The historic building of the Hadžišabanović villa, Pale Municipality (BH_28)

Country or territory: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Name of organisation compiling the information: Commission to Preserve National Monuments

Contact name: Mirela Mulaluć Handan

Email address: mirela.m.handan@kons.gov.ba

Name and address of building(s) or site: The historic building of the Hadžišabanović villa, Pale Municipality, RS

Inventory reference number(s): 01-336/02

Building type(s): Residential

Main date(s): Built 1912, during the Austro-Hungarian period. In private ownership to 1946, when it was nationalized. Now the property of Pale Municipality

Current use(s): Not in use

Significance

The villa is one of the few surviving examples of a weekend and holiday home. It is in the style of an Austrian villa, as regards both appearance and materials. The villa was built by the Hadžišabanović family of merchants from Sarajevo to a design developed in March 1912 in the cabinet-maker’s studio of August Tabory in Sarajevo. The villa is a substantial three-storey brick building rendered with lime cement mortar.

Categories of significance

-       of outstanding national importance

Categories of ownership or interest

-       State owned

Documentation and bibliographic references

Commission to Preserve National Monuments, Decision designating the Hadžišabanović Villa in Pale as a national monument, no. 01-336/02 of 6 September 2002,Sarajevo; www. aneks8komisija.com.ba

Long-term social plan for the city of Sarajevo for 1986-2000, Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage for the urban planning area of Pale, Sarajevo, 1987.

Condition 

4. Poor - structural condition very poor; building at risk of falling into ruins.

War or associated damage

5. Major damage, should be proposed for reconstruction.

Risk 

The property suffered no war damage, but is at risk of rapid deterioration through the failure to take protective measures and the absence of regular maintenance.

It is exposed to the threats of:

Lack of maintenance:

-       Vegetation growth

-       Accumulated dirt

Lack of administration and legislation:

-       Inadequate institutional support

-       Poor integration of heritage into development plans

Structural destabilization:

-       Loss of material, detachment, cracking

Ownership and occupation:

-       No responsibility for maintenance

Resources:

-       Lack of finance for maintenance and repair

-       Lack of skills for project management

Condition risk 

C. Immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric; no solution agreed

Technical assessment and costings

-       No technical assessments of condition have been carried out and there are no preliminary costing carried out for repairs and rehabilitation. 

Ownership

-       State owned – cadastral plot no. 4326, cadastral municipality Pale

Occupation

-       Not in use. May be used for residential, tourism or hotel/catering purposes.

Management

Pursuant to the powers allotted to it by Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH, in 2002 the Commission to Preserve National Monuments adopted a Decision designating the historic building of the Hadžišabanović Villa, Pale Municipality, RS as a national monument.

The Commission monitors and assesses the condition of national monuments and activities associated with them. It has drawn up a List of Endangered Monuments requiring urgent protection measures to prevent them from being wholly destroyed, with a view to drawing the attention of all relevant authorities at the entity and national (state) level, as well as of potential donors and investors, to national monuments at risk of disappearing for ever if steps are not taken immediately to rescue them.

Responsibility for implementing the Commission’s decisions lies with the government of the entity in whose territory a given national monument is located. The entity governments, regional planning ministries, heritage protection authorities and municipal authorities responsible for town planning and cadastral affairs are notified of decisions by the Commission to enable them to carry out the measures prescribed by law, and the relevant municipal court is also notified so that the designation may be entered in the Land Register.

Pursuant to the Law on the Implementation of Decisions of the Commission and the provisions of the Decision designating the Hadžišabanović Villa as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the government of Republika Srpska is responsible for providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary for the protection, conservation, presentation and rehabilitation of the national monument (the implementation of the Decision). 

In Republika Srpska, the Ministry of Regional Planning, Construction and the Environment issues permits for protective, investigative, conservation, restoration and rehabilitation works on national monuments, along with building permits relating to the protected site of a national monument, based on planning and technical documentation approved by the authorized professional body. Technical documentation must be in conformity with the protection measures set out in the decisions designating national monuments. In addition, the basic activity of the entity ministries responsible for regional planning is spatial planning and drawing up planning documents, and implementing them by means of land use.

The Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage operates under the RS Ministry of Education and Culture. The Institute is responsible for the expert supervision of restoration works on national monuments and for carrying out restoration projects financed from the budget of the RS Government.

The RS Inspectorate Authority, responsible for planning and building inspection, carries out the inspection and oversight of the protected areas on which national monuments are located, and is authorized to take the legally prescribed protection measures, including issuing decisions suspending all interventions not in compliance with the law and restoring the property in question to the condition in which it was prior to the illicit or inexpert works.

Pale Municipality, acting through its various departments, monitors and controls activities in the field. Municipal authorities are required to bring all their plans and documents relating to the protected area of a monument into compliance with the decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments. The Municipality is also required to refrain from all activities that could be detrimental to the monument, and to cooperate with the Commission to Preserve National Monuments and the entity institutions in the process of implementation of the Commission’s decisions and the protection of monuments.

The Commission to Preserve National Monuments is also authorized, in its case by the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to conduct international activities in regard to the protection of the historical and cultural heritage. This includes raising donor funds for the protection of national monuments and the implementation of protection projects.

Summary

Significance

The villa was built by the Hadžišabanović family of merchants from Sarajevo for use as a weekend and holiday home. It is in the style of an Austrian villa of the Austro-Hungarian period, as regards both appearance and materials. 

Long-term neglect, lack of maintenance, exposure to the elements and other adverse circumstances (the property was nationalized in 1946) have left the building in very poor condition. Years of damp, frost action and other factors, exacerbated by very deep snow in 2000/2001, have resulted in structural collapse, and the western part of the building is in ruins.  What remains of the west wall is extremely unstable and at risk of collapse, which would bring down much of the building with it.

Condition

The property suffered no war damage, but is at risk of rapid deterioration through the failure to take protective measures and the absence of regular maintenance.

Risk

Risk of collapse.

Proposal submitted by the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage RS

Signed and dated

Milijana Okilj, architect - Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage RS

Mirzah Fočo, architect - Commission to Preserve National Monuments

Sarajevo, 6 May 2010