The historic site of a prehistoric hill fort and the mediaeval and Ottoman Sokolac Fort in the village of Sokolac, Municipality Bihać (BH_27)

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 site of a prehistoric hill fort and the mediaeval and Ottoman Sokolac Fort in the village of Sokolac, Municipality Bihać, FBiH

Inventory reference number(s): 05.2-2-62/07-4

Building type(s): Prehistoric hill fort, mediaeval and Ottoman fort

Main date(s): Prehistoric hill fort (late Bronze Age, 10th-9th century BCE)

         Mediaeval and Ottoman fort

Current use(s): Occasional use for tourism or educational purposes

Significance

The fort in Sokolac is referred to in mediaeval documents as Sokol. It is marked on a map by M Quad printed in Amsterdam in 1593 as Zokol, and the same name is used in all mediaeval documents until Sokol and Bihać came under Ottoman rule. A 1699 map features it under the name Sokolatz.

The oldest charter referring to Sokolac dates from 1395, naming it as a royal town with castellans Ivan, known as Uza, and Grgur Eten. The fort is close to Bihać, with which it has a shared history. In the struggle between King Sigismund of Luxembourg and Ladislav (Louis) of Naples for the royal throne and the Bosnian crown, battles were also waged to seize power in the towns and forts of the Bihać frontier region. During the summer [year not given – trans.], Bihać fell to Sigismund, and Sokol fort was probably also taken in November that year; according to a document dated 16 April 1404 it was in his possession. During a battle sometime between 1403 and 1404 nearby Bihać was lost to the supporters of King Louis and Herceg Hrvoje, falling into the hands of supporters of Sigismund, who took Bihać in 1405. He alternated between Bihać and Sokol between 28 September and 8 October, but by 18 October that year Bihać was already back in the hands of Sigismund’s opponent Hrvoje Vukčić.

During Sigismund’s campaign against the Bosnians, which ended with the battle of Dobor in the late summer of 1408, some of Sigismund’s troops made for north-western Bosnia. The Bihać fort was held by King Louis’s and Herceg Hrvoje’s troops, while the commander of Sokolac fort Sigismund’s loyal follower Tomo, son of Tumpa of Kutina. During Sigismund’s 1408 campaign which ended with the battle of Dobor, there was also fighting in the upper Una near Bihać. With the help of the Ottomans, the troops fighting against Sigismund attacked the Ripač and Sokolac forts, but there too they were trounced by Tomo Tompa.

Under the terms of charters of 1431 and 1434, the royal town of Sokol with its lands, together with Bihać, was bestowed by King Sigismund on his followers, the Krk-Frankopan princes, ban (governor) Nikola and Stjepan. In 1449, under the division of the estate between the sons of ban Nikola, Sokol and Bihać belonged to Prince Bartol Frankopan. In 1490 Sokol came into the hands of Croatia’s ban Ivaniš Corvin, who received both the title and the lands after the death of his father, Matthias Corvin. After the death of ban Ivaniš in 1505, the Sokol and Bihać forts against came under royal rule. In 1510 King Louis allocated the Sokol fort to the aristocratic Orlovići’s of Ripač and Čavka. Grgur, one of the Orlović brothers, became captain of Senj, which also defending the region by the Una from the Ottomans in this part of the world. In 1529, three years after the death of Grgur Orlović (who was killed at Mohács in 1526), King Ferdinand granted Sokol and its kotar (district) to Petar Kružić, who restored it to the widow and children of Grgur Orlović. In 1534 the widow Matra Orlović ceded estates to her son-in-law, the aristocrat Ladislav Kerečen, including the Sokol fort. It is not known how Sokol rapidly came into the hands of the Zagorje aristocrat Juraj Vragović.

Since the Sokol fort was important for the defence of Bihać, in 1538 King Ferdinand ordered the Bihać captain, Petar Keglević, to do all he could to acquire the fort from its authorized overlords. At that time the fort was reinforced. The Krajiška (frontier) administration held Sokol under lease from August 1549. Under the terms of an agreement of 1550, King Ferdinand leased the Sokol fort from the Kerečen family. After this, a military guard was installed in Sokol, under the command of the Bihać captain.

In 1537, a powerful Ottoman army succeeded in capturing part of the fort, as far as the main tower, which held out. Another major Ottoman assault in the area, and on the fort, was launched in August 1561 under the command of two of Malkoč-beg’s sons. They torched everything from Previlica in the north to Ripač in the south. Some of the local people found shelter inside the ramparts of the Sokol fort, but many were taken into slavery or were displaced.  In 1586, Sarvaš pasha attached Golubić and laid it waste. Prior to this, the Golubić plain had been a fertile valley providing quantities of food for the garrison attached to the Sokol fort. By 1578 the Ottomans were again trying to capture the fort, but without success; they again failed in 1591 under the leadership of the Livno beg. With the fall of Bihać in 1592, the Sokol fort also came under Ottoman rule.

Little is known of the Sokol fort during the Ottoman period. As the lands in the Una valley were gradually taken by the Ottomans in the second half of the 16th century, ending with the fall of Bihać in 1592, the forts along the right bank of the Una, from Krupa to the north, were joined to the Bosnian sandžak. When Bihać was taken in 1592 and the Ottomans began restoring order, they founded the Bihać sanjak. Although the oldest reliable reference to this sanjak is in a document dating from 1620, it was probably founded some time between the fall of Bihać in 1592 and 1620. The second reference to the Bihać sandžak is in a Veneto-Dalmatian description of the Bosnian pashaluk in 1624-1626. The major towns of the sandžak were Bihać, Kamengrad, Ripač, Cazin, Bužim, Ostrožac and Krupa. The headquarters were in Bihać or, at times, in Krupa. It seems that the Bihać sandžak was abolished in the mid 17th century. It was re-established at the end of the same century. In the 18th century the Bihać sandžak was one of five in the Bosnian pashaluk, but in 1711 it was finally and conclusively abolished. It was divided into kadiluks. The Bihać kadiluk was probably founded just after the fall of Bihać in 1592, though the earliest reference to it is in 1619. This kadiluk contained the towns of Bihać, Izačić, Sokol, Ripač, and others. In the 17th century there is one reference to Krupa and Ripač as separate kadiluks. During the entire Ottoman period, nearby Ripač was a more important fort, located on an island in the Una to the south of Sokol fort. According to an inventory carried out in 1833, the fortress in Sokolac (in the Bihać kadiluk), contained only two small cannon, while an undated inventory reveals that there were only twelve soldiers in the fort.

Description of the property

Prehistoric hill fort

The hill fort was recorded by Radimsky during his tour of prehistoric sites in the Bihać area while working on the large necropolis in Jezerine (1891-1893). The fort covered the entire upper plateau of the Debeljače spur, including the part where the Sokolac fort was later built. It measured 670 m x 170 m at its widest point, and lay south-east/north-west. The highest point of the slope is the rocky outcrop on which the mediaeval fort was built, on the south-east side of the Debeljače spur. The hill fort slopes more gently to the north-west, and does not stand on the precipitous crags as does the fort. Here Radimsky discovered the remains of the dry walls surrounding the hill fort. He also observed a rocky earthwork outside the former fosse of the fort, in the vacant south-eastern area. He came upon large quantities of prehistoric pottery opposite the earthwork, on the northern edge of the slope bordering the cliffs. An urn belonging to a prehistoric necropolis with level graves was found under a slab. Large quantities of pottery vessels belonging to the same period as the finds from the lake dwellings in Ripač were also found on the plateau outside the north-western wall of the fosse. Major finds included a pottery mould for casting small bronze articles and the much damaged remains of bronze jewellery. The pottery dates this to the late Bronze Age, 10th-9th century BCE.  Iron artefacts were found on the same site – knives and horseshoes of uncertain age.

Fortifications dating from the mediaeval and Ottoman periods

In ground plan the Sokolac fort forms a triangle with its highest point at the south-eastern corner, where the main tower was built. Like the entire slope, it slopes from the south-east to the north-west. The fort is 175 m long and 120 m wide at its widest point, by the north-west wall.

The fort has two towers: the gatehouse to the north, and the main tower or keep at the south-east high point of the plateau. The towers are linked by a spacious bailey. The ramparts and towers are built partly of hard stone and partly of tufa, which was abundant here.

The gatehouse was built against the north rampart, facing the Golubić plain and the river Una. The gatehouse measures 3 x 4 m. One door leads into the gatehouse, with another door in the opposite wall leading into the bailey. This made it possible to close the gatehouse off for defensive purposes. It is about 15 m in height, and has three storeys. Since the walls are high and it is impossible to fire down them through loopholes, machicolations were built at the top of the gatehouse along all three walls to prevent anyone from reaching the door by stealth. The machicolations are in fact projecting walls on three sides. They have no floor, but gaps through which the enemy could be targeted. The frontal wall provided the defenders with protection. The narrower walls, to the sides, are supported by stone brackets. The fourth wall is also the bailey rampart.

The bailey of the fort is quite large. The longest rampart is the northern, where the entrance to the fort was located, opposite the keep. A length of 38 m of this rampart has survived, with only the traces at ground-level of another 14 m. This rampart joins the wall of the small bailey surrounding the keep. Only 15 m of the south wall opposite has survived, too; the rest has disappeared, as evidently have parts of both these ramparts in the eastern part of the fort, near the keep. The western bailey rampart has survived almost in its entirety. It is about 40 m long and had a fosse outside it, which is now full of soil and dense vegetation. At the top of the bailey ramparts, the remains of close-set breastworks can be seen, each with a small central loophole. The breastworks are about 0.6 m apart. Below them are the remains of consoles or sockets for the structure of the wooden walkway. Inside the spacious fort Radimsky saw signs of the remains of houses abutting onto the ramparts and on the rather worn stone and grassy ground in the lower part near the gatehouse. All that can now be seen is hewn stone as part of the footings of the houses.

The keep stands on the highest rocky point of the spur of the hill. It is surrounded on all four sides by a small inner bailey which is an irregular rectangle in shape. There are two entrances to this bailey. One in the west wall of the small bailey of the keep, which is at a height of 3 m and needed a ladder for access, is the entrance from the main bailey. The other entrance is in the south-east (rear) wall of this bailey, in a rather inaccessible place. Nowadays the way into the bailey is through a large gap in the wall. Traces of the steps alongside the inner wall face, that were used to climb up to the wooden walkways below the loopholes at the top of the wall, can be seen by this entrance. Truhelka writes that this small bailey was roofed over and contained a cistern. There is now no sign of this cistern.

The keep was 10 m in diameter and about 16 m high, with walls 2.4 m thick. The entrance to the keep was at first-floor level. On either side of the entrance to the keep are doors leading to steep steps inside the wall, one up to the second and third floor and one down to the ground floor. The first floor contains a room with a Gothic vault, with a diameter of 5.2 m. There are the remains of brackets at the base of the slope of the vault on each wall, probably used to hold shelves. The walls also had a number of recesses, used for storage. This room is lit by two large windows. Since they are in walls almost 2.5 m thick, the windows are so deeply set into the wall that the side walls up to the windows have benches along the entire length. Truhelka found a fireplace in one of these window spaces, which was also there in 1953 during conservation works, but is no longer in existence. There were similar rooms on the second and third floors.  The windows of the keep are rectangular. The keep was also topped by a machicolation and a row of loopholes, and the whole thing topped by a pointed wooden roof. General Lenković described the keep thus: "A strong round tower with three vaults and surrounded by a wall. The vanished roof should be replaced, with two gutters, the breastworks and loopholes should be repaired, and the walls around it, over which in times past the Turks climbed, being unable to conquer the tower, should be raised and a jetty for the guard should be constructed on them."

Steps led down from the first floor to the cramped ground floor, with a small room and much thicker walls than the upper storeys.

Categories of Significance

-       Of outstanding national importance

Categories of ownership or interest

-       Public ownership

Documentation and bibliographic references

Commission to Preserve National Monuments, Decision designating the prehistoric hill fort and mediaeval and Ottoman Sokolac Fort in the village of Sokolac as a national monument of BiH, no. 05.2-2-62/07-4 of 11-17.09.2007, Sarajevo; Official Gazette of BiH no. 60/08; www. aneks8komisija.com.ba

1893.    Radimský, Vaclav. “Nekropola u Jezerinama u Pritoci kod Bišća” (The necropolis in Jezerine in Pritoka near Bišće), Jnl. of the National Museum in Sarajevo, V. Sarajevo: National Museum, 1893.

1904.    Truhelka, Ćiro. Naši najljepši gradovi (Our finest forts). Sarajevo: 1904. 

1943.    Lopašić, Radoslav. Bihać i Bihaćka krajina (Bihać and the Bihać frontier region) (2nd ed.). Zagreb: 1943.

1952.    Kreševljaković, Hamdija. “Prilozi povijesti bosanskih gradova pod turskom upravom,” Prilozi za orijentalnu filologiju i istoriju jugoslovenskih naroda pod turskom vladavinom (Contributions to the history of Bosnian towns under Turkish administration, Contributions for Oriental Philology and the History of the South Slavs under Turkish Governance), II/1951. Sarajevo: Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo, 1952.

1953.    Kreševljaković, Hamdija. “Stari bosanski gradovi”. (Old Bosnian Forts), Naše starine I. Sarajevo: 1953.

1957.    Vego, Marko. Naselja srednjovjekovne bosanske države (Settlements of the mediaeval Bosnian state). Sarajevo: Svjetlost, 1957.

1972.    “Pregled konzervatorsko-restauratorskih radova u proteklih dvadesetpet godina” (Overview of conservation and restoration works during the past 25 years), Naše starine XIII. Sarajevo: 1972.

1982.    Šabanović, Hazim. Bosanski pašaluk, postanak i upravna podjela (Bosnian Pashaluk, origins and administrative division). Sarajevo: Svjetlost, 1982.

1995.    Kruhek, Milan. Krajiške utvrde i obrana hrvatskog kraljevstva tijekom 16. stoljeća (Frontier fortresses and the defence of the Kingdom of Croatia in the 16th century). Zagreb: 1995.

2006.    Lovrenović, Dubravko, Na klizištu povijesti (sveta kruna ugarska i sveta kruna bosanska) 1387-1463 (On the landslide of history [The Holy Hungarian Crown and the Holy Bosnian Crown] 1387-1463). Zagreb-Sarajevo: 2006.

Condition 

-       Very poor – structural damage and instability; seriously affected by fire or disaster.

The layout of the fortress is well preserved but parts of the south and north ramparts have been totally destroyed. The stone from the top and revetments of the ramparts is falling away, and there are large gaps in the walls in places. The breastworks topping the surviving ramparts are gradually crumbling away. The fosse outside the fort is no longer recognizable.

The property is on the List of Endangered Monuments, and is in very poor condition with structural damage and occasional instances of collapse. This is also the result of war damage: the property was hit by artillery projectiles on several occasions, and trenches were dug up to the ramparts, in which the action of water and freezing caused cracks and slippages to the structure.  Possible full revitalization, on which the Institute, as manager appointed by Bihać Council, has begun working.

War or associated damage:

-       Spontaneous collapse, caused by war damage: the property was hit by artillery projectiles on several occasions, and trenches were dug up to the ramparts.

            [Translator’s note: scale of 1-5 not applied by author of this text]

Risk

-       No risk for intervention on the property itself or the site. Debeljača Hill, on the slopes of which the fort stands, has been designated as a forest park, and a significant belt around the fort is protected.

Natural Threats

-       Climatic factors (wind, rain)

The Impact of Social Unrest

-       The property was hit by artillery projectiles on several occasions during the war.

Lack of maintenance

-       Vegetation growth

Structural destabilization

-       Structural failure – deformations, collapse

-       Loss of material, detachment, cracking

Resources

-       Lack of finance for maintenance and repair

Condition risk 

B – Immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or structural loss; solution exists but no action being taken.

There is an immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or structural loss. No authorized design company tendered to draw up the project documentation for repair works to the entrance area. They had been notified in advance of the structural problems.

Technical assessment and costings

Preliminary investigative works included clearing the buildings and the site of vegetation, conducting a geodetic survey and an architectural survey, a conservation-restoration analysis, and drawing up a revitalization plan and programme to include access roads. The plan provides for the creation of links between various roads and paths with surrounding archaeological sites and buildings. Funding has been provided for filling in the trenches, restoring part of the fallen rampart stonework, and erecting a notice board for visitors. The specification is for initial costs in the sum of approx. 406.000 EUR (812,000.00 KM).

Ownership

-       Bihać Municipality is the registered owner of the property.

Occupation

-       Occasional use for tourism or educational purposes.

Management

Pursuant to the powers allotted to it by Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH, in 2007 the Commission to Preserve National Monuments adopted a Decision designating the historic site of a prehistoric hill fort and the mediaeval and Ottoman Sokolac Fort in the village of Sokolac, Bihać Municipality, Federation of BiH, 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 historic site of a prehistoric hill fort and the mediaeval and Ottoman Sokolac Fort in the village of Sokolac, Bihać Municipality, Federation of BiH, as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina 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). 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 the Federation of BiH nos. 2/02, 27/02, 6/04 and 51/07) apply to the National Monument.

In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), the Federal Ministry of Regional Planning 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 Monuments operates under the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport of FBiH. 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 Government of FBiH.

The Federal Inspectorate Authority of FBiH, 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.

The Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage, a public institution headquartered in Bihać, conducts heritage protection affairs in Una Sana Canton. The Institute conducts specialist and scientific studies and investigations, maintenance 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).

Bihać 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

The Sokolac Fort is part of the frontier system of defences and attack facilities consisting of frontier forts, extending beyond the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Adriatic coast and along the Zrmanja, Una and Mura rivers all the way to Vienna. This property, like many others along the same line of defences, could be revitalized by using it for a permanent museum display within the fort, in which the European states in whose territory the frontier system lies could present a significant part of their history. This would mean that the property is of international character as regards cultural history.

            The priorities for intervention are structural repair and preventing further deterioration.

Condition

-       At risk of rapid deterioration as a result of neglect.

Risk

-       Immediate risk of further rapid deterioration and structural loss.

Priority level

-       High.

Given the universal symbolic and historical importance of the prehistoric hill fort and mediaeval and Ottoman Sokolac Fort not only for Bosnia and Herzegovina but also beyond, its repair, conservation and restoration is a high priority.

Proposal submitted by the The Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage Una Sana Canton

Reinforced by the List of Endangered Monuments led by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments

Signed and dated

Mirzet Mujadžić, conservator - restaurator

Silvana Čobanov, archaeologist

Mirela Mulalić Handan, architect

Sarajevo, 19 July 2010.