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:
Historical building Šeranića’s house in Banja Luka

Ÿ         Inventory reference number(s):
02-6-913/03

Ÿ         Building type(s):
Residential - House

Ÿ         Main date(s):
Date of construction: the end of the eighteenth century

Ÿ         Current use(s):
Currently not in a use

Significance:

Ilidža mahala acquired its name from the hot healing springs where covered pools (hauz – Arabic for pool) that were built in Ottoman times and between which there ran a hot water stream down into the Vrbas, where there were two small mills that could work even in the depths of winter.

Residential objects were soon built, many of which included healing baths.

The Šeranić house dates from the end of the eighteenth century, as can be deduced from the type of material and style of masonry, and the surviving asymmetrical arrangement of the building, which corroborates its indigenous nature with a «house» (kitchen) and hearth on the upper floor.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the house was divided between two families. There is no data on when the vodnica was destroyed.

General information

The Šeranić house has a ground floor and projecting upper floor.  The ground floor measures 11.59 x 8.95 m, with the height to the eaves of 5.59 m and to the roof ridge of 10.75 m, and the upper floor measures 12.65 x 9.25 m. It formerly stood in a garden courtyard, separated from the street by a high wall and gate, which was on the north, where the motel now stands. There was a mounting block outside the massive gate.  The gate led into the men's courtyard, which anyone could enter and where there were stables for horses and sheds for cows, granaries and other outhouses.  A small gate led from the men's courtyard into the women's garden courtyard, which was embellished with an orchard and flower garden and an ilidža or hot spring fed bath. 

The entrance for male visitors was reached direct from the first courtyard; these premises were completely cut off from the rest of the ground floor rooms.    There were two rooms in the men's quarters – one for servants and the other, the «men's room» (halvat) with mihrab-like windows.  In this part of the ground floor there is another staircase which was added as pat of a later conversion two generations ago when the property was divided between two co-owners.

The main entrance door is from the women's courtyard, facing the street, and simply made of wood. There is an entrance from the stone slab floored hajat into the storeroom, which was used to store tools, agricultural produce and fuel.  There are two small apertures like loopholes in one wall of the storeroom, and it is not hard to deduce what they were used for.  The area next to the storeroom is a hudžera or larger, with the hatch in one wall.  Shoes were left in the hajat and slippers donned (papuče, hence the name papučluk); from here a single-flight wooden staircase led to the divanhana.  This is now divided into two by a wooden partition wall.  The divanhana was treated here more as a communication area, from which one entered the rooms.

The room with its open hearth known as the «kuća» (lit. house) or kitchen has remained unaltered in the Šeranić house, with its open roof structure and the remains of the other features that belonged to it.  The hearth has been destroyed but the place where it stood remains.  The «kuća» had an opening with ćefenak (flap) and door to facilitate the rapid ventilation of the kitchen.

In this part of the house, divided by a small corridor from the divanhana, which the occupants of the household called the ćulhan, people hid when the army came and war broke out.  There were another two rooms here and a small odžaklija (room with a fireplace and chimney). 

The specific feature of this house is that this kamerija was in this part of the house and not forming a logical extension of the divanhana, as was the rule.  The old master craftsmen sought a fine view on the gardens of the quarter and the Vrbas, which this small area, tailored to human scale, could have provided.

The other part of the upper floor, now divided off, was previously accessible from the divanhana. There are two rooms here: a small sobadžik and a large room for visitors. 

Research and conservation and restoration works

No research or restoration and conservation works have been undertaken.

Categories of Significance:

Of outstanding national importance

Categories of ownership or interest:

Of national interest

Documentation and bibliographic references:

Documentation:

The following documentation is in possession of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments

Ÿ         Documentation on the location and current owner and user of the property (copy of cadastral plan and copy of land registry entry),

Ÿ         Data on the previous and current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs, data of war damage if any, data on restoration or other works on the property if any, etc.

Ÿ         Historical, architectural and other documentary material on the property, as set out in the bibliography.

Bibliography:

Ÿ         Documentation of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments

Ÿ         Sabira Husedžinović “Dokumenti opstanka, džamije u Banjoj Luci” (documents of the survival of mosques in Banja Luka) with accompanying bibliography

Ÿ         Architectural documentation originating from before 1995

Condition:

1. Very bad

The Šeranić house is in very poor structural condition and at risk of collapsing.

Amount of war or associated damage:

1.  Small amount of war damage sustained

Risk:

• The house is at risk of rapid deterioration as a result of lack of maintenance and failure to implement even minimal protection measures.

Condition risk:

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

The building of a motel has altered the natural environs of the house and many of the buildings that were part of the men’s courtyard (granaries, stables, wall and main gate) have been destroyed.  The house was adversely affected by the Braće Alagić (1989) road and the raising of the level of the road, as a result of which a large concrete access ramp was built, which destroyed the hot water stream that flowed in the garden.  The well was destroyed, as was the wall between the men’s and women’s courtyards and the rose garden; the entire environs and ambience of the building have been altered.

Technical assessment and costing:

Project of urgent protection measurements from further deterioration is to be done, as well as projects for next fazes of protection – project of sanation, conservation and restauration.

On the National monument - historic building of Šeranić house following measurements and works shall be applied:

Ÿ         shall be structurally repaired and restored to its original appearance with all the structural elements of the building as they were: roof, foundations, walls, ceilings, and all interior elements;

Ÿ         the structural repairs and restoration shall be carried out by consolidation of existing material or its replacement by material of the same type, same dimensions and form (wood, stone and unfired brick) with the use of the same building techniques wherever possible, on the basis of documentation on its original form (architectural and technical survey of the house, 1989, historical and new photographic documentation);

Ÿ         prior to the start of structural restoration works the structural stability of the building, and in particular its foundations, shall be studied;

Ÿ         carry out structural consolidation of all walls, wooden tie beams that have deteriorated with age (same dimensions, form and type of wood);

Ÿ         carry out consolidation of existing unfired bricks by injection or replacement by identical bricks;

Ÿ         carry out structural repairs to all wooden roof structures, replacing age-dilapidated material with the same material of the same dimensions, worked in the same way and using the same techniques (floors, šiše ceilings);

Ÿ         carry out structural repairs to all parts of the roof to the same form, with the same type of wood, worked in the same way and using the same techniques;

Ÿ         replace the roofing material of plain tiles with the same type as previously (size, shape, color, thickness, method of laying);

Ÿ         renovate the dormer windows in the roof;

Ÿ         ensure that water can run off from the roof without using guttering and keeping damp away from around the house;

Ÿ         remove later addition of entrance to men's quarters and interior partition walls as well as double staircase (all added in the early twentieth century because of family division);

Ÿ         restore authentic arrangement;

Ÿ         reconstruct vodnica (water closet) and provide link to garden by means of stone stairway;

Ÿ         reconstruct hearth in the «house» - kitchen;

Ÿ         plaster all interior walls with lime plaster made by old methods and whitewash all walls;

Ÿ         repair all woodwork (ceilings, floors, doors, staircase), replace rotten parts and treat with natural protective substances;

Ÿ         provide more space around house by removing concrete ramp built as a result of the raising of the street level which left the house below street level;

Ÿ         fence the building with a wooden fence and gate (according to architectural and technical documentation);

Ÿ         restore the women's courtyard and rose garden;

Ÿ         plaster the facade of upper floor of the building with lime plaster made by old methods and whitewash all facades;

Ÿ         dersovati (treatment of façade) the facade of the ground floor of the building using old techniques where the stone is to remain visible and treat the tie beams against damp;

Ÿ         repair and partly restore all woodwork and treat with natural protective substances;

Ÿ         repair and restore all interior fittings (sećije or seats, musandre or built in cupboards and other furnishings) using historical documentation.

Costing proposals for projects and consolidation and restauration works have not been done.

Ownership:

Private - Šeranić family

Occupation:

No occupancy

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 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 Federation shall be responsible for providing the resources for drawing up and implementing the necessary technical documentation for the rehabilitation of the National Monument.

Summary:

The Šeranić family were wealthy landowners and the largest family of Gornji Šeher.  The house is known to have been the first to be roofed with plain tiles at the start of the Austro-Hungarian occupation following the removal of the shingles, which were in a state of dilapidation.  According to members of the family, the tiles were procured in Trieste. 

Applying the Criteria for the adoption of a decision on proclaiming an item of property a national monument, this national monument reaches the following criteria (criteria of significance):

            A.  Time frame

            B.  Historical value

            C.  Artistic and aesthetic value

                        C.iii. proportions

                        C. v. value of details

            D. Clarity

                        D. iv. evidence of a particular type, style or regional manner

            E. Symbolic value

                        E.iii. traditional value

                        E.iv. relation to rituals or ceremonies

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

            F. Townscape/landscape value

                        Fii – meaning in the townscape

            G. Authenticity

                        G.i. form and design

                        G.ii. material and content

                        G.iii. use and function

                        G.v. location and setting

The priority level of intervention is HIGH.

NOTE:

Condition

1. Very bad

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.