Prioritized Intervention List:

Ÿ         Country:
Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ÿ         Name of organization compiling the information:
Commission to Preserve National Monuments

Ÿ         Contact name:
Mirela Mulaluć Handan

Ÿ         email address:
mirela@aneks8ko.com.ba

The monument, sites or ensemble

Ÿ         Name and address of building(s) or site:
Site and remnants of the architectural ensemble of the Catholic Monastery Plehan

Ÿ         Inventory reference number(s):
Provisional List of National Monuments No.:459

Ÿ         Ensemble type(s):
Architectural ensemble consists of monastery, church, cemetery and Franciscan house -monumental ensemble

Ÿ         Building type(s):
Religious - Catholic Church

Ÿ         Main date(s):
Date of construction 1869. (church), 1898. (new church), 1932. (monastery).

Ÿ         Current use(s):
Currently not in use

Significance:

Work began on the church in Plehan in 1869, based on a firman received in Istanbul in 1850, but in 1898 work began on a new representative church in the neo-Romanesque style to designs by Ivan Holz.  The church had a basilica-style triple nave with two rows of columns and a semicircular apse and choir.  Standing as it did on a hill; the monastery dominated the entire area.  The monastery was built in 1932 alongside the church, on the foundations of the old monastery, to a design by architect Karl Paržik.

In 1909 the church was painted by Marco Antonini, with the composition of the Annunciation standing out in particular.  It had stained glass and mosaics, a collection of items of value, and an extensive library.

There is a cemetery on the hillock adjoining the one where the monastery stands.  Some of the tombstones are very old, and made of dark local stone.  It was for working this exceptionally hard stone, used throughout Bosnia for millstones, that Plehan acquired its name.

In the late 19th and 20th century Plehan was a synonym for a cultural centre.  There was a church in Plehan in mediaeval times, traces of which (10 x 15 m) are still to be seen in the meadow south of the cemetery.  It also had some stećak tombstones.  The monastery shifted between Plehan and Modran, a nearby village on the Derventa-Doboj road.  In 1853 the Franciscan house was moved to Plehan; in 1869 building works began on the church, and in 1892 work began on another church.  The most recent monastery, where up to fifteen Franciscans lived, was first inhabited in 1933.

Plehan was in some sense a school of philosophical thought, a centre of cultural activities, with archives and a library, and it was in Plehan, in 1881, that the periodical Novi prijatelj Bosne (New friend of Bosnia) was launched.

Categories of Significance:

Of outstanding national importance

Categories of ownership or interest:

Of national interest

Documentation and bibliographic references:

Commission to Preserve National Monuments

Condition:

Amount of war or associated damage:

1. Destroyed

On 2 June 1992 the monastery building was totally destroyed by explosives, and the 40 m high tower of the hundred-year-old church of St Mark was reduced to dust and ashes.  The ruins were then doused with petrol and set on fire, and on 8 June 1992 the last remains of the monastery were targeted by rocket-fired missiles.

Risk:

Ÿ         The area of remnants of the architectural ensemble is at risk of rapid deterioration due to failure to implement even a minimum set of clearing and protection measures;

Ÿ         Process of rehabilitation of the Monastery is in risk because the new project for the monastery that was recently made is not respecting the form and appearance of the old monastery. Works on the field for new building have already started.

Condition risk:

B. Immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric, solution  agreed but not begun

Technical assessment and costing:

Project for pre-works for the rehabilitation – project of clearance, protection and conservation, and project for the rehabilitation needs to be done.

The National Monument shall be reconstructed in its original form, on its original site, with the use of identical or similar material and authentic methods of construction, on the basis of information on its previous.

Prior to the start of rehabilitation works on the ensemble of the Catholic Monastery, the surface layers of soil shall be removed to uncover the original foundation walls, and the original sections of the foundations and walls shall be repaired and consolidated.

All fragments of the destroyed building that are recovered either on site or in other places to which they were taken after the demolition of the building shall be collected up, registered, photographed and reintegrated into the reconstructed building by the method of anastylosis, with the use of traditional binders (mortar) and traditional building techniques.  Until such time as they are so reintegrated all the fragments recovered shall be properly preserved.

Parts that are missing for which documentation on their original form and condition is available shall be made by the method of repristination from the same type of material as they were originally made of.

Fragments that are too badly damaged to be rebuilt into the structure shall be appropriately conserved and displayed as part of the ensemble of the Catholic Monastery.  All usable material recovered from the walls of the Catholic Monastery shall be built into the Catholic Monastery.

All the elements of the Catholic Monastery shall be rehabilitated in accordance with existing graphic and photographic documentation forming an integral part of the Decision of the Commission. 

Costing proposals for projects and rehabilitation works have not been done.

Ownership:

Religious denomination - Catholic Church in BiH

Occupation:

Not occupied

Management:

The provisions relating to protection and rehabilitation measures set forth by the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 9/02) shall apply to the National Monument specified in the preceding paragraph.

In accordance to the Law, the Government of the Republika Srpska shall be responsible for ensuring and providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary to protect, conserve, display and rehabilitate the National Monument.

Further, the Government of the Republika Srpska, the Ministry responsible for town planning of the Republika Srpska, the heritage protection authority of the Republika Srpska, and the Municipal Authorities in charge of urban planning and land registry affairs, shall be notified by the Decision issued by the Commission to carry out the measures stipulated above (Technical assessment and costing).  Authorized Municipal Court shall be notified for the purposes of registration in the Land Register.

Summary:

Plehan was in some sense a school of philosophical thought, a centre of cultural activities, with archives and a library.

The priority level of intervention is HIGH.  

NOTE:

Condition

1. Destroyed

Condition risk

B. Immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric, solution  agreed but not begun

Criteria employed for the Priority Intervention List:

Ÿ         The monuments are designated as national monuments,

Ÿ         They represents rear or unique example of the typology or chronological - stylistic corpus,

Ÿ         They are damaged/destroyed during the 1992-1995 war in BiH or they are endangered by the post war conditions (illegal constructions, lack of funding for restoration and maintenance, inexpert reconstruction,…) and are imposed to further deterioration,

Ÿ         Their restoration will encourage return process in BiH,

Ÿ         Their restoration will support development of the region.