on the Drina upstream from the bridge.

Sixteen Category One buildings dating from the Austro-Hungarian period were damaged and four destroyed (the Vijećnica, or City Hall, housing the National and University Library, and the Post Office in Sarajevo, and the Baths and the Neretva Hotel in Mostar)”(6).

Though incomplete, these figures illustrate the extent of damage of the cultural heritage.  A descriptive report on war damage to the cultural heritage in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina was published by the Council of Europe in 1993, early in the war.

Since the war, no systematic inventory of the damaged and destroyed cultural heritage with an assessment of the degree of damage has been conducted using a uniform methodology to identify war damage throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina(7). In 1997 and 1998 the Council of Europe took steps to assess the state of the heritage in the country as a whole, but certain areas which remain out of bounds for security reasons were not covered. The final report of the Special Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina (March 1999) lists three secular buildings, 48 mosques, three Catholic and one Orthodox church as totally destroyed; nine secular buildings, 13 mosques, four Catholic and two Orthodox churches as partly destroyed; and 14 secular buildings, 13 mosques, one Catholic and nine Orthodox churches as badly damaged. The study covered a total of 315 religious and 211 secular monuments.

The extent of the war damage is also indicated by the decisions designating cultural properties as national monuments, rendered by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments between 2002 and the end of 2009. Fifty-seven sites and remains of buildings or groups of buildings totally destroyed during the war have been designated as national monuments, of which 47 are religious buildings or sites. The Commission has rendered decisions designating sites and remains as national monuments on the basis of certain criteria: as properties of outstanding cultural, historical and/or aesthetic value, as properties of great symbolic significance for a certain group of people, as properties with townscape value, and when there are surviving fragments of destroyed properties in situ or at the sites where they were dumped after demolition, giving rise to the possibility that they may be reintegrated by anastylosis. Decisions designating sites and remains of national monuments are rendered with the intention of preserving the cultural memory of a people and the cultural identity of the sites.

Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina marks a new era in the country’s on-going legal protection and the conditions for maintaining peace and post-war reconstruction.

Pursuant to the powers conferred on it by Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as of 31 December 2009 the Commission to Preserve National Monuments (hereinafter: the Commission) had rendered decisions designating 569 properties as national monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The procedure for the designation of a property as a national monument is set in motion by a petition or proposal to designate a property as a national monument. Petitions to designate a property as a national monument are submitted to the Commission pursuant to Article V of Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Commission has drawn up a standard form of petition for each type of property. A petition may be submitted by any legal organisation or individual in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Between March 2002 and the end of December 2009 the Commission received 1400 petitions. By the end of 2009 the Commission had designated a total of 268 properties for which petitions were submitted as national monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (73 of which were already on the Provisional List of National Monuments).

Without specific application, the Commission adopts decisions to designate each of the properties on the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of BiH no. 33/02) as national monuments. The Provisional List, which was compiled between 1996 and 2001, covers 777 monuments. As of the end of 2009, the Commission had designated a total of 301 properties from the Provisional List as national monuments.  

The classification criteria used by the Commission to designate properties as national monuments differ depending on the property in question. Properties of cultural interest include movable cultural property (as individual items or collections), and immovable cultural property: historic buildings, groups of buildings and sites.  Immovable property may be residential (urban, rural, courts/palaces/mansions etc.), religious (churches, mosques, monasteries etc.), educational (madrasas, maktabs, schools etc.), administrative, public (hostels and caravanserais, hospitals, hammams [public baths], etc.), commercial, infrastructural (water supply systems, bridges etc.), military (fortifications, tower-houses etc.), funerary (necropolises), agricultural, industrial etc. Sites may be urban, rural, archaeological, historical, industrial, cultural landscapes and natural sites associated with certain rituals or traditions, as well as natural sites of scientific interest and mixed sites.

Fig. 1. Graphic illustration of designated national monuments

Priorities for intervention

The Commission monitors and reviews the state of affairs and activities relating to national monuments at risk from illicit building, inexpert reconstruction, lack of maintenance or other hazards. 

The Commission has drawn up a List of Endangered Monuments on which emergency protection measures must be carried out to prevent them being completely destroyed, to bring to the attention of all those responsible in the entity and national authorities, as well as of potential donors and investors, those national monuments that are at risk of vanishing for ever if steps are not taken immediately to save them.

As of the end of 2009, 65 of the most endangered monuments had been added to the list since it was first established. Ten monuments have since been removed from the list, since the circumstances that led to their being endangered have altered or funds have been provided to carry out works on the monuments. 

Fig. 2. Graphic illustration of endangered monuments as a proportion of designated monuments

During its investigations prior to the designation of properties as national monuments, the Commission has found that the entire heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina is endangered, largely as a result of the damage and devastation caused by the 1992-96 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the absence of the conditions necessary to protect the heritage and restore or renovate war-destroyed and damaged properties. At greatest risk is the heritage that was damaged or destroyed during the war and is at risk of further damage or deterioration from neglect or inability to carry out repair and restoration works.

Responsibility for the implementation of the Commission’s decisions lies with the governments of the entities and Brčko District. Each year the governments adopt a funding programme for the restoration of the cultural and built heritage which includes funding for the protection of national monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina for those monuments located in the relevant entity or District, and in particular for the implementation of the protection measures prescribed for endangered national monuments.

LEGISLATION GOVERNING HERITAGE PROTECTION IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

International conventions ratified by Bosnia and Herzegovina:

-       European Cultural Convention (Council of Europe, Paris, 1954)

-       European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Council of Europe, London, 1969)

-       Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe (Council of Europe, Granada, 1985)

-       Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (UNESCO, Paris, 1972)

-       Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (UNESCO, Paris, 1970)

-       Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (UNESCO, The Hague, 1954)

-       Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO, Paris, 2003) – resolution on ratification adopted by the Presidency, BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs (specify signatory)

Conventions ratified in 2008-2009, proposed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on the recommendation of the Commission:

-       Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (UNESCO, Paris, 2001)

-       Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (UNESCO, Paris, 2005)

-       Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO, Paris, 2003)

-       European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage, revised (Council of Europe, Valletta, 1992)

-       Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Council of Europe, Faro, 2005).

The basic reference texts of the Heritage Protection Law are:

-       The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dayton Peace Agreement), Annex 8 – Agreement on the Commission to Preserve National Monuments; 1995.

-       The Decision of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, 2001 (Bosnia and Herzegovina [BiH] Official Gazette, nos. 1/02 and 10/02)

-       The Rules on the Activities of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments with respect to International Co-operation, 2002 (Bosnia and Herzegovina Official Gazette, no. 29/02)

-       The Criteria for the Designation of Property as National Monuments, 2002/2003 (Bosnia and Herzegovina Official Gazette, nos. 33/02 and 15/03; Official Gazette of the Federation of  Bosnia and Herzegovina [FBiH], no. 59/02; Official Gazette of Republika Srpska [RS], no. 79/02)

-       The Law on the Implementation of Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments Established Pursuant to Appendix 8 of the Dayton Agreement), 2002, adopted by the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, nos. 2/02, 27/02, 6/04 and 51/07)

-       The Law on the Implementation of Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments Established Pursuant to Appendix 8 of the Dayton Agreement), 2002, adopted by the Republika Srpska (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska nos. 9/02 and 64/08)

-       The Law on the Implementation of Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments Established Pursuant to Appendix 8 of the Dayton Agreement), 2002, adopted by the District of Brčko (Official Gazette of the District of Brčko, nos. 2/02 and 19/07)

-       The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Law on Regional Planning and Land Use, (Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, no. 2/05 and 72/07)

-       The Republika Srpska Law on Regional Planning, consolidated text (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska, nos. 84/02, 55/02, 14/03, 112/06 and 53/07)

-       The Law on Regional Planning (Official Gazette of Brčko District no. 9/03. 23/03, 15/04)

-       The Criminal Code of Republika Srpska, Articles 253 and 254 (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 49/03)

-       The Criminal Code of the Federation of BiH, Articles 321 and 322 (Official Gazette of the Federation of BiH nos. 36/03, 37/03, 21/04, 18/05)

-       The Criminal Code of Brčko District BiH (Official Gazette of Brčko District nos. 10/03 and 45/04)

-       The Law on the Protection of Nature (Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 33/03)

-       The Law on the Protection of Nature (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 50/02)

-       The Law on the Protection of Nature (Official Gazette of Brčko District no. 24/04)

-       The Law on the Protection of the Environment (Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 33/03)

-       The Law on the Protection of the Environment (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 53/02)

-       The Law on the Protection of the Environment (Official Gazette of Brčko District no. 24/04)

-       The Law on Inspection in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 69/05).

Since 2007 the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued a number of ordinances governing matters of relevance to the preservation of the cultural heritage in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, among which are:

-       Ordinance on the type, content, designation and safeguarding, control and validation of investment technical documentation (Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina nos. 88/07 and 51/08)

-       Ordinance on the performance of preliminary works of an investigative nature on national monuments (Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 36/08)

-       Ordinance on the organization of building sites, mandatory documentation on building sites and participants in construction (Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina nos. 48/09 and 75/09).

Other laws currently in force:

-       In Republika Srpska: the Law on Cultural Property, 1995 (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 11/95) and the Law on Amendments to the Law on Cultural Property (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 103/08)

-       In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: the Law on the Protection and Preservation of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage, of 1985, as amended in 1987, 1993 and 1994, in force and implemented in the cantons that do not have their own laws: Posavski (Sava Valley) Canton, Tuzla Canton, Bosnia-Podrinjski (Drina Valley) Canton, Central Bosnia Canton and Livno Canton

-       Cantons that have enacted heritage laws: Sarajevo Canton – Law on the Protection of the Cultural Heritage (Official Gazette of Sarajevo Canton no. 2/00); West Herzegovina Canton – Law on the Protection and Use of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage (Official Gazette of West Herzegovina Canton no. 6/99); Zenica Doboj Canton – Law on the Protection of the Cultural Heritage (Official Gazette of Zenica Doboj Canton no. 2/00); Herzegovina Neretva Canton – Law on the Protection of the Cultural Heritage in Herzegovina Neretva Canton (Official Gazette of Herzegovina Neretva Canton no. 2/06) and Law on Building Permits Beyond the Boundaries of National Monuments or Interim Boundaries and Implementation of Protection measures (Official Gazette of Herzegovina Neretva Canton no. 5/08); and Una Sana Canton – Law on the Protection of the Cultural Heritage (Official Gazette of Una Sana Canton no. 3/04).

Bosnia and Herzegovina has no state-level law on the protection and preservation of the cultural heritage. The enactment of a Law on the Protection and Preservation of the Cultural and Historical Heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina should provide the legislative framework for heritage protection in conformity with international standards and the regulations of the Council of Europe and the European Union, and with Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also strengthen the legislative framework for heritage protection.

Work has been on-going since 2004 on the drafting of a bill, with the legal and political support of the Council of Europe. In 2004 the Commission to Preserve National Monuments coordinated the drafting of a Cultural Properties Bill for Bosnia and Herzegovina with a working group of representatives of the Commission itself, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Federal Ministry of Regional Planning, the Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska, the Ministry of Regional Planning, Civil Engineering and the Environment of Republika Srpska, the departments of spatial planning and culture of Brčko District and NGOs, with the professional assistance of Council of Europe experts. The Bill has been submitted to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, but has not been passed to Parliament for enactment.

In 2008, as the official proposer of the Bill, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport and that ministry’s Institute for the Protection of Monuments, the Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska and the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska, drafted a Bill on the Cultural Properties of Bosnia and Herzegovina(8). The Bill has yet to be presented to Parliament for enactment. The recommendations submitted to the Ministry of Civil Affairs should ensure a fundamental revision of the current Bill in conformity with international standards, and strengthen the framework for the protection of the heritage, the management of which will continue to be implemented through the Commission to Preserve National Monuments in association with the three regional governments - the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Brcko District(9).

In 2008 two documents were issued in Republika Srpska that do not support the enactment of a Law on Cultural Properties of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Opinion on the Bill on Cultural Properties and Resolution of the Government of Republika Srpska)(10).

There is no comprehensive national strategy for the future management of monuments.  In September 2008, following a proposal by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a document entitled “A Cultural Policy Strategy for Bosnia and Herzegovina,” which was published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, no. 93/08.  The strategy describes the current state of the cultural heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina and proposes measures for its enhancement, primarily through the enactment of a state-level law.

As this report indicates, there are already a great many laws governing heritage protection at various levels – cantonal, entity and national. These laws are neither mutually compatible nor are they in compliance with the recommendations of international conventions.

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina recognized the importance of the heritage for post-war reconstruction and the process of return and reconciliation, and Annex 8 to the GFAP – Agreement on the Commission to Preserve National Monuments – governs the protection of national monuments and responsibility for the implementation of such protection.

A number of specific aspects of heritage protection are dealt with in the following legal instruments:

Annex 8, Article 6 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina provides a definition of what is eligible to be designated as a national monument: movable or immovable property of great importance to a group of people with common cultural, historic, religious or ethnic heritage, such as monuments of architecture, art or history; archaeological sites; groups of buildings; as well as cemeteries.

Annex 8 also introduces to the legal system a definition of the term “rehabilitation” – restoration to its condition prior to destruction of a property damaged or destroyed during the 1992-1995 war.

The set of harmonized Laws on the Implementation of Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments (2002), in force in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Brčko District, defines monuments and the rehabilitation of monuments and governs the obligations and relations between the institutions and bodies responsible for heritage protection. A National Monument is defined as an item of public property proclaimed by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments to be a National Monument, and property entered on the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina. National Monuments enjoy the highest level of legal protection. Under the terms of these laws, the entity governments and ministries responsible for regional planning are charged with the implementation of decisions of the Commission.

Each decision rendered by the Commission to designate a national monument is legally binding. Decisions designating national monuments specify the bodies responsible for implementing the protection of national monuments, define the boundaries of the protected site of the national monument in question, protected zones and buffer zones, and prescribe the protection measures to be applied in determining priorities and future interventions on monuments and protected sites. The decisions include details of the owner and user/occupant of the property, an explanation with details of legal protection to date, location, area planning and other documents applicable to the property, historical information and a description of the property, its current condition, the specific risks to which it is exposed, a chronology of conservation-restoration works, a list of historical material and documentation and a bibliography.  All executive and area development planning acts not in accordance with the provisions decisions to designate must be revoked. The authorities responsible for regional planning and cadastral affairs are notified of each decision to enable them to take the steps prescribed by the decisions, and the relevant municipal court is also notified in order to register the provisions in the Land Register. The entity authorities responsible for heritage protection are charged with the expert supervision of restoration works on national monuments and carry out restoration projects funded from the entity budgets.

The Law on the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of 1985 as amended in 1987, 1993 and 1994, is in force in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the cantons that have not enacted their own laws. The Law enacted in 1985 is a continuation of the legal protection of the heritage since 1945(11), and until the outbreak of the war in 1992 was in force throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Law relates to the cultural and natural heritage, requiring that the boundaries of a protected property and the boundaries of the surroundings of the property in which specific planning and technical conditions apply in order to protect the property be defined. The heritage is defined as a public asset, and regardless of whether it is in public or private ownership, the law required public investment in its protection and in restoration works. The 1945 federal law on the protection of cultural monuments was the basis for establishing the institutional framework of heritage protection, with the Provincial Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, founded in 1945. Regional and city institutes were later set up in Sarajevo, Mostar, Tuzla and Banja Luka(12). The Provincial Institute later became the Republic Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage, operating as the central institution of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina until 1992.

The 1995 Law on Cultural Properties of Republika Srpska and the 2008 Law on Amendments to the Law on Cultural Properties govern the protection regime, the ownership regime, the use of cultural properties, and the conditions for the operations of the heritage protection authority in Republika Srpska. The Law on Cultural Properties introduces three categories for cultural properties (of outstanding, great and special significance).

The Regional Planning Laws of Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina govern the planned use of land at the Entity level by means of developing, adopting and implementing planning documents, the type and content of planning documents, land use at the entity level, oversight of the implementation of planning documents of importance for the entity, monitoring the implementation of the law, and the penalties for juristic and natural persons.  Under the terms of the laws, planning is defined as planned management, land use and the protection of the area of the Entity as a particularly valuable and confined property.

The Criminal Codes of Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina specify the penalties for damaging cultural monuments or protected natural sites and properties, and those for illicit interventions on cultural monuments and natural sites and properties without the approval of the proper authorities.

The Laws on the Protection of Nature in Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina specify the conditions and manner of the renovation, protection, preservation and sustainable development of landscapes, natural sites, plants, animals and their habitats, minerals and fossils, and other components of nature in the area of the entity, the powers of the bodies dealing with the protection of nature, planning the protection of nature, general and specific measures for the protection of nature, the information system, supervision, financing the protection of nature, and the penalties for violations by juristic entities and natural persons.

            The Laws on the Protection of the Environment in Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina pertain to protected sites: the preservation, protection, restoration and advancement of environmental values and capacities in the environment and the enhancement of the quality of life; and measures and conditions for the management, protection and rational use of natural resources.

These laws and regulations are published in the official gazettes in the local language (Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian), and may be accessed on the Commission’s web site. The legal framework and regulations are also available on the Commission’s web site. 

MANAGEMENT

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dayton Peace Agreement) defines in separate annexes the obligations at the different administrative levels (national level: the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the entity levels: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska and Brčko District). Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina relates to the heritage and the importance of its restoration for the implementation of a stable peace.

At the national level:

The Commission to Preserve National Monuments (hereinafter: the Commission) is an institution of Bosnia and Herzegovina set up pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Decision of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Commission to Preserve National Monuments(13) adopted at its 119th session, held on 21 December 2001, which set out the basic principles and objectives of the operations of the Commission and its primary tasks and powers as an institution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Pursuant to the powers conferred on it by Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Commission issues decisions designating movable and immovable properties as national monuments, applying the Criteria for the designation of properties as national monuments(14) (Official Gazette of BiH nos. 33/02 and 15/03). The Commission is the only state-level authority of Bosnia and Herzegovina responsible for heritage protection, including international cooperation in this field.

Pursuant to the Rulebook on the Activities of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments as Regards International Cooperation(15), the Commission takes the initiative in the process of entering into international agreements, drafting such agreements, participating in prior negotiations on entering into international agreements at the specialist level, executing international agreements, and engaging in other international cooperation in the domain of the preservation of national monuments, with particular regard to representing the interests of Bosnia and Herzegovina in relation to the signing and implementation of international conventions; the resolution of controversial issues of shared interest to Bosnia and Herzegovina and other states or international organizations, as the case may be; decisions to submit national monuments for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the World Monuments’ Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites, and such like; collaboration with INTERPOL, other international organizations and states in cases of the disappearance of movable national monuments; procedural issues relating to the export of movable national monuments and the issue of guarantees for their safeguarding in the event of temporary export; the granting of concessions to foreign nationals in regard to research relating to national monuments; fund-raising by means of donations for the work of the Commission and the preservation of national monuments; and the engagement of foreign experts for the needs of the Commission.

Pursuant to Article II para. 4. of Annex 8 and Article 5 of the Decision on the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, at its 119th session held on 21 December 2001 and its 126th session held on 21 February 2002 the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued a Decision on the appointment of members of the Commission. The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina has also issued decisions extending the term of office for a further five years of the local members of the Commission: Ljiljana Ševo, Amra Hadžimuhamedović and Dubravko Lovrenović (27 March 2007), as well as that of Zeynep Ahunbay(16), an international Commissioner (5 December 2007), together with a decision appointing Martin Cherry(17) as the second international Commissioner (27 June 2008)(18). 

            The professional and administrative affairs of the Commission are conducted by the Commission’s Secretariat, which consists of qualified staff dealing with the archaeological heritage, built heritage, architectural heritage ensembles and cultural landscapes, movable heritage, legal affairs, international affairs, financial affairs and technical coordination. The Secretariat is managed and organized by an executive officer. All vacancies are filled by advertisement inviting applications. Pursuant to the Civil Service Law, the Secretariat’s qualified staff members have the status of civil servants.

The Commission’s decisions are final and enforceable in line with the Law on the Implementation of Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments Established Pursuant to Annex 8(19), under the terms of which national monuments enjoy the highest degree of protection.

The Commission has drawn up standard petition forms by type of property, which may be submitted by any juristic entity or natural person. The Commission should render a decision on such properties within one year from the date of submission of a petition. Given the very large number of petitions, the Commission has extended the protection regime for properties for which petitions have been submitted until such time as a final decision is adopted. In the absence of a specific request, the Commission also issues decisions on designation as a National Monument for each of the individual properties on the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina(20).

The Commission monitors and considers the present situation and activities relating to national monuments endangered by illicit building, inexpert reconstruction, lack of maintenance or other forms of destruction. In specific cases, it notifies the relevant Entity or other authorities that a monument is endangered and proposes measures for its protection in accordance with the law, including the filing of criminal charges with the relevant authorities under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Commission provides a list of the endangered monuments, and recommends priorities for protection to the responsible governments.

Pursuant to the Law on Ministries and Other Administrative Organs of Bosnia and Herzegovina(21), the Ministry of Civil Affairs is responsible for conducting the affairs and performing the tasks within the jurisdiction of Bosnia and Herzegovina pertaining to prescribing the basic principles of the coordination of activities, harmonizing the plans of the entity authorities and defining strategy at the international level in the domains of health care and social security, pensions, science and education, labour and employment, culture and sport, and geodetic, geological and meteorological affairs.

The National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO was established as an advisory body of the Council of Ministers for matters pertaining to cooperation with UNESCO, pursuant to the Decision on the establishment of the National Commission rendered by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina in August 2009 (the Commission was established in 2002, but its complement and powers have changed several times).

The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina is responsible for the coordination of all activities and the harmonization of plans between the entity authorities and international institutions pertaining to natural resources, the environment, agriculture and energy. The management of water resources falls within the jurisdiction of the entity ministries responsible for agriculture, water management and forestry.

At the entity levels:

Responsibility for the enforcement of the Commission’s decisions lies with the entity/regional governments and the ministries responsible for regional planning and for culture. The Governments of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Brčko District are responsible for providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary for the protection, conservation, restoration and presentation of national monuments. The governments must provide the resources needed to develop the technical documentation required for the restoration of national monuments and for the implementation of its provisions.

The entity-level institutions for the protection of the cultural, historical and natural heritage are funded from the entity budgets via the entity ministries responsible for culture. In response to decisions by the Commission designating properties as national monuments, the relevant ministries of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, Brčko District should earmark funds for work on monuments, including endangered national monuments, in both private and public ownership. The heritage protection institutions provide specialist know-how on restoration projects and expert supervision of restoration affairs. The entity heritage protection institutions are also responsible for the implementation of projects or the parts of projects funded by the entity governments, and for the protection of properties not designated as national monuments.

In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Institute for the Protection of Monuments, part of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport(22), is the body responsible for the protection of the cultural and natural heritage. It is responsible for the expert supervision of conservation, restoration and rehabilitation works on national monuments and implements protection projects funded from the budget of the Government of the Federation. “The Institute for the Protection of Monuments performs specialist and other affairs mainly requiring the application of professional and scientific work methods and the associated management affairs in regard to the protection of the cultural heritage: it researches, studies and processes the assembled data, accords value to and protects cultural heritage properties, develops protection projects, archives and safeguards documentation on cultural heritage properties, carries out specialist and administrative affairs relating to the protection of the cultural heritage, determines the conditions for the designated and actual use and management of cultural heritage properties, develops programmes and projects for the repair, conservation, restoration, reconstruction and rehabilitation of cultural heritage properties, supervises the realization of programmes for the protection of cultural heritage properties, provides opinions on programmes and projects for the protection of cultural heritage properties developed by other natural persons and juristic entities, participates in the drafting of laws and other regulations pertaining to the protection of the cultural heritage, cooperates with the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of Republika Srpska, and carries other affairs relating to the protection and preservation of the cultural heritage.(23)“ The Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport determines the criteria on the basis of which the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina renders decisions on funding projects identified by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of this ministry has defined as priority(24) (including the Priority Intervention List). Decisions on funding to date have achieved a balance between different types of heritage – archaeological, built and movable - and between religious edifices belonging to all confessions.

In Republika Srpska, the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska. It was founded pursuant to the Law on the Administration of Republika Srpska(25) with the following powers: “to conduct administrative and other affairs relating to the identification, recording, investigation and according value to immovable property, movable articles and natural areas or features under preliminary/previous protection, determine the characteristics of the cultural or natural heritage, designate properties as protected, maintain a central register of protected properties, develop projects for the restoration, reconstruction and conservation of the cultural and natural heritage, give its approval for specialist reports/studies for reconstruction and restoration works on and the adaptation and revitalization of protected properties, draft specialist reports on the protection and use of properties in the process of developing spatial and town plans, issue permits for the temporary removal of protected properties from the country, issue permits for archaeological and other investigations, [determine] the conditions for the use of protected properties, [conduct] expert supervision of the operations of the protection organizations, [carry out] publishing activities, publish specialist papers and publications, coordinate and implement projects, [carry out] specialist training, cooperate with other organs and organizations in the field of protection and with the occupants/users or owners of cultural and natural properties with a view to their protection, and carry out other affairs in accordance with protection.” The institute is a central administrative organization headquartered in Banja Luka(26) and with a separate office in Trebinje. It has a staff of 25(27). 

In Brčko District responsibility for the implementation of the Commission and heritage protection lies with the Commission to Preserve the Heritage of the Education Department and the Department of Spatial Planning and Proprietary Rights. When an application is submitted to the Department of Spatial Planning and Proprietary Rights for site conditions relating to a property treated as a property of (cultural) value in current planning documentation (Urban Plan, Regulatory Plan and Urban Planning Project), pursuant to the laws prescribed in the documentation, a Ruling on Site Conditions is issued, which must be supplemented by an outline project for planned and approved interventions. If the outline project does not meet the prescribed conditions, it is returned for amendment until such time as it complies with the urban planning technical conditions. A record is also kept of the heritage in the Brčko District, and cooperation with the Commission to Preserve National Monuments is maintained when the application relates to properties on the Provisional List or List of Petitions or to properties designated as national monuments.(28)

The role of museums and archives in the protection, preservation and documentation of the heritage is considerable. Museums are also responsible in most cases for conducting archaeological investigations. During the 1992-1995 war these institutions were weakened by a brain-drain of qualified staff, the destruction of documentation and artefacts in their collections, damage to buildings etc. In the post-war period, the legal status of those institutions founded by the state remains unresolved. Most institutions are having to cope with funding shortfalls, lack of qualified staff and up-to-date equipment, and an outdated organizational structure and system.

The museums with the longest tradition are: 

The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the oldest heritage protection institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina, founded in 1888. It has an archaeology department, an ethnology department and a natural history department. Its operations cover museology, scientific research, education and publishing.

            The Museum of Republika Srpska is an institution under the ambit of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska, founded in 1930 with the title Museum of the Vrbas Banate. It has a centre for material culture and art, an archaeology department, a documentation centre, a conservation and restoration centre and an education centre.

At the cantonal level:

Five of the eleven cantons in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina have their own cantonal institutes: Sarajevo, Tuzla, Bihać, Bugojno and Mostar.

The Cantonal Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Sarajevo is responsible for the cultural and natural heritage in Sarajevo Canton. By decision of the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton in 1997, the Cantonal Institute is the legal successor to the City Institute for the Protection and Management of Cultural Monuments, founded in 1965 by decision of Sarajevo City Council. The formation of a cultural heritage protection authority in Sarajevo began in 1963 with the establishment of the Baščaršija Fund, abolished with the establishment of the City Institute. The Institute is a specialist body that has achieved significant results in the protection and restoration of monuments. Its basic aim, the preservation of Sarajevo’s heritage, is achieved through the following objectives: the protection and preservation of monuments, the recording of the movable and immovable heritage, assembling documentation on monuments, according value to the heritage, developing studies and reports on the heritage in regard to spatial planning, developing projects, reports and studies, carrying out works on monuments, and popularizing the cultural and natural heritage. The Cantonal Institute currently has a staff of 22 from a range of backgrounds, including architects, art historians, a biologist, an orientalist and a lawyer, an IT specialist and a librarian.(29)  

The Cantonal Institute for Town and Country Planning and the Protection of the Cultural and Historical Heritage of Central Bosnia Canton, based in Bugojno, carries out administrative, specialist and other affairs pertaining to planning, programming, designing use, according value and protecting sites and measures to realize them; developing spatial and town planning technical documentation, with the exception of such affairs as are defined by law as within the jurisdiction of the Federation and the municipalities; developing a spatial plan for the canton; the protection of the cultural heritage; and other affairs in this field, in accordance with the law.(30)  

The Institute for the Protection and Use of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Tuzla Canton is a cultural institution founded in 1984, which also acts as the regional institute for north-east Bosnia. Since 2002 it has operated as a public institution by the name of the Institute for the Protection and Use of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Tuzla Canton.

Its primary registered activities are all administrative, technical, media, publicity, project design, investigative and other activities pertaining to any treatment of the cultural and natural heritage and heritage sites.  It is understaffed, with only three qualified employees.

The Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage, a public institution headquartered in Bihać(31), conducts heritage protection affairs in Una Sana Canton. Pursuant to its powers as set out in Article 7 of the Law on the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Una Sana Canton(32), the Institute lists and accords value to sites, immovable property and movable artefacts, maintains a register of monuments, conducts specialist and scientific studies and investigations, maintenance and re-assessment, and takes steps of an administrative and financial nature required to identify, protect, maintain, popularize and publish (pertaining to the cultural heritage of importance for the canton). The Institute currently has a staff of six.(33)  

The Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Herzegovina Neretva Canton, based in Mostar, is an institution operating pursuant to the Law on the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Herzegovina Neretva Canton(34), the affairs prescribed by the Law on the Cantonal Ministries and Other Organs of the Cantonal Administration of Herzegovina Neretva Canton(35) and the Decision on starting operations of the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Herzegovina Neretva Canton(36) from 2004. The Institute performs the professional activity of protecting cultural monuments, some are: considering, studying, researching and scientifically processing various issues; maintaining central and collective records of data on the state of cultural monuments and determining and proposing priorities for the implementation of protection measures, maintaining a central record and register of cultural monuments and assembling documentation on all cultural monuments in the Canton(37) and so on.

Agencies for the protection of world heritage sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been established: agencies for the historic towns of Mostar and Jajce, and a Bridge Commission in Višegrad.

The Stari Grad (Old City) Agency(38)  in Mostar, founded in 2005, conducts specialist and other affairs in the field of spatial planning, with particular regard to the protection of the cultural, historical and natural heritage of Mostar, the preservation and protection of property in the Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar, as a world heritage site, the implementation of the Management Plan and other specialist tasks as set forth in the World Heritage Convention, collaboration in the process of strategic planning and planning for the Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar, the coordination of activities with the city authorities in regard to spatial planning and the maintenance of the Old Bridge Area, proposals, the development of proposals, development programmes and policy, and of economic, cultural, educational and other activities with a view to the revitalization and promotion of the Old Bridge Area, the development and maintenance of an electronic spatial planning database and its incorporation into the central city spatial planning information system(39). The Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2005.

The Agency for the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage and the Development of the Tourism Potential of the Town of Jajce, a public body, was founded by decision of Jajce Municipal Council on 12 March 2007 to carry out specialist affairs pertaining to the protection, restoration, reconstruction and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage and the development of the tourism potential of Jajce. The Agency was established in line with a recommendation in the Management Plan for the Natural and Architectural Ensemble of Jajce for nomination for inscription on the World Heritage List, and is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Management Plan(40). The historic area of Jajce is on the UNESCO Tentative List.

The Commission for the Mehmed Pasha Sokolović Bridge, headquartered in Višegrad, was founded by decision of Višegrad Municipal Council in 2007 in line with a recommendation in the Management Plan of the Bridge as a world heritage site. The Commission includes representatives of the state, entity of RS and municipal authorities, and coordinates the activities of the institutions responsible for the protection and management of the heritage and the World Heritage Centre. It is responsible for the implementation of the Management Plan and of the provisions of the World Heritage Convention as they relate to the Bridge. The Mehmed Pasha Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2007.

Administrative structure of heritage management in

Bosnia and Herzegovina - nedostaje

The Law on the Implementation of Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments lays down the responsibilities of and relationship between the bodies and institutions responsible for heritage management:

“Everyone, in particular the competent authorities of the entities, Brčko District, cantons, and urban and municipal authorities, must refrain from any action that might endanger the national monument or jeopardize its protection and rehabilitation.”

The entity ministries responsible for regional planning issue permits for protection, investigative works, conservation, restoration and rehabilitation of national monuments, as well as permits to build in the protected area, on the basis of planning and technical documentation approved by an authorised professional institution. The technical documentation must comply with the protection measures prescribed by the decisions designating national monuments. In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, responsibility lies with the Federal Ministry of Regional Planning; in Republika Srpska, with the Ministry of Regional Planning, Civil Engineering and the Environment; and in Brčko District, with the Department of Urban Planning and Economic Relations. In addition, a fundamental activity of the entity ministries and the department in Brčko District responsible for regional/spatial planning is spatial planning and developing planning documents and their implementation by means of land use.

The entity inspectorates conduct inspection, supervision of the protected areas of the properties and are authorised to take legal protection measures, including issuing rulings to suspend all interventions not in conformity with the law and to restore the properties in question to the condition they were in prior to the illicit or inexpert interventions.

In Republika Srpska, the Inspection Authority of Republika Srpska, responsible for planning and building inspection pursuant to the Law on Regional Planning (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 84/02) and to its powers as set out in Article 14 of the Law on the Implementation of Decisions of the Commission (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 70/06), “oversees the reconstruction and revitalization of immovable cultural properties of great and outstanding significance, and the construction and reconstruction of properties in their vicinity and properties in the protection and buffer zones of a protected property.(41)” 

            In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federal Inspection Authority, responsible for planning and building inspection, conducts inspections within the jurisdiction of the federal inspectorates organized within its ambit, issues executive orders, general and specific documents within its jurisdiction, takes administrative and other steps in the exercise of inspection supervision, rules on appeals against first-instance rulings by cantonal inspectors issued on the basis of federal regulations, coordinates the work of the federal and cantonal inspectorates, monitors and exercises expert supervision and oversight of the work of the cantonal inspectors and the inspection authorities as authorized by federal regulations, and provides expert assistance to the cantonal authorities(42).

The entity governments, regional planning ministries, heritage protection institutes and municipal authorities in charge of urban planning and land register matters, are notified of the Commission’s decisions in order to carry out the prescribed legal measures and the competent municipal court is notified for the purposes of registration in the Land Register.

The municipalities, acting through their relevant departments and the entity inspectorates, are responsible for the monitoring and oversight of on-site activities. The municipalities are required to append all their plans and documents pertaining to the protected site of monuments to the decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments. The municipalities are required to refrain from all activities that endanger a monument and to co-operate with the Commission to Preserve National Monuments and the Entity institutions in the process of implementing the Commission’s decisions and the protection of monuments.

Responsibility for the management of the religious heritage lies with the owners of the heritage (Islamic, Catholic, Serb Orthodox, Jewish community), the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, the governments of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Brčko District and their ministries of regional planning, the ministries of culture, and the institutions for heritage protection that are part of the entities’ ministries of culture.

The obligations deriving from Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH are funded from the budgets of Republika Srpska, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Brčko District BiH, and in line with this, funding is planned for the protection of the national monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina located within the entities and the District, in particular in order to carry out the prescribed measures for the protection of endangered national monuments. 

The Commission regularly and promptly informs the public of its operations, and of the decisions, conclusions and views it has adopted. The public character of the Commission’s operations is ensured by regular press conferences, by the publication of its decisions in the official gazettes of BiH and of the Entity in which a national monument is located, and by posting its official acts and information about its work on the Commission’s official web site (www.aneks8komisija.com.ba).

An advisory body should be a new component of the management system of the IRPP/SAAH project. One of the resolutions of the Council of Ministers(43) was to establish an advisory body to consist of representatives of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Directorate for European Integration, the entity ministries responsible for culture and the entity institutions responsible for cultural heritage. In addition to its advisory role, this body should ensure that the recommendations and results of the IRPP/SAAH project in the country are implemented.

WEAKNESSES IN HERITAGE MANAGEMENT

The absence of adequate documentation, much of which was destroyed during the war, makes it more difficult to carry out the expert restoration and rehabilitation of properties in their original form. In addition, the state of the heritage was changed during the 1992-1995 war, and the identification and documentation of the heritage should be an on-going process. The absence of a central documentation, digitalization and archive system hinders inter-institutional exchange and access to information on the heritage by the general public. The absence of the necessary spatial planning documentation makes heritage protection more difficult.

The absence of state-level legislation governing heritage protection is one of the reasons for the non-systematic and non-synchronised process of protection. The absence of political will to harmonize views on the heritage protection system is what is preventing such a law from being enacted. Though there are many laws governing heritage protection at the national, entity and cantonal levels, these laws have not been harmonized, nor do they comply with the recommendations of international conventions and charters. The absence of other legislation governing such matters as concessions, the restitution of property, proprietary relations, fiscal relations and such like, has a direct or indirect impact on the system of heritage protection. In the absence of the political will to enact legislation governing the protection system, it may be possible to adopt strategic documents that, in the absence of legislation, would ensure the effective protection and management of the heritage, including the implementation of decisions of the Commission designating properties as national monuments. There are also obvious weaknesses in the legislation as regards the prevention of illegal construction, inexpert renovation and lack of maintenance, or other forms of damage. Funds should be earmarked in the budgets of the administrative authorities at all levels (local, entity, national) for the demolition of buildings erected without permission that pose a threat to the cultural heritage. As part of this priority, it is important that specific provisions on the cultural heritage be incorporated into the laws governing areas such as housing, town and country planning, traffic, education etc.

Inadequate mechanisms for coordination between the institutions responsible for heritage protection also affect the weaknesses in heritage management.

The disparity between the very large number of endangered properties and the funds available for the protection and restoration of the cultural heritage is another problem.

The religious communities that own properties are often reluctant to co-operate with the heritage protection institutions and fail to act in accordance to the professional advice they give.

Some institutions responsible for the protection of the cultural heritage suffer from the problem of insufficient numbers of qualified staff, outmoded organizational structures, poor equipment, funding shortfalls, etc.

An education and training programme for heritage protection and management needs to be developed in association with all the institutions responsible for heritage protection, the ministries responsible for regional planning, interested municipalities and NGOs. A programme for specialist staff training in the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina should be adopted by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the recommendation of the relevant ministries, pursuant to the Decision on the manner and procedure for exercising the right to remuneration for education and specialist training in the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, adopted by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 77/09). The decision defines what is meant by “specialist training” and “professional training” and how the right to remuneration for such training may be exercised.

PARTNERSHIPS

The Commission routinely cooperates on heritage issues with the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the entities, Brčko District, the towns and cities, the cantons and the municipalities, heritage protection institutions, museums, universities, archives, libraries, religious communities and NGOs.

Co-operation with regional, local and religious communities

In the exercise of its powers, the Commission has established co-operation with relevant institutions and bodies of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the entities, Brčko District, cities, cantons and municipalities on matters of importance for the work of the Commission, and pursuant to 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, which requires authorities and institutions at all levels of governance to co-operate with the Commission.

In addition to the obligation to co-operate with the entity bodies and institutions responsible for implementing the Commission’s decisions and for heritage management, the Commission enjoys good co-operation with the cantonal and city institutes for the protection of monuments, as well as with the Stari Grad Mostar Agency and the Commission for the Mehmed Pasha Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad, which were set up to protect properties in the UNESCO protected zone and to implement the Management Plan. The Commission also enjoys good co-operation with the municipalities, archives, museums, galleries, libraries, geodetic institutes, courts and other institutions.

Co-operation with the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina at all levels has been achieved by exchanging know-how and experience, professional exchanges, the use of documentation for the preparation of decisions or exhibitions, working on the implementation of international projects, organizing workshops on the preservation of the cultural heritage, and so forth.

The Commission has established co-operation with the religious communities, which own a great many national monuments. The Commission has established good co-operation with the religious communities, particularly as regards monuments where international projects are being implemented.

Co-operation with schools and universities

An important part of the Commission’s work is raising awareness among the general public, and particularly young people, of the importance of the cultural heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project is entitled “My Bosnia and Herzegovina – My Heritage”. The target group of the project is primary-school pupils. Under the auspices of the project, the Commission co-operates with the Entity ministries of education and culture, local authorities, and primary school principals, teachers and pupils.  The project “My Bosnia and Herzegovina – My Heritage” is implemented by members of the Commission holding classes on the heritage in primary schools, visiting monuments, competitions for children’s art and literary works, exhibitions and the presentation of the children’s entries, and arranging gatherings for the children.

Co-operation with the universities takes place through the Commission’s hiring final-year architecture students to work on the preparation of exhibitions and the cataloguing of properties.  The students thus acquire know-how on the protection and rehabilitation of monuments, and have access to all the documentation housed in the Commission.

At the local level, e.g. the Jajce Agency is involved in awareness-raising activities on the importance of the heritage by working with primary and secondary schools in Jajce.

International co-operation

The Commission is authorised under the terms of the Rulebook on the Activities of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments as Regards International Co-operation, adopted by decision of the Presidency of BiH, to take the initiative in incorporating projects into international agreements, entering into negotiations, executing international agreements, and engaging in other international co-operation in the domain of the preservation of national monuments. It is bound to represent the interests of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the event of signing and implementing international conventions, resolving disputes over interests shared by Bosnia and Herzegovina and other states and international organisations in the case of inscribing national monuments on the UNESCO World Heritage List and the World Monuments Watch list of 100 most endangered monuments, as well as in co-operation with Interpol and other international organisations and countries in the event of the disappearance of movable national property, over procedural issues pertaining to the export of movable national property and the question of guarantees that they will be safeguarded in the event of temporary export, in the process of fund raising through donations for the operations of the Commission and the preservation of national monuments, and in engaging foreign experts to assist the Commission.

Within the context of this strategic task, the Commission has also focused on building partnership relations with representatives of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was preceded by co-operation with the Council of Europe on the Regional Cultural and Natural Heritage Programme for South-Eastern Europe. To this end, the Commission has entered into partnership relations with numerous representatives of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The international bodies that have financed the works on the monuments on the Priority Intervention List (PIL) of the IRPP/SAAH are: the United States Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, the governments of Germany, Spain and Turkey, the British Council and the European Commission. The projects have been implemented by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments.

The Mehmed Pasha Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad was inscribed on the World Monuments Watch List of 100 most endangered sites of 2006, followed by the City Hall in Sarajevo in 2008. Both monuments are on the Prioritised Intervention List (PIL).

The Mehmed Pasha Sokolović Bridge was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007.

The UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List also includes other properties from the Prioritised Intervention List (PIL): the historic urban area of Blagaj and individual properties, the fort in Jajce and the fort in Stolac, both within the nominated historic sites of the respective towns.

Pursuant to its powers, the Commission has represented the interests of Bosnia and Herzegovina in international bodies and participated in conferences and other international gatherings concerning heritage protection.

Commission representatives have taken part in the work of the Steering Committee for Cultural Heritage of the Council of Europe (CDPAT) up to 2008, the Regional Programme for Cultural and Natural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe, developed by the Council of Europe in association with the European Union, the Assembly of States Parties to the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) and the Assembly of States Parties to the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, and co-operates with the World Heritage Committee and others.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs participates in the work of the ministerial conferences relating to the cultural heritage, e.g. the UNESCO-sponsored conference entitled “Cultural Heritage – A Bridge Towards a Shared Future.” Its representatives also take part in the work of other international bodies in this field. Of particular importance is cooperation with UNESCO in the three-year UN programme “Improving Cultural Understanding in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” being implemented with effect from 2009 as part of achieving the Millennium development goals, one component of which relates to the cultural heritage and “major restorative work on important symbols of BiH’s cultural heritage.” Within the framework of the programming of projects financed by EU IPA pre-accession funds, the Ministry of Civil Affairs applied for funding for projects proposed by the entity cultural ministries: the restoration of the City Hall (National and University Library) in Sarajevo and of the Town Hall in Novi grad/Bosanski Novi, which are on the Priority Intervention List. It is also proposed that the Ministry of Civil Affairs apply for funding for “consolidated projects” from the Priority Intervention List highlighted for rehabilitation for financing from EU IPA pre-accession funds. Since 2008 a representative of the Ministry of Civil Affairs has been involved in the work of the Council of Europe Steering Committee for Cultural Heritage (CDPAT).

The charter Impact of the IRPP/SAAH and Table 1, to the IRPP/SAAH Report provides an overview of all those who have contributed to the protection of monuments.

DOCUMENTATION

The institutions involved in the protection of cultural and historic monuments have their own archives, but in most cases these are not in electronic form, and in some cases access to them is difficult without specific references. In some regions of the country, the maps are not up to date and it is not possible to link land registry data with information on owners. In addition, in some parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina the records of ownership were destroyed during World War II and the 1992-95 war.

There is a national inventory of buildings and sites. The Statistics Institute of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina drew up an inventory of the immovable heritage in 1986. The former Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina (since 2003, the Institute for the Protection of Monuments within the Federal Ministry for Culture and Sport) conducted the inventory, which was partly damaged during the war. The Regional Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina was drawn up in the period 1987-2000. The purpose of the inventory is to ensure protection and registration as a national monument. It does not conform to the Council of Europe’s Core Data Standard. It includes both ordinary buildings and major monuments and is an ongoing activity.

The Documentation Centre of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments gathers, collates and safeguards documents on properties designated as national monuments or those of cultural and historical value. The documentation centre helps the Commission’s qualified staff in the activities associated with nominating properties as national monuments and on the on-going protection and promotion of national monuments and the cultural and historical heritage.

As part of the process of adopting decisions designating national Monuments, the Commission has thus far collated the existing archive, historical, technical, architectural and other documentation for 569 designated national monuments, and has surveyed the current condition of each monument. This has generated the 569 monument files that constitute the Commission’s Documentation Centre, which is being constantly updated as new decisions designating national monuments are adopted. The documentation used in the process of designating properties as national monuments is digitalized and accessible to the Commission’s staff members, who use it in the course of their day-to-day work. This documentation forms the basis for documenting the heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina, bringing together as it does relevant data on national monuments. The documentation on monuments in the Commission’s Documentation Centre is maintained both as hard copy and in electronic form.

In line with the adopted Rules on the Use of the Documentation of the Commission to Preserve National Monument, all the Commission’s documentation is also accessible to the general public. More than 311 people consulted the Commission’s documentation between March 2006 and March 2009, mainly for academic purposes.

The Commission’s Documentation Centre forms the basis for setting up a Register of National Monument /Architectural and Archaeological Heritage of importance to Bosnia and Herzegovina. In order to create a database compatible with European standards, the Commission has compiled a trial database to Council of Europe standards (Guidance on Inventory and Documentation of the Cultural Heritage, ed. John Bold, Monique Chatenet, Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2001).  Both hardware and software based on the trial database are needed to set up the electronic database for the Heritage Register of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Given the large number of recorded monuments in BiH, the absence of documentation, and the extent of damage and destruction of the heritage during the 1992-95 war, the Commission has drawn up a project proposal for the establishment of a Register of the Architectural Heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina and submitted it to the Council of Ministers of BiH, the European Commission and the Japanese government. The project is also on the list of priority projects of the institutions of BiH entitled Public Investment Programme in BiH, drawn up by the Ministry of Foreign Trade in order to raise funds for priority projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  

The Commission has embarked on the process of digitalizing the database of national monuments and establishing GIS.  In order to create an appropriate database and presentation of the data, the Commission has installed MAP info software, trained staff and, in 2009, worked on the presentation of data on the endangered heritage.

The institutions responsible for heritage protection are also working on the digitalization of documentation in their possession.

The Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport has a valuable documentation centre with documentation on the heritage ranging in date from 1946, when the institute was founded, to the present. Most of this documentation has been digitalized and is used in line with the internal rulebook. Given the outstanding value of this documentation centre, it is necessary to develop a plan to protect it from natural or other disaster and to ensure that it is safely housed in several different places.

New documentation is digitalized in the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska, and efforts are being made to digitalize earlier projects(44).

It would be desirable to digitalize the documentation in all the institutions responsible for heritage project compatible with Council of Europe standards (Guidance on Inventory and Documentation of the Cultural Heritage, ed. John Bold, Monique Chatenet, Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2001), to facilitate inter-institutional exchanges and to make the documentation accessible to the public under certain conditions, with a view to enhancing the heritage management system.

TRAINING AND RAISING AWARENESS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HERITAGE

Training the Commission’s qualified staff is one of the institution’s primary tasks.  Investment in training qualified staff leads to enhanced productivity and professionalism on the part of staff members.

This strategy should also extend to the general public, both children and adults, to raise awareness of the importance of heritage protection and the fact that it does not belong to just one community, but to all as their common heritage.

Undergraduate and post-graduate studies in archaeology are conducted in line with the Bologna process at two universities in this country. An archaeology course was launched at the Faculty of the Humanities of the University of Mostar in the academic year 2000/2001, followed in 2008/2009 by the establishment of a Department of Archaeology at the Faculty of the Humanities of the University of Sarajevo.

At present there is no dedicated post-graduate course on the conservation and restoration of movable artefacts (archaeological finds, pictures, wood or metal artefacts) at the universities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  However, attempts are being made to cover this important aspect through various collegiate meetings, seminars, workshops and conferences.

In the academic year 2003/2004, a first for Bosnia and Herzegovina, post-graduate multidisciplinary studies in the restoration and conservation of cultural monuments, architectural groups and ensembles were introduced at the Faculty of Architecture in Sarajevo. The course was attended by 60 graduates. The lecturers were leading experts from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the countries of the region, and the lectures related to contemporary principles of heritage protection. The Faculty of Architecture organized the first doctoral studies in the restoration and conservation of the cultural heritage in 2009/2010.

Given the nature of the work on heritage properties and movable artefacts and collections, there is also a need at all levels to set up specialist courses for artisans and craftsmen of various backgrounds.

Since 2006, the Commission has been leading a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of heritage among the general public, with a particular emphasis on young people.  The aim is to familiarize young people with the meaning and importance of the heritage and with the responsibility of each one of us for its protection. The campaign consists of the following:

-       a special education project entitled “My Bosnia and Herzegovina – My Heritage,” with various stages (classes, workshops, visits to museums and monuments, project work) designed to achieve the basic aim of the project: to familiarize young people with the meaning and importance of the heritage and to create a sense of responsibility for its protection. Thanks to an allocation of funds from the special fund of the US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the project will be self-sustaining in the years to come. In addition to its basic aim, the various stages are designed to achieve certain specific and general educational objectives. After holding lectures or performing plays in museums, those taking part in the project will be invited to design a logo for the “My Bosnia and Herzegovina – My Heritage” project, with prizes for the winning entries. Collaboration will also continue with education and education-related institutions (schools, entity and cantonal ministries of education, culture and sport, teacher training institutes, museums, galleries);

-       each year the Commission, in association with the Faculty of Architecture in Sarajevo, invites final-year students to take part in working on the Commission’s projects. The students are thus given the opportunity to broaden their knowledge of the heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of the problems associated with the heritage, as well as to become involved in specific heritage protection activities. The students are involved in projects to survey the current condition of properties and the implementation of urgent protection measures.  So far 20 students have taken part in the Commission’s projects;

-       the Commission is required to erect a notice board with basic historical and technical details for each designated national monument. This enables both the general public in Bosnia and Herzegovina and visitors to gain an insight into importance and values of the heritage. As of the end of 2009, about 300 notice boards had been erected throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Over the past few years, the Commission has carried out activities of major importance designed to educate the general public about the heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its importance and potential for sustainable development.

The following activities have been carried out by making proper use of the heritage:

-       holding an exhibition entitled “Cultural Memory – a Vanishing Treasure”, launched in 2003, which presents the diversity and richness of the heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the extent to which it is endangered. The exhibition has been held in several towns and cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also in Barcelona, Belgrade, Istanbul, Palermo, Rome and Washington;

-       holding an exhibition on the religious heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Rome in April 2009;

-       developing management plans for the properties on the UNESCO Tentative List with a view to ensuring the sustainable development of archaeological sites, historic areas and built ensembles. During the process of compiling the plans, the Commission involves local authorities, local people and non-governmental organisations;

-       holding regular bi-monthly press conferences to acquaint the general public on its operations and activities;

-       regular updating of the Commission’s web site;

-       organizing or taking part in workshops dealing with heritage protection.

The Commission issues an annual publication, Baština/Heritage, in which it publishes scholarly and specialist articles on heritage protection and management, conservation-restoration works, archaeological investigations, the history of art and architecture, and specialist papers and reviews. The periodical is published in print and electronic form in two languages: Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and English. The electronic edition is accessible through CEEOL.

The Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska holds an annual international symposium on integrated heritage protection, bringing together leading experts from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia and elsewhere.

Since 2004 the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport has been holding a European Heritage Days event in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Events are held in towns and cities throughout Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in association with local communities and cultural workers.

As part of the project “In the Footsteps of the Bosnian Kingdom,” the Jajce Agency is conducting activities designed to raise awareness of the importance of the heritage among school children and young people. The agency has held seminars, talks for young people and the townspeople, and training courses for tourist guides.

IMPACT OF THE IRPP/SAAH

1. Political 

1.1 The project has the support of ministries responsible for culture in all countries and its importance has been acknowledged in regional ministerial political fora.

In 2009 the Council of Ministers(45) adopted certain resolutions supporting the continuation of the project and the incorporation of its results into strategic documents, and called for co-funding from the entity budgets. One of the resolutions of the Council of Ministers was the need to set up an advisory body to consist of representatives of entity and state institutions responsible for culture and heritage protection, the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Directorate for European integration. This is a new component of the management system of this project. The Council of Ministers thereby affirmed its previously stated willingness to ensure both political and financial support for the project. In 2004 the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina(46) and the Council of Ministers(47) considered, at their respective sessions, the progress reports on the project and adopted resolutions supporting the project activities and requesting all institutions and authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina to incorporate the results of the Project into strategic development documents, as well as calling on the Entity and local authorities and institutions to create the financial and technical conditions for the implementation of the Project.

1.2 The project is grounded in the relevant Conventions of the Council of Europe and in particular fulfils the aims of the Faro Convention in affirming individual and collective responsibility for the cultural heritage; conservation and sustainable use; promotion of cultural diversity; adoption of best practices; improvement of quality of life etc.

Since 2008, Bosnia and Herzegovina has ratified European and international conventions on the initiative of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments and the recommendation of the Ministry of Civil Affairs: the European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage, revised (Council of Europe, Valletta, 1992) and the Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Council of Europe, Faro, 2005); and the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (UNESCO, Paris, 2001), the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (UNESCO, Paris, 2005), and the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO, Paris, 2003).

1.3 With very few exceptions the attention given to the PIL sites has underlined governmental responsibility for their protection and rehabilitation. It has also drawn attention to shortfalls in funding and in capacity, and to the need for professional training.

The Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport proposed and supported all the monuments on the Priority Intervention List located in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Institute for the Protection of Monuments has drawn up the project documentation for the monastery church of the Holy Trinity in Vozuća near Zavidovići, the Citadel in Jajce, the forts in Bužim, Prusac and Blagaj, the Soko mosque in Gračanica, the old mosque in Špionica, and the Hellenistic city of Daorson in Ošanići.

As of the end of 2009, certain stages of conservation of the old Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo and the conservation and restoration of properties in the historic urban area of Kreševo had been completed, and the entire restoration of the old mosque in Špionica near Srebrenik had been completed, all on the basis of projects drawn up by and under the expert supervision of the Federal Institute for the Protection of Monuments. Conservation-restoration works are in hand on the Citadel in Jajce, properties in the historic centre of Blagaj near Mostar, the Radimlja necropolis with stećci near Stolac, the old Soko mosque in Gračanica, and the forts in Bužim, Ljubuški and Prusac near Donji Vakuf. Under the expert supervision of the Institute, the ruins of the Saborna church of the Holy Trinity in Mostar have been cleared, paving the way for reconstruction works on the church to begin. In the case of the Hellenistic city of Daorson near Stolac, the archaeological investigations have been completed and work is in hand on a survey of the stability of the ramparts by the National Museum, the Civil Engineering Institute in Mostar and the Federal Institute for the Protection of Monuments(48).

In 2008 the Ministry of Regional Planning of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina(49) provided part of the funding for a number of monuments on the Priority Intervention List: the forts in Bužim, Prusac, Stolac, Ljubuški and Jajce, the Soko mosque in Gračanica, the old mosque in Špionica near Srebrenik, the old Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo, the archaeological site of the Hellenistic city of Daorson in Ošanići near Stolac, and the church of the Holy Trinity in Mostar. The ministry also provided the funds needed for the full restoration of the Orthodox church of St Nicholas in Trijebanj near Stolac.

Since 2005 the Government of the entity of Republika Srpska has provided financial assistance for various stages of works on the Aladža mosque in Foča (collecting and cataloguing fragments), the Mehmed Pasha Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad, and the Town Hall in Bosanski Novi/Novi Grad(50).

As of 2009, the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska had completed the project design for the reconstruction of the Saborna church of the Holy Trinity in Mostar, taken part in developing the project for the structural repair and restoration of the Town Hall in Novi Grad/Bosanski Novi, and made a 3D laser survey of the Mehmed Pasha Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad as part of the preliminary works for the development of a project for the structural repair and restoration of the bridge(51).

2. Institutional

2.1 The project has successfully introduced new methodological and management tools – assessment, PIL, PTA, FS, Business plans, which are becoming institutionalised within the countries and in some cases now form part of the established, standardised documentation procedures. In many cases this has coincided with initiatives on new or revised laws and on new institutional structures and the associated allocation of responsibilities.

The IRPP/SAAH results and methodology have been integrated into the institutional programme of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments. The project provided an additional platform for cooperation between authorities and institutions responsible for heritage protection and management (ministries responsible for spatial planning and ministries for culture at entity levels, institutes responsible for heritage at entity and cantonal levels and local authorities).

Since 2004 work has been in hand to draft a Bill on the Cultural Properties of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the legal and political support of the Council of Europe. The Law on the Cultural Properties of Bosnia and Herzegovina should provide a legislative framework for the systematic protection of the heritage at the state level, to promote the heritage as a factor of sustainable social and economic development, to eliminate the current parallelisms, to strengthen heritage protection institutions, and to harmonize the legislative framework at the state level with international conventions, Council of Europe and European Union standards, Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace, and valid regulations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2008, as the official proposer of the Bill, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, drafted a new Bill on the Cultural Properties. The Council of Europe recommendations submitted to the Ministry of Civil Affairs should ensure a fundamental revision of the current Bill. The Bill has yet to be presented to Parliament for enactment (on account of the absence of political will).

2.2 The research required for the project on individual sites has contributed significantly to the accumulation of important information on the sites themselves and on potential strategies for rehabilitation.

On the bases of research and information, the Commission has developed strategy for rehabilitation and applied to international subjects, to the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina at all levels, and to business and commercial subjects at home and abroad, for financial and other support.(see chapters 1.3 and 7.2)

2.3 The project has contributed to the development of project management procedures in introducing project feasibility and sustainability into assessment processes; and has enabled prioritisation in choices of site for intervention and related activities.

The Priority Intervention List includes monuments from the List of Endangered National Monuments, compiled by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments in order to draw the attention of all those responsible in the Entity and State authorities, and of potential donors and investors, to those cases of national monuments at risk of disappearance if the measures necessary to rescue them are not undertaken forthwith.

The Priority Intervention List consists of the 20 most endangered monuments. The criteria developed for the selection of the most endangered monuments are:

-       that they are designated as national monuments;

-       that they are a rare or unique example of a certain type or style;

-       that they were damaged/destroyed during the 1992-95 war in BiH or are endangered by post-war conditions (illicit building, lack of funds for restoration and maintenance, inexpert reconstruction, etc) and are at risk of further deterioration;

-       that their restoration will encourage the return of refugees and displaced persons in BiH;

-       that their restoration will stimulate development in the region.

Coordination bodies have been established comprising interested stakeholders for 3 consolidated projects.

2.4 The activities within the project have contributed towards the development of built heritage databases based on the Council of Europe documentation standards.   

The project contributed to generating information on PIL sites within monument files that constitute the Commission’s Documentation Centre, which is being constantly updated. In line with the adopted Rules on the Use of the Documentation of the Commission to Preserve National Monument, all the Commission’s documentation is also accessible to the general public.

The Commission’s Documentation Centre forms the basis for setting up a Register of National Monuments/Architectural and Archaeological Heritage of importance for Bosnia and Herzegovina. In order to create a database compatible with European standards, the Commission has compiled a trial database to Council of Europe standards (Guidance on Inventory and Documentation of the Cultural Heritage, ed. John Bold, Monique Chatenet, Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2001). 

3. Visibility of sites/promotion

3.1 The project has drawn attention not only to individual sites but to the potential social and economic value of the built heritage. This has been enabled and reinforced in many countries by popular publications (booklets, pamphlets, postcards, multi-media) on the overall project and on the individual sites; by presentation to fairs and to cultural and commercial exhibitions, and by exposure in the national media.

The promotional material of the Project has been sent to all relevant authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina at all levels, international organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad, the diplomatic corps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, religious communities, universities, non-governmental organisations, and others.

The Project priorities have been integrated into multimedia presentations, as part of the campaign entitled "Cultural memory – a vanishing treasure". The exhibition consists of a video presentation and display panels featuring national monuments and endangered monuments with photographs and text giving basic information about the monuments. Thus far the exhibition has been mounted in the World Bank headquarters in Washington, Barcelona, Istanbul, Belgrade, and the following cities and towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Banja Luka, Jajce, Mostar, Bužim, Brčko, Tuzla and Sarajevo (several exhibitions).

In 2006 the Commission launched a new feature of the campaign entitled "My Bosnia and Herzegovina – My heritage", set up as part of the implementation of the projects, for which funds have been provided by the US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation. Endangered monuments from the PIL – the Aladža mosque in Foča and the Church of St. Nicholas in Trijebanj – are among those targeted by the campaign. The purpose of the action was to raise children’s awareness of the importance of the country‘s heritage in the building of a European and world identity with regard to diversity.

The project is promoted by the web page of the Commission, www.aneks8komisija.com.ba. Working in cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina Public Service Broadcasting and Federal TV, the Commission has developed documentaries for the Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic bridge in Visegrad, the historic town of Jajce, and the historic towns of Blagaj and Stolac, aiming both to promote sites for inscription on the World Heritage List and to raise awareness of their importance for social and economic regeneration.

3.2 The promotion of the project and the sites has been a feature of European Heritage Days within the countries and they have been further promoted through Plaques ceremonies.

            The various results and stages of the project have been presented as part of the European Heritage Days event organized by the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport.

A presentation of the results of the project and methodology was held in October 2009 in the building of the Joint Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, and was attended by about 70 representatives of institutions, local authorities and the non-governmental sector. Publicity material, a catalogue of the Ljubljana Process and the business plans for the three consolidated projects (the Aladža mosque in Foča, the City Hall [National and University Library] in Sarajevo and the Hellenistic city of Daorson in Ošanići near Stolac) were distributed to those present. Caroline Ravaud, Special Representative of Secretary General of Council of Europe distributed plaques.

4. Community and awareness-raising

4.1 The use of the sites as focal points for heritage-related activities has promoted awareness-raising within communities and in some cases has specifically involved young people.

An important part is raising awareness among the general public, and particularly young people, of the importance of the cultural heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project is entitled “My Bosnia and Herzegovina – My Heritage”. The target group of the project is primary-school pupils. Under the auspices of the project, the Commission co-operates with the Entity ministries of education and culture, local authorities, and primary school principals, teachers and pupils. The project “My Bosnia and Herzegovina – My Heritage” is implemented by members of the Commission holding classes on the heritage in primary schools, visiting monuments, competitions for children’s art and literary works, exhibitions and the presentation of the children’s entries, and arranging gatherings for the children.

Co-operation with the universities takes place through the Commission’s hiring final-year architecture students to work on the preparation of exhibitions and the cataloguing of properties.  The students thus acquire know-how on the protection and rehabilitation of monuments, and have access to all the documentation housed in the Commission.

5. Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development

5.1 Through the activities of the project a new impetus has been given to the inter-related nature of heritage rehabilitation and sustainable development which in many cases are now seen as intertwined rather than stand-alone activities, with mutually beneficial outcomes.

There is clear evidence that the notion of sustainable development and the positive contribution of the built heritage to the wider economy is beginning to become established, within both conservation and planning agencies at state and regional levels.

In 2005, European Commission, within the European Union Regional Economic Development plan (EU RED), supported the Project for the on-going protection, presentation and integration of the cultural, historical and natural heritage into the tourism sector of Herzegovina region.

The feasibility studies underlined the importance of integration of PIL sites into development, especially tourism development. Further, management plans developed for bridge in Visegrad, historical towns of Jajce and Blagaj, all PIL sites, identify strategies for social and economic regeneration.

5.2 There are active moves in some of the countries to integrate the monuments into development programmes.

Management plans have been developed for the bridge in Visegrad and the historic towns of Jajce and Blagaj. In 2005 a project for the on-going protection, presentation and integration of the cultural, historical and natural heritage into the tourism sector of Herzegovina region was supported by the European Commission for funding as part of the European Union Regional Economic Development plan (EU RED).

6. Collaboration

6.1 There has been successful collaboration at a number of levels: between various ministries within the countries; between national and local authorities within the countries (including the sharing of professional expertise); between those authorities and potential funding agencies; with NGOs.

During the implementation of the project, the preliminary project phases were submitted to the ministries responsible for regional planning and culture in the entities and Brčko District, as well as to the institutions responsible for heritage protection, in order to supplement and collate the information.

The Commission’s qualified staff, experts from the institutions responsible for heritage protection at the entity and cantonal level and experts dealing with the problem of heritage protection took part in the implementation of the project and drawing up preliminary technical assessments and feasibility studies. Business plans for 3 monuments put into focus for rehabilitation were developed in cooperation with the local communities and engagement of local business experts.

On the basis of the preliminary technical assessments for endangered monuments from the PIL, the Commission has applied to international subjects and to the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina at all levels, and to business and commercial subjects at home and abroad, for financial and other support. (see table 1.)

6.2 There has also been successful collaboration through the participation of project and programme co-ordinators with the Council of Europe and the European Commission; between the countries themselves at regular project meetings; and increasingly through the advisory visits of national project co-ordinators to other countries within the project.

7. Fundraising

7.1 Through drawing attention to the sites and making structured proposals for their conservation and re-use, the project has enabled the commencement of rehabilitation of a large number of sites across the region, with funding provided: by the local and national authorities (either continuing funding or providing new funding).

The three regional governments (the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Government of Republika Srpska and the Government of Brčko District) are responsible for ensuring and providing the financial, administrative, technical, scientific and legal resources required for the protection, preservation, presentation and restoration of national monuments. The project structured priorities for funding.  See Table 1

Twenty-four monuments have been on the Priority Intervention List since it was first drawn up.  Four were removed from the list in 2007, either because funding had been secured for their restoration (the Eminagić Konak in Tešanj, the Town Hall in Brčko and the monastery church in Vozuća near Zavidovići) or, in the case of the monastery at Plehan near Derventa, because work had begun on a new church, making it impossible to rehabilitate the building destroyed during the war.

By the end of 2009, four monuments had been fully rehabilitated:

-       the historic building of the Eminagić Konak in Tešanj, for which the Government of the Federation provided the funds and the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport was responsible for the restoration, which was successfully completed in 2007(52);

-       the monastery church in Vozuća bar Zavidovići, the restoration of which was funded by the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Government of the Republic of Germany and carried out by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments and the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport in 2007(53); 

-       the historic building of the Town Hall in Brčko, for which the Government of Brčko District has provided on-going funding, and the restoration project has been under way since 2007(54);

-       the old mosque in Špionica, Srebrenik; the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina provided the funds for the design and implementation of the restoration project through the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport and the Federal Ministry of Regional Planning. The project was carried out by Srebrenik Municipality and the Council of the Islamic Community with the expert assistance of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport (2008/09) – proposal to delete by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Tuzla Canton.

Funds have been raised for various stages of the works identified in the preliminary technical assessments and feasibility studies for the other monuments on the Priority Intervention List, but the properties have yet to be fully rehabilitated.

The Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport has supported and applied for funding from the budget of the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for all the PIL monuments in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In 2008 the Ministry of Regional Planning of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina(55) provided part of the funding for a number of monuments on the Priority Intervention List: the forts in Bužim, Prusac, Stolac, Ljubuški and Jajce, the Soko mosque in Gračanica, the old mosque in Špionica near Srebrenik, the old Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo, the archaeological site of the Hellenistic city of Daorson in Ošanići near Stolac, and the church of the Holy Trinity in Mostar. The ministry also provided the funds needed for the full restoration of the Orthodox church of St Nicholas in Trijebanj near Stolac.

Since 2005 the Government of the entity of Republika Srpska has provided financial assistance for various stages of works on the Aladža mosque in Foča (collecting and cataloguing fragments), the Mehmed Pasha Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad, and the Town Hall in Bosanski Novi/Novi Grad.

7.2 Funding has also been provided by international foundations and NGOs; through UNESCO and EU programmes; and by foreign government agencies.

The Government of the Republic of Turkey provided funds for the restoration of the Mehmed Pasha Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad, and the project was carried out by TIKA (the Turkish international development agency). An agreement on cooperation was concluded by TIKA, the Commission to Preserve National Monuments and Višegrad Municipality in 2008. Following initial investigative works in 2006, the restoration project was completed in 2009 (Directorate of the Ministry of Transport and Communications – KGM).

The US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation has provided the funds for priority monuments for projects being carried out by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments: the Aladža mosque in Foča (protection of the remains and foundations of the architectural ensemble in 2006 and start of the reconstruction works in 2009); the church of St Nicholas in Trijebanj near Stolac (protection of fragments of the monument in 2007); the Šeranić house in Banja Luka (emergency protection measures in 2008/2008); and the old Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo (repairs to tombstones and emergency work on the entrance gateway)(56). 

The Spanish agency for international cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Spain provided the funds to develop a Management Plan for the historic area of Blagaj, a project conducted by the Commission in 2008(57).

Monuments on the Priority Intervention List have been included in the programme for the on-going protection, presentation and integration of the cultural, historical and natural heritage into the tourism sector of Herzegovina region, funded by the European Commission for funding as part of the European Union Regional Economic Development plan (EU RED) and conducted by the Commission in 2005/2006(58).

The emphasis on the process of rehabilitation in stage 5 of the project was on the three consolidated projects for Bosnia and Herzegovina, supported as part of the Ljubljana Process:

-       the City Hall (National and University Library) in Sarajevo;

-       the Hellenistic city of Daorson at Ošanići near Stolac, and

-       the Aladža mosque in Foča.   

The Ljubljana Process has already provided results for the City Hall (National and University Library) in Sarajevo, for the restoration of which part of the funding has been secured from European Union pre-accession funds(59). The City Hall is an example of successful project management. Since 2003 the Sarajevo City Authority has been running the restoration project and the work of the coordinating body, which consists of representatives of all relevant institutions. Special technical teams for various stages of the project have also been set up, as has the public procurements procedure and the selection of bids for the works contractor.

In the case of the Hellenistic city of Daorson at Ošanići near Stolac, the National Museum in Sarajevo is conducting conservation and archaeological investigation works as one of the works stages proposed in the business plan, with financial support from the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina(60).

The restoration project plan(61) for the Aladža mosque in Foča was funded by the IRCICA Centre(62), and funds(63) were allocated to the Commission to Preserve National Monument from the US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, symbolically marking the start of its reconstruction, with a view to attracting private and public investments and grants to continue the work to completion of the rehabilitation of the monument.

Funds have been secured for the rehabilitation of the Town Hall in Bosanski Novi/Novi Grad from EU pre-accession funds.

Supplement: Table 1: overview of activities on monuments on the Priority Intervention List (last updated on 31 December 2009.)

CONCLUSION

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina recognizes the importance of the heritage for post-war reconstruction and the process of return and reconciliation, and includes a separate annex, Annex 8, Agreement on the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, which governs the protection of national monuments and responsibility for their protection and preservation. The Commission renders decisions designating national monuments for each property on the Provisional List.  The procedure for the designation of a property as a national monument is set in motion by a petition or proposal, which may be submitted by any natural person or juristic entity. The Commission has drawn up a standard form of petition for each type of property. A property that has been designated as a national monument forms part of the heritage of all ethnic and religious groups. Neither proprietary nor political criteria are relevant to the designation of a property as a national monument (Criteria for the designation of properties as national monuments, 2002/2003 – Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina nos. 33/02 and 15/30; Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 59/02; Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 79/02).

The set of harmonized Laws on the Implementation of Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments (2002), in force in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Brčko District, defines monuments and the rehabilitation of monuments and governs the obligations and relations between the institutions and bodies responsible for heritage protection. National Monuments enjoy the highest level of legal protection. Under the terms of these laws, the entity governments and ministries responsible for regional planning are charged with implementing the Commission’s decisions.

There are already a great many laws governing heritage protection at various levels – cantonal, entity and national – but it is doubtful whether they are mutually compatible or in compliance with the recommendations of international conventions. Many of these laws are ill suited to meet the challenges and changes arising in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and fail to address many issues of crucial importance for heritage protection.

The creation of the legislative and institutional framework for cultural heritage protection is a separate component (project) of the Council of Europe’s Regional Programme for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage in South-East Europe.

The enactment of a Law on the Cultural Heritage of Importance for Bosnia and Herzegovina, or of appropriate legislative provisions, should address key management issues, such as:         

-       the provision of the financial, technical and other conditions at all levels of government for the on-going maintenance of the cultural heritage and its incorporation into development trends;

-       the establishment of a system of on-going communication and exchange of information in the field of heritage protection;

-       the development of heritage management tools;

-       the advancement of cooperation between local and international institutions in the field of heritage protection;

-       the introduction of the open market principle in the development of projects for the protection of monuments etc.;

-       the continuation of protection and management through the Commission to Preserve National Monuments in hand with the three regional governments of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Brčko District.

There is a need to develop a programme of education and training in the field of heritage protection and management in association with all the institutions responsible for heritage protection, the ministries responsible for spatial planning, and interested municipalities and non-governmental organizations. A specialist training programme for those employed in the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina should be adopted by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the recommendation of the relevant ministries.

The Integrated Rehabilitation Project Plan has created tools that contribute to the more effective management of the heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Commission to Preserve National Monuments has made its own contribution to the promotion of the project and of the monuments on the priority intervention list by means of its campaign for the endangered heritage and by raising awareness among schoolchildren and young people of the importance of the heritage for the identity of their country and of Europe, expressed in the phrase “unity in diversity.”

The project has created a platform for wider-ranging cooperation between heritage management institutions, local authorities, religious communities, specialists and professionals of various backgrounds and the non-governmental sector. It has contributed to the process of gathering documentation and of identifying and documenting properties, and has highlighted the necessity of creating a heritage database for Bosnia and Herzegovina to European standards, to facilitate the exchange of information between institutions responsible for heritage preservation and management at home and abroad and to be accessible to the general public. 

The project has brought about a change in the perception of the heritage by highlighting its economic and social dimension and its place in sustainable development. It has helped to mobilize local and international sources of funding for priority monuments.

Revision taken by:

Mirela Mulalić Handan, IRPPSAAH Project Coordinator for BiH

Revision is based upon:

-       European Commission – Council of Europe Joint Programme: Integrated Rehabilitation Project Plan / Survey of the Architectural and Archeological Heritage (IRPP/SAAH) – Bosnia and Herzegovina – March 2004

-       European Commission – Council of Europe Joint Programme: Integrated Rehabilitation Project Plan / Survey of the Architectural and Archeological Heritage (IRPP/SAAH) – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Revision, 2007

-       Documentation of the Council of Europe

-       Documentation of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments

-       Ministry of Civil Affairs, doc.no.10-35-2-286-BČ/10 of 12.02.2010

-       Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport, Institute for the Protection of Monuments, doc.no. 07-40-4-3878-2/09 of 2.11.2009

-       Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport,  doc.no. 03-40-4-285/10 of 25.2.2010

-       Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska, Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage, doc.no. 07/1.30/624-865-1/09 of 4.11.2009

-       Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska, doc.no.: 07.030 624-4/10 of 01.03.2010

-       Inspectorate Authority of Republika Srpska, doc.no. 26.090/362-147-2/20 of 12.02.2010

-       Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of HN Canton, Mostar.  doc. Of 15.04.2010

-       Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Bihać, e-mail doc. of 28.02.2010

-       Agency for the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage and Development of the Tourism Potential of the Town of Jajce, doc.no. 01.1-40-13/10 of 12.2.2010

-       Herzegovina Neretva Canton Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage Mostar, doc. of. 15.03.2010

-       Brčko Distrikt Department of Spatial Planning and Proprietary Rights, e-mail doc. of 15.04.2010

SOURCES

Commission to Preserve National Monuments

Federal Ministry of Regional Planning

Federal Ministry of Education and Science

Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport

Ministry of Regional Planning, Construction and the Environment of Republika Srpska

Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska

Ministry of Science and Technology of Republika Srpska

Government of Brčko District — Department of Urbanism, Property Relations and Economic Development

Institute for the Protection of Monuments within the Federal Ministry for Culture and Sport, Sarajevo

Institute for the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Republika Srpska, Banja Luka

Cantonal Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Historical Heritage, Sarajevo

Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage, Tuzla

Cantonal Institute for Town and Country Planning and the Protection of the Cultural and Historical Heritage of Central Bosnia Canton

Cantonal Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Bihać

Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Historical Heritage of Herzegovina Neretva Canton

Stari Grad Agency Mostar

Statistics Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina

National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo

Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo

Museum of Literature and the Performing Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo

Museum of Sarajevo, Sarajevo

Franciscan Museum Gorica, Livno

Museum of Herzegovina, Mostar

Museum of Zenica City, Zenica

Regional Museum of Visoko, Visoko

Museum of East Bosnia, Tuzla

Bihać Museum

Historical Archives, Sarajevo

Archives of the Federation, Sarajevo

Archives of Herzegovina, Mostar

History Archives, Tuzla

Galleries

Libraries

Municipalities

Cadastral Offices

Geodetic Institutes

Religious Communities

Faculties of architecture and urban planning

Various organizations dealing with heritage

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bold, John and Monique Chatenet, ed. Guidance on Inventory and Documentation of the Cultural Heritage. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2001.

Bold, John. Guidance on heritage assessment. “Our cultural diversity is what unites us.”

Document prepared with the framework of the Technical Co-operation and Consultancy Programme. Edited by Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2005.

Council of Europe, Programme for technical cooperation and advice in regard to the integrated preservation of the cultural heritage: action plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina, initial stage,  Cultural Heritage Committee, Strasbourg, 1999.

Commission to Preserve National Monuments. “Criteria for the designation of property as a national monument.”

http://www.aneks8komisija.com.ba/main.php?id_struct=88&lang=4 (accessed 15 February 2010).

———. “Heritage at Risk”, catalogue. Sarajevo: Commission to Preserve National Monuments, 2003.

———. “Heritage at Risk.”

http://www.aneks8komisija.com.ba/main.php?id_struct=161&lang=4 (accessed 15 February 2010).

“Decision adopting the programme for the allocation of funds – contribution by the Government of the Federation of BiH to co-financing cantonal and local community projects – protection of the cultural and built heritage, set out in the Budget of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2008.” Official Gazette of FBiH 17 (2008): 302.

European Commission – Council of Europe Joint Programme: Integrated Rehabilitation Project Plan / Survey of the Architectural and Archeological Heritage (IRPP/SAAH) – Bosnia and Herzegovina – March 2004

European Commission – Council of Europe Joint Programme: Integrated Rehabilitation Project Plan / Survey of the Architectural and Archeological Heritage (IRPP/SAAH) – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Revision, 2007

European Commission and Council of Europe Joint Programme. Integrated Rehabilitation Project Plan. State of the Architectural and Archaeological Heritage (IRPP/SAAH). “AT(2008)068 - Heritage Assessment missions, Mission Report Bosnia and Herzegovina.” February 19, 2008.    

———. “The heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina priori to Annex 8 of the General Framework to Peace.” Commission to Preserve National Monuments May 2002- May 2003. Sarajevo, 2003.

Mulalić Handan, Mirela. “Integrated heritage rehabilitation. Assisstance with heritage management in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. Baština no. V (2009): 65-99

_________. “Implementation of Annex 8 of the General framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. Baština no. III (2007): 21-54

Pickard, Robert. European Cultural Heritage (volume I). Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, 2002.

Regional plan for Bosnia and Herzegovine, Phase B — According Value, Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Sarajevo, 1980.

Documentation of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments:

Ministry of Civil Affairs, doc.no.10-35-2-286-BČ/10 of 12.02.2010

Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport, Institute for the Protection of Monuments, doc.no. 07-40-4-3878-2/09 of 2.11.2009

Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport,  doc.no. 03-40-4-285/10 of 25.2.2010

Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska, Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage, doc.no. 07/1.30/624-865-1/09 of 4.11.2009

Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska, doc.no. : 07.030 624-4/10 of 01.03.2010

Inspectorate Authority of Republika Srpska, doc.no. 26.090/362-147-2/20 of 12.02.2010

Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of HN Canton, Mostar.  doc. Of 15.04.2010

Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Bihać, e-mail doc. of 28.02.2010

Agency for the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage and Development of the Tourism Potential of the Town of Jajce, doc.no. 01.1-40-13/10 of 12.2.2010

Herzegovina Neretva Canton Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage Mostar, doc. of. 15.03.2010.

Brčko Distrikt Department of Spatial Planning and Proprietary Rights, e-mail doc. of 15.04.2010.

Table 1.            Overview of activities on monuments on the Priority Intervention List (PIL)

Nedostaje tabela

(1) Classification taken from the Regional Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina to 2002

(2) In Stolac, every mosque was razed to its foundations, serious damage was inflicted on the buildings in the Čaršija and the Orthodox church, and the Begovina residential complex and private houses with Ottoman architectural features were set on fire.

(3) In Banja Luka, every mosque was dynamited and destroyed or badly damaged, including the Ferhadija mosque in the city centre, as was the Clock Tower.

(4) In Foča, every mosque was destroyed or badly damaged, and buildings in the Čaršija were also damaged.

(5) Serious damage was inflicted on the properties constituting the urban centre.

(6) European Commission – Council of Europe Joint Programme: Integrated rehabilitation project Plan / Survey of the Architectural and Archeological Heritage (IRPP/SAAH) – Bosnia and Herzegovina – March 2004. and “Implementation of Annex 8 of the General framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. Baština no. III (2007)

(7) In order to collect more precise figures on cultural heritage destruction, Ministry for Civil Affairs suggest to require information from the Intereligious Council of BiH or from the religious communities (doc. of. 12.02.2010). Although those information have not been collected according to unified metodology.

(8) Bill on Cultural Properties of Bosnia and Herzegovina, www. ministarstvo civilnih poslova.gov.ba

(9) Council of Europe, Report of the Legal Task Force on the Low on Cultural Properties of BiH, AT 2009 051, 23.02.2009.

(10) The Secretariat for the Legislature of Republika Srpska issued an Opinion on the Bill on Cultural Properties of Bosnia and Herzegovina, no.  22/03-021-524/08 dated 19 August 2008, expressing the view that “there is no constitutional basis for the enactment of a law governing culture and the protection of cultural properties, but perhaps the possibility of enacting a framework law governing these matters in principle.” Resolution no. 04/1-012-2132/08 of 4 September 2008 adopted by the Government of Republika Srpska “which does not support the enactment of a Law on Cultural Properties of Bosnia and Herzegovina on account of the absence of a constitutional basis.” Source: Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska, document no. 07.030 624-4/10 of 01.03.2010.

(11) The federal law on the protection of cultural monuments was enacted in July 1945 on the basis of a Decision on the protection and preservation of cultural monuments and antiquities adopted by the National Committee of the Liberation of Yugoslavia in February 1945. Pursuant to this decision, Bosnia and Herzegovina was entrusted with the management of the monuments and antiquities in its territory.

(12)  Serdarević, Mevlida, Pravna zaštita kulturno-istorijskog naslijeđa BiH, Sarajevo: International Peace Centre, 1997.

(13) Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina nos. 1/02  and 10/02

(14) Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina nos. 33/02 and 15/03

(15) Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 29/02

(16) Prof. D.Ahunbay’s work for the Commission is funded by the Government of the Republic of Turkey

(17) Dr. Cherry’s work for the Commission is funded by the Council of Europe

(18) The decisions on the appointment and reappointment of Commissioners were published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina nos. 43/07, 98/07 and 64/08).

(19) Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina nos. 2/02 and 27/02, Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 9/02, and Official Gazette of Brčko District no. 2/02

(20) Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 33/02

(21) Law on the Ministries and Other Administrative Organs of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 5/03)

(22) Before the 1992-1995 war, the Institute was the central heritage protection authority of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was known as the Republic Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage, as the legal successor to the Provincial Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina founded in 1946. The institute was weakened during the war, and after the war became part of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport.

(23) Institute for the Protection of Monuments. Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports. accessed 05.04.2010. > http://www.fmksa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=79<

(24) Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport, doc. no. 03-40-4-285/10 of 25.2.2010.

(25) Law on the Administration of Republika Srpska (Official Gazette of RS no. 118/08)

(26) Before the 1992-1995 war the Institute operated as the Banja Luka regional institute; later it extended its jurisdiction to cover the whole of Republika Srpska.

(27) Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska, doc. no. 07.030 624-4/10 of 01.03.2010.

(28) Brcko District - Department of Spatial Planning and Proprietary Rights,  e-mail doc. of 15.04.2010.

(29) Institute for the Protection of Monuments, Sarajevo Canton. accessed 05.04.2010. >http://www.spomenici-sa.ba/<

(30)  http://urbo.com.ba/

(31) Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage, Bihać, was founded by a decision of the Assembly of Una Sana Canton issued on 24 May 2004

(32) Law on the Protection of the Heritage, enacted by the Assembly of Una Sana Canton on 24 May 2004, no. 01-1-199/04.

(33) Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage, Bihać, e-mail doc. of 28.02.2010.

(34) Official Gazette of HNC no. 02/06

(35) Article 21 of the Law Official Gazette of HNC nos. 4/98, 1/02, 4/07

(36) Decision no. 01-1-02-1403/04 of 30 July 2004.

(37) Article 21 of the Law Official Gazette of HNC nos. 4/98, 1/02, 4/07

(38) The Stari Grad Agency was established by decision of Mostar City Council at its 13^th session, held on 23 November 2005 

(39) «Old Town» Agency. accessed 14.04.2010.> http://www.asgmo.ba/<

(40) Agency for the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage and Development of the Tourism Potential of the Town of Jajce, doc.no. 01.1-40-13/10 of 12.02.2010.

(41) Inspection Authority of Republika Srpska, doc.no. 26.090/362-147-2/20 of 12.02.2010.

(42) Government of the Federation of Bosnia And Herzegovina, accessed 05.04.2010. http://www.fbihvlada.gov.ba/english/index.php

(43) Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Resolutions no.05-07-2954-32/09, 99^th session, 24 September 2009.

(44) Ministry of Education and Culture of RS, doc.no. 07.030 624-4/10 of 01.03.2010.

(45) Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Resolutions no: 05-07-2954-32/09”, 99^th session, 24 September 2009.

(46) Resolutions no. 01-011-1662-20/04, Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 58^th session, 13 October 2004.

(47) Resolutions no. 06-07-1570/43-04, Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 69^th session, 16 November 2004.

(48) Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport, Institute for the Protection of Monuments, doc.no. 07-40-4-3878-2/09 of 2.11.2009.

(49) Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 17/08

(50) Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no.

(51) Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska, Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage, doc.no. 07/1.30/624-865-1/09 of 4.11.2009.

(52) Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina no.17/08

(53) Commission to Preserve National Monuments, documentation

(54) Commission to Preserve National Monuments, documentation

(55) Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 17/08

(56) Commission to Preserve National Monuments, documentation

(57) Ibid.

(58) Ibid.

(59) Directorate for European Integration

(60) Bosnia and Herzegovina – Ljubljana Process – funding heritage rehabilitation projects in South-East Europe, Council of Europe and European Commission, 2009.

(61) Project for the reconstruction of the Aladža mosque in Foča, drawn up by Dr. Amir Pašić

(62) Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture

(63) Agreement on Cooperation, US Ambassador’s Fund in BiH and Commission to Preserve National Monuments, 2009.