Session

Architecture and Spatial Planning

Description

When the Austro-Hungarian monarchy started to administrate the former Ottoman province of Bosnia on behalf of the decision of the Berlin Congress in 1878, it took over a neglected country in Southeastern Europe. Immediately, the new government established efficient structures to enhance the educational system and the public infrastructure. By means of type planning, the necessary new buildings of this first emergency-period grew in a still breathtaking speed. During the following 1890ies, the planners and responsible politicians developed a special architectural language for representative buildings of this region between orient and occident. It intended to strengthen the identity of the majority Muslim population. After 1900, also private residences of the upper classes and some urban apartment blocks used this kind of a pseudo-Moorish style for its decoration. After intensive discussion on a potential Bosnian romantic-style according to the “Heimatstil” in other European countries, some characteristic attributes of the traditional buildings mingled with Secession and Art Nouveau features, to finally overcome this “foreign” and “exotic” phase, nowadays reflected with credits.

On the southwestern slope of the castle hill at Jajce in central Bosnia, we do find representative objects of all three stages of development in architectural style in absolute vicinity. Next to this distinct group of new buildings stands the St. Luke’s tower, a medieval monument listed and protected already in 1892 by the Austrian officials. Traditional residential houses from Ottoman-Bosnian times frame the whole. Contemporary travel reports already mark this group of buildings by the term “ensemble”, which is worth a closer consideration from the standpoint of monument protection theory. Besides, the ensemble represents condensed at one prominent site – Jajce was once the capital of the medieval Bosnian kingdom – the new approaches of the Austro-Hungarian administration to modernize the country. Currently this distinct cultural landscape, - the Habsburg-Bosnian ensemble in combination with the important medieval monuments and the traditional Ottoman-Balkan residential houses-, tries to reach UNESCO world heritage status.

This paper summarizes the overall background for the Habsburg-Bosnian building ensemble and its architectural styles by comparing with other objects more in detailed traced so far through a European Research Council Grant on Islamic Architecture and Orientalizing Style in Habsburg-Bosnia (www.kunstgeschichte.univie.ac.at/ercbos; facebook.com/ercbos). The author is part of this interdisciplinary research team based at the University of Vienna.

Keywords:

Habsburg-Bosnia, architectural ensemble, monument protection, historicism, Orientalizing style, Secession, modernization, cultural landscape

Session Chair

Caroline Jaeger-Klein

Session Co-Chair

Bekim Ceko

Proceedings Editor

Edmond Hajrizi

ISBN

978-9951-550-19-2

First Page

133

Last Page

140

Location

Pristina, Kosovo

Start Date

26-10-2019 3:30 PM

End Date

26-10-2019 5:00 PM

DOI

10.33107/ubt-ic.2019.245

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Oct 26th, 3:30 PM Oct 26th, 5:00 PM

Habsburg-Bosnia (1878-1918) condensed - The distinct architectural ensemble at Jajce

Pristina, Kosovo

When the Austro-Hungarian monarchy started to administrate the former Ottoman province of Bosnia on behalf of the decision of the Berlin Congress in 1878, it took over a neglected country in Southeastern Europe. Immediately, the new government established efficient structures to enhance the educational system and the public infrastructure. By means of type planning, the necessary new buildings of this first emergency-period grew in a still breathtaking speed. During the following 1890ies, the planners and responsible politicians developed a special architectural language for representative buildings of this region between orient and occident. It intended to strengthen the identity of the majority Muslim population. After 1900, also private residences of the upper classes and some urban apartment blocks used this kind of a pseudo-Moorish style for its decoration. After intensive discussion on a potential Bosnian romantic-style according to the “Heimatstil” in other European countries, some characteristic attributes of the traditional buildings mingled with Secession and Art Nouveau features, to finally overcome this “foreign” and “exotic” phase, nowadays reflected with credits.

On the southwestern slope of the castle hill at Jajce in central Bosnia, we do find representative objects of all three stages of development in architectural style in absolute vicinity. Next to this distinct group of new buildings stands the St. Luke’s tower, a medieval monument listed and protected already in 1892 by the Austrian officials. Traditional residential houses from Ottoman-Bosnian times frame the whole. Contemporary travel reports already mark this group of buildings by the term “ensemble”, which is worth a closer consideration from the standpoint of monument protection theory. Besides, the ensemble represents condensed at one prominent site – Jajce was once the capital of the medieval Bosnian kingdom – the new approaches of the Austro-Hungarian administration to modernize the country. Currently this distinct cultural landscape, - the Habsburg-Bosnian ensemble in combination with the important medieval monuments and the traditional Ottoman-Balkan residential houses-, tries to reach UNESCO world heritage status.

This paper summarizes the overall background for the Habsburg-Bosnian building ensemble and its architectural styles by comparing with other objects more in detailed traced so far through a European Research Council Grant on Islamic Architecture and Orientalizing Style in Habsburg-Bosnia (www.kunstgeschichte.univie.ac.at/ercbos; facebook.com/ercbos). The author is part of this interdisciplinary research team based at the University of Vienna.