A. Prepis (Scientific Coordinator) - B. Surdić - Z. Garić - J. Lukić - S. Hadžić - F. Gorgijev - N. Trajković – A. Fulgosi, "Kosovo: “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” Theological Seminary in Prizren", Preliminary Technical Assessment, Council of Europe & European Commission, Strasbourg 2006, pp.19 (original) (raw)

Forbidden Adventist Churches of Zivorad Jankovic in Bosnia and Herzegovina

ICOMOS 2020 Scientific Symposium Sydney, Australia, 5-9 October 2020 Selected Abstracts, 2023

The paper deals with the architecture of the churches built for Seventh-day Adventist Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina by architect Zivorad Jankovic (1924-1990). Jankovic is widely recognized as one of the most prominent Yugoslav architects commissioned for number of important public facilities all over former Yugoslavia. Examples of his work include the Tobacco Factory and Sports and Cultural Centre Skenderija, both in Sarajevo, Universal-purpose arena Gripe in Split, Sports Centre SPENS Vojvodina in Novi Sad, and Social and Sports Centre Boro i Ramiz in Priština. Jankovic’s religious adherence to the Seventh-day Adventist Church meant much of his architectural opus was prohibited from being researched and involved no public publication. Jankovic designed and built churches for the Church he belonged to, in Banja Luka, Laminci, Gradiska, Prnjavor, Derventa, Prijedor, Marini, and Nozicko; mostly concentrated in the north-western part of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their historical development, architectural properties, and stylistic evaluation suffer from systematic ignorance of the national authorities and wider community. Such treatment started during the Communist era of former Yugoslavia, where actually all religious groups were disregarded and their members often systematically neglected if publicly recognised as such. During the civil war in Bosnia (1991-1995) with strong political and national social segregation entirely followed by religious adherence to Roman Catholic, Serbian Orthodox, and Islam religion, other communities were entirely ignored. Modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite embracing diversity, still has the same issue of the strong influence of three major religions, and political subjects derived from their roots. This paper shows ground-breaking research on Jankovic’s churches and their development, architectural properties, and stylistic evaluation ranging from traditional steep-roof Dinara to International Style architecture. It shows the importance of these sites and their influence on the image of architecture of certain cityscapes as well as to the image of sacred architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina.