Kulturarv utan Gränser
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Monastery church in Zavala
Outside the village of Zavala in Herzegovina there is an Orthodox monastery with a small medieval monastery church of considerable cultural and historical significance. The church is built against the rock so that the mountainside forms its north wall. The interior of its walls is covered with frescoes from the 17th century. The area and the church have been damaged by two earthquakes in 1962 and 1979, the war from 1992 to 1995 and by several ill-managed restorations.
Cultural Heritage without Borders' involvement in Zavala started in the summer of 2001 with a project financed by Sida. It was the Heritage Institute in Banja Luka that brought this important site to our attention and professor Muhamed Hamidovic from the University of Sarajevo, earlier head of the Heritage Institute in Sarajevo, confirmed the importance of saving the building. Damage was so serious that the monastery church was in danger of collapsing.
Once the foundations had been reinforced, though this took time because of the complicated
ground conditions, work could then begin on restoring the church's damaged vault during the summer of 2002. The frescoes were carefully removed from the parts that needed re-masoning due to large cracks. Then the traditional stone ceiling was taken down. The frescoes were put back in their original position during 2004.
Aims
The project had several aims, firstly to save one of the region’s most remarkable sites from collapsing; secondly, to revive cooperation on a collegial level between the two Heritage Institutes in Banja Luka and Sarajevo, and thirdly , to contribute to the development of skills and know-how that were used to solve the problems that occurred during the work to secure the building.
Collaboration between the two Heritage Institutest
The monastery building is situated within the Federation, but the foremost specialists on medieval Orthodox frescoes are in Banja Luka in the Republic of Srpska. So this has meant that the restoration work was conducted as a form of cooperation between the two Heritage Institutes in Banja Luka and Sarajevo. The static structural work was projected by Krister Berggren, a structural engineer and one of Sweden’s best experts on older building constructions.
The convent church after restoration. Photo Cultural Heritage without Borders, January 2003.
Type of building Monastery church
Construction date Medieval origin
Geographical location The village of Zavala, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Joint partners Republica Srpska’s Heritage Institute (RSHI) in Banja Luka and Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Heritage Institute (BHHI) in Sarajevo, Conex from Mostar and the Swedish company Skanska
Local architects in charge Mirzah Foco, BHHI and Milijana Okilj, RSHI
Project manager Tina Wik, Cultural Heritage without Borders
Structural engineer Krister Berggren
Funding Sida
