Vozuca Monastery in Vozuca

Zavidovici

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

1.INTRODUCTORY PAGE

Vozuca Monastery in Vozuca

1.1 Country/Territory:  

Bosnia and Herzegovina

1.2 Name of organization compiling the information:

Commission to Preserve National Monuments

1.3 Contact name:       

Mirela Mulalic Handan

1.4 email address:      

mirela.m.handan@aneks8komisija.com.ba

1.5 Name and address of bulding(s) or site:    

The architectural ensemble of the Vozuca Monastery in Vozuca

1.6 Inventory reference number(s):     

Decision for designation of national monument No.: 06.1-2-1043/03-8;

1.7 Building type(s):    

Sacral architecture – architectural ensemble – monastery

1.8 Main date(s):         

Date of construction: 16th century

1.9 Current use(s):       

Not in use

2.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: THE SITE AND ITS MANAGEMENT

Vozuca monastery is a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It dates probably from the 16th century. According to folk tradition, Vozuca, like other Orthodox monasteries in Bosnia, was a Nemanjic foundation.  The earliest documentary reference to Vozuca dates from 1617. In 1690, after Austria's defeat in the Austro-Turkish war, many monks left the monastery and it remained empty for more than a century.  It was renovated between 1856 and 1859.   Following the renovation of the church in 1856-1859, cottages or chalets were built beside it - small wooden huts used by families belonging to Vozuća parish. In 1858 a primary school building was erected beside the monastery church where, at first, the priests acted as teachers.  The school closed in about 1894. In 1894 a bell tower made of wood was erected beside the monastery church. Vozuća monastery suffered most during the 20th century: in 1917 the bell from the bell tower was taken down; in 1941 the church was looted, and vestments, banners, icons, books and other church trappings were taken away; in 1942 the primary school building along with the wooden bell tower beside the church and 20 wooden chalets at Crkvena luka were burned to the ground.

The photographs that have been found in sources dating from 1930 to 1950 show a wooden bell tower but available documentation dating from 1977 records that the bell tower was stone-built and clad with shingles.  The stone bell tower was demolished after 1977.

During the war 1992-1995, the surface of the church walls was damaged from ammunition of various calibres; the plaster was damaged; doors and windows’ glaze were smashed; the stone Holy Throne was broken; and the walls were covered with various graffiti.

In 1996 or 1997, the monastery was vandalized and the copper sheeting was stripped from the roof and taken away. For 4 or 5 years the building was without any roof cladding and thus exposed to the elements, damp, snow and ice which. This provoked the following consequences: the walls of the parvis are badly damaged and the other walls, as well as the vaults of the nave, are damaged in the form of localized cracks; the ceiling vault of the parvis is completely destroyed; doors and windows are visibly damaged, particularly in the parvis area; interior wall plaster has fallen away onto the floor; within the nave a high degree of damp can be felt; the side and front walls of the parvis have suffered significant deformation leading to their partial or complete collapse; the remains of the parvis walls are unstable and pose a threat.

The current proposal is therefore the urgent undertaking of temporary protection measures to protect the church building from further collapse and further, to consolidate, conserve and repair the monastery, preserving its original structure and form. 

Restoration of the monastery would help the return of refugees/displaced persons to the territory of their pre-war 1992-1995 residence in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

PTA carried by:

Commission to Preserve National Monuments

Local experts:

Emir Softic, Architect, Associate for Architectural monuments,

Robert Stergar, Architect-Conservator

Mustafa Humo, Civil Engineer,

headed by Mirela Mulalic Handan, Project Coordinator, 

Sarajevo, 2005.