The architectural spa ensemble of the baths in Ilidža Mahala (residential quarter), in Gornji Šeher, Banja Luka (from Roman and Ottoman times) - National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The National Monument consists of the site and remains of the Ebin hauz; the baths in the Muharem Gušić house (Maslin hauz); the baths in the house of Šeranić Bisera; three baths with thermal waters in the Demirović house; the Osmančević baths (situated to the south-east of the Osmančević house); the site and remains of the Žbana baths; the Direklija baths in a cliff by the Vrbas riverbank; the site and remains of the Šugavica baths, and the Ilidža baths (Kraljičina Ilidža or Trokića Vrelo – the Trokić spring) by the Vrbas riverbank.
The Direklija baths, the site and remains of the Šugavica baths and the Ilidža baths are located on the right bank of the river Vrbas, in the riverbed itself, on the stretch of the Vrbas to the north-east of Banja Luka, and are situated, respectively, on the following geographic coordinates: latitude 44º44.923 N by longitude 17º08.801 E, latitude 44º44.942 N by longitude 17º09.534 E and latitude 44º44.936 N by longitude 17º09.519 E.
* Hauz - covered pool (in Arabic) not to be confused with house.
Location
The location of each of the baths within the site of the National Monument is as follows:
Ebin hauz(1) and hauz within the Muharem Gušić house (Maslin hauz): c.p. no. 670/1, c.m. Banja Luka III-8,
Hauz in the Šeranić Bisera house: c.p. no. 679/1, c.m. Banja Luka III-8,
Three baths with thermal waters on the ground floor of the Demirović house, standing on c.p. no. 674, c.m. Banja Luka III-8,
Osmančević baths in the single-storey building standing on c.p. no. 686/1, c.m. Banja Luka III-8, approx. 25m. to the south-east of the Osmančević house (standing on c.p. no. 685/1, c.m. Banja Luka III-8)
Žbana baths: c.p. no. 690, c.m. Banja Luka III-8,
Entrance to Direklija baths (baths in the cliff by the Vrbas river bank): latitude 44º44.923 N by longitude 017º08.801 E(2),
Šugavica spa: latitude 44º44.942 N by longitude 017º09.534 E,
The spring (Kraljičina Ilidža or Ilidža) by the Vrbas riverbank: latitude 44º44.936 N by longitude 017º09.519 E.
Historical information
During Roman times, favourable economic and geographical conditions led to the development of several known Roman settlements along the Salona-Servitium Roman road. These settlements included way stations (mansiones, mutationes): Lamatis (Krupa on the Vrbas), Castra (Banja Luka), Ad Ladios (Trn, a settlement 9 km from Banja Luka), Ad Fines (Laktaši).
In the late 19th century, archaeologists began to explore the antique sites in Banja Luka and its environs, paying most attention to the study of antique communications and settlements. No systematic archaeological investigations were conducted in Gornji Šeher, but among the twenty or so Roman coins brought to the National Museum in Sarajevo in the late 19th century were a number that had been found in Gornji Šeher: these coins dated from the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire (including a valuable Numerianus antoninianus). This suggests, therefore, that Roman money was already in circulation in the area in the second century BCE, and that it remained in circulation until the time of Valentinian I (356 CE).
In the 1980s, during construction works on the Gornji Šeher spa recreational centre, some 600 Roman coins were discovered, presumably associated with the use of the thermal waters and suggesting the custom of “stipem iacere”(3) .
The area with sulphur springs upstream from the Sofi Mehmed pasha mosque is referred to in Sofi Mehmed pasha's vakufnama(4) (deed of perpetual endowment) by the name Ilidža, and in the 1604 register of mahalas, where there is reference to the mosque in Ilidža whose founder, Mahmud Čelebi(5), witnessed Sofi Mehmed pasha's vakufnama of 1554./55.
The building of Sofi Mehmed pasha's endowments on the right bank of the river Vrbas, and of the bridge connecting them the already existing Hunkarija (Emperor's) čaršija (crafts and trades centre) on the left bank of the Vrbas with Sofi Mehmed pasha's mahala, was a great stimulus to the urban development of Donji Šeher; mahalas took shape downstream along the Vrbas: Osman Shah mahala, Kalendarija (Šinikova), Sitarska mahala and Tabaci mahala (from two mahalas later developed: Gornji and Donji Tabaci); Ilidža mahala was founded upstream alongside the river Vrbas, and the Hadžibeg-zade and Džaferagina mahalas(6) were founded above the Careva (Emperor’s) mahala, on Grab.
Ilidža mahala took shape between the river Vrbas and Šehitluk hill, on the eponymous site named after the mineral thermal springs(7) between which a the stream of warm water flowed into the river Vrbas. The oldest buildings of the mahala were the indoor pools known as hauz and two small mills, which could operate even during very cold winters.
The thermal springs located all along Ilidža mahala, and which were or are still used as hot baths, are Ebin hauz, Maslin hauz (Gušić baths), Hekerin hauz in the garden of the house of Bisera Šeranić, the hauz by the house of Bisera Šeranić, the Demirović baths, the Osmančević baths, the small pool by the house of Zeira Šeranić, Žbana, Direklija, Šugavica, and Kraljičina Ilidža.
All the hauzes were interconnected by a warm water brook, which ran down from Maslin hauz to the river Vrbas. Small wooden bridges were built over the brook, while right on the riverbank, close to the point where the brook flows into the Vrbas, two small mills(8) were built, which remained operational even during harsh winters, and which were still in existence at the beginning of the 20th century. One mill belonged to Muhamed Šeranić, and the other was known as Manserov. The mills, stamping mills, tannery equipment and bridges(9) over the river Vrbas were swept away on several occasions when the river was in spate, and the mills were destroyed by a flood between 1903 and World War I. In 1989, Braća Alagić street was built (now known as Od Zmijanja Rajka), the street level was raised, the brook was covered over, and the small bridges were demolished.
In or around 1660 the famous Turkish travel chronicler Evliya Çelebi wrote: “…Ilidža in Latin means baths. Since there is a hot spring (ilice) outside this Šeher, on the edge of the garden (bāgh), it acquired the name Banja. Then too, at that time, there was a šeher (town – Persian) at the edge of Banja, it acquired the name Luka. The two names were later merged into one in colloquial speech, and the town was named Banja Luka.” (on the meaning of the name Banja Luka: Otadžbina, Banja Luka, 1907, no. 13, and Jnl. Of the Yugoslav Teachers’ Association, volume for June – August 1934, Beograd 1934, offprint Bosanska Krajina, p. 13, note 1). (10)
The central feature of the mahala was undoubtedly the musalla, surrounded by a stone wall, within which were a stone-built mihrab and mimber. “It was the custom of the Turks at that time to build a musalla among the first facilities they introduced to newly conquered places, and especially where there were no resources to build a mosque, because a musalla could be built much faster and more cheaply.”(11) Later on, but before 1604, the mosque in Ilidža was built, and much later, a mekteb was built next to the mosque.
No major changes took place in Ilidža mahala during the Austro-Hungarian period. At some time after 1880(12) a steel grid bridge was built at the point where the Vrbas is at its narrowest, as well as the Žbana military baths and several buildings in the Austrian provincial style: the Gušić, Hadžialić, Lihović and Bisera Šeranić houses. At that time, there were several craft and trade workshops and commercial premises in Ilidža mahala: (the Aleksander Goldbacher coffee house, the Karl Goldbacher coffee house in the “Hladari” house near the bridge over the Vrbas, the Bajagilović shop in the Hadžialić house, the Menser coffee house known as the Globe, Trokić Mustafa’s shoemaker's shop) which were later closed, or the buildings were demolished.
The mimber (which the citizens of Banja Luka called the “small minaret” or “akšamlija”) and the mihrab of the musalla were demolished in 1935. The mosque in Ilidža was demolished in 1948. It had a wooden minaret and entrance porch with sofas, and a hipped roof.
Written sources relate that “during archaeological excavations in 1983, the foundations of the mosque were uncovered, consisting of three courses of stone, like a cavity wall (Photographic and Map Library of the Institute for for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and Nature – Banja Luka)(13). These excavations were related to the construction of the Gornji Šeher spa recreational centre (the former Commission for Town Planning, Utilities and Housing of Banja Luka municipality issued a Ruling granting permission to build the Gornji Šeher spa recreational centre).
Description of the property
The specific feature of Ilidža mahala are directly related to the natural resources of the region. The presence of thermal springs in a relatively small area was reflected in use of these natural resources by people who made use of the thermal waters (the average temperature of which was 33 to 36 degrees Celsius) when creating residential areas, introducing hot water into the buildings and making separate bathrooms in their houses, building next to a hot spring, incorporating an existing bathhouse into the layout of their houses, or building a pool with thermal waters in their gardens.
Hauz (covered pool in Arabic) buildings are one-room structures of solid stone walls and perforated brick-built domes, to allow for ventilation of the baths; the lime mortar used to build the domes was made with the addition of egg(14). The pools are usually surrounded by wooden benches, and the bottom of pools is gravelled. This type of bath has a different layout from that of the hammam (Turkish baths), as a result of the different technical process (the baths of Gornji Šeher use thermal water).
Maslin hauz (or Gušić baths)
The first hauz pool to be built dates from the Turkish period and was formerly a detached building. Later, in or around 1880, the house belonging to Muharem Maslo was built to the south-west of the hauz. The house later came through the female line into the possession of the Gušić family – hence the two names for the hauz: the Maslo baths and the Gušić baths. An antechamber was built on the north-west entrance side to the hauz, the exterior façade wall of which, together with the exterior north-west wall abutting onto the house, forms a single façade completely concealing the view of the baths. The antechamber to the baths contains an entrance area serving as a windshield and links the baths with the house via a single-flight staircase; it also contains a toilet block and cloakroom for people using the baths.
The hauz building is a square, single-roomed building measuring 6 x 6 m on the outside. The walls, which are approx. 75 cm thick, are of quarry stone, pointed on the outside and plastered on the inside; lime mortar was used as binder. The central interior space of the hauz measures 4.50 x 4.50 m. A walkway consisting of a wooden board platform 85 cm deep and 450 cm wide on a steel NP I girder, 180 cm above the bottom of the pool, leads down via a single-flight wooden staircase to wooden benches 40 cm in width (consisting of four longitudinal wooden slats on which bathers can rest) around the pool. The bottom of the pool is gravelled. The height of the building from the bottom of the pool to the inside apex of the dome is approx. 830 cm. The dome, built of Turkish bricks, is supported on the stone walls via a system of pendentives and rebated blind pointed arches (the rise of the arch measures approx. 200 cm, and the span from springer to springer is 430 cm). Near the top of the dome are eight circular vents, one at the top of the dome, with a diameter of approx. 10 cm, and seven arranged radially around it, with a diameter of approx. 18 cm.
The baths are in use.
Ebin hauz
The Ebin hauz is close to the Maslin hauz, approx. 12 m to the north. It takes its name from its last owner, whom the local inhabitants called eba (old mother).
Originally(15), the Ebin hauz building was square, and consisted of a single room (measuring approx. 5.10 x 5.10 m on the outside). The walls of the hauz, which are approx. 65 cm thick, are of quarry stone, pointed on the outside and plastered on the inside; lime mortar was used as binder. The central interior space of the hauz measures 3.80 x 3.80 m. A walkway consisting of a wooden board platform 90 cm deep and 380 cm wide on a steel NP I 22 girder, 170 cm above the bottom of the pool, leads down via a single-flight wooden staircase to wooden benches 40 cm in width (consisting of four longitudinal wooden slats on which bathers can rest) along two sides of the pool. The bottom of the pool is 250 m below ground level on the south-west side of the pool(16). The bottom of the pool was gravelled. The height of the building from the bottom of the pool to the inside apex of the dome was approx. 850 cm. The dome, built of Turkish bricks, is supported on the stone walls via a system of pendentives and rebated blind pointed arches (the rise of the arch measures approx. 230 cm, and the span from springer to springer is approx. 380 cm). Circular vents were installed at the top of the dome. As can be seen on old photographs of the baths, there were the remains of an extension on the west side of the building. There is information(17) to the effect that a cottage was built onto the south-west side of the baths shortly after 1851; this cottage was occupied by a sheikh who became the owner of the abandoned baths. Nothing is known of the appearance of this house.
By the end of the 20th century the baths were derelict, and as a result of inappropriate interventions designed to repair the baths in recent years, very little of their original appearance survives: all that has been retained is the structure of the stone walls of the baths to a height of approx. 2.20 m above ground level. Above this, the building has been rebuilt and roofed with a concrete dome.
The baths are in use.
The hauz in Bisera Šeranić’s house
Another indoor pool, currently forming part of the house of Šeranić Bisera, is located some 50m to the north-east of the Maslin hauz. The house, which was originally built in Austrian provincial style, was built by Ahmed Šeranić in 1910, when the baths were incorporated into the house. After the 1969 earthquake and subsequent repairs, the house acquired its current appearance and lost its original stylistic architectural values.
An entrance area measuring approx. 180 x 470 cm leads into the hauz. The hauz building is a square, single-room, stone-built structure with outside walls approx. 70 cm thick, measuring 4.70 x 4.70 on the inside. A walkway consisting of a wooden board platform 85 cm deep and 470 cm wide on a steel NP I girder, 190 cm above the bottom of the pool, leads down via a single-flight wooden staircase to a concreted area surrounding the pool, serving both as a walkway and as benches for bathers to rest on (this walkway is approx. 80 cm wide along the north-east and north-west walls and approx. 50 cm along the other two walls).The bottom of the pool is gravelled. The height from the bottom of the pool to the inside apex of the dome is approx. 655 cm. The dome, which is in the shape of an irregular ellipse in both transverse and longitudinal section, rests on the stone walls.The rise of the dome is approx. 210 cm, and its span is approx. 505 cm. There are ten vents at the top of the dome: four circular vents with a diameter of approx. 15 cm, and six rectangular vents set radially, measuring approx. 20 x 20 cm.
The baths are in use. The dome of the baths is protected by a temporary wooden structure clad with corrugated PVC tiles, to prevent the dome from leaking. Judging from its condition on site, the dome was protected by cement slurry and a thin cement screed, which had become damaged.
Osmančević baths
The baths known as the Osmančević baths are approx. 40 m to the north-east of the hauz in the house of Šeranić Bisera and 25m to the south-east of the Osmančević house (standing on c.p. no. 685/1, c.m. Banja Luka III-8), in a single-storey building standing on c.p. no. 686/1, c.m. Banja Luka III-8. The entrance area, measuring 2.33 x 3.07 m, which is used as a cloakroom, leads into the antechamber of the baths, measuring 1.42 x 2.33 m, which in turn leads into the final premises, measuring 2.50 x 2.33 m, containing the baths. A walkway 70 cm in width and approx. 2.33 m in length leads via a single-flight wooden staircase down to the pool, the bottom of which is 1.50 m below the level of the walkway. The height from the bottom of the pool to the ceiling is approx. 3.60 m. The pool is in a single-storey building which lacks any architectural value. The building itself is in use, but the ventilation is poor, resulting in high humidity levels in all the premises, and extensive condensation on all the walls and ceilings, giving the general impression of a building in poor condition.
Žbana
All that remains on the site of the former Austro-Hungarian military baths is the pool, measuring approx. 4 x 5 m, with a depth of about one metre. There is no surviving information concerning the building that once housed the pool. The pool is fed by a natural inflow of thermo-mineral waters. The site is untidy and overgrown with weeds and scrub, the surface of the water is covered with waterweeds, and there is no path leading to the pool, making it very difficult to reach.
Between the Žbana and Osmančević baths, a brook appears above ground over a short stretch of about five to six metres (referred to in the historical section), only to disappear below ground again between Žbana and the north-west retaining wall of Od Zmijanja Rajka street (formerly Braće Alagić street). The brook flows through an outlet through the embankment of the road and then follows the natural fall of a channel into the river Vrbas.
The baths in the Demirović house
Two baths with thermal waters are located on the ground floor of the Demirović house; they are said to have been there since 1918, although the building itself is much older. In 1918 the Maglajlić family sold the house to Wilhem Öhler, an evangelical clergyman, who in turn sold it to the two Demirović brothers in 1922. The baths are located in three rooms on the ground floor of the left wing of the church (as seen from the street), with the top of the pools at floor level. They have not been in use in recent years, and no sign of a natural inflow of water was seen during inspection. It is not clear whether the inlet pipes are blocked or whether the natural inflow into the baths in the Demirović house has stopped as a result of changes to the movement of subterranean water and increased extraction of the thermal waters in the Ilidža area. The premises where the baths are located are in a state of neglect.
Direklija baths
The path to the baths runs down the Vrbas to the right of Od Zmijanja Rajka street to the river bank itself, by means of steps composed of stones set into the ground down the steep descent. The Direklija baths are right next to the river Vrbas, cut into the rock so that the space housing the baths resembles a small cave. In front of and to the left of the cave is a small antechamber some 2.80 m wide, on the floor of which a stone bench for the use of bathers once stood; only the stone plinths of the bench now remain. The cave itself where the pool is located is about 230 cm deep and 190 to 215 cm high. It was closed off by an outside wall about 180 cm wide and 225 cm high, with a round-arched iron door and one small rectangular vent measuring approx. 20 x 20 cm at a height of approx. 180 cm above floor level. Within the baths a bath-shaped hollow was excavated in the rock floor, 90 cm wide, about 50 cm deep, and 140 cm long. The top of the bath is approx. 23 cm above floor level. The baths have not been used of late, but during a visit to the site on 28 December 2004 a strong natural inflow of water was observed. The baths are named after the stone posts or uprights that formerly served as doorjambs at the entrance to the baths. It is said that Roman milestones were used as the uprights for the entrance, and that one of these milestones is now in the Kastel fort, while the other is broken. The site of these baths is not being maintained.
Šugavica baths
The path to the baths runs down the Vrbas to the left of Od Zmijanja Rajka street (formerly Braće Alagić street) and along the stone retaining wall of the road embankment, by means of steps composed of stones set into the ground down the steep descent. The baths were used to treat skin diseases, and consisted of a small building which was demolished after World War II; it is not known what it looked like. A trapezoidal recess with sides 140 and 300 cm deep and approx. 280 cm wide, faced with stone, has been cut into the site of the baths, in the road embankment. The recess contains a small trough with an outlet pipe. The entire area of the recess is overgrown with plants and creepers, and the stone facings of the recess are damaged.
Trokić spring (Kraljičina Ilidža or Ilidža)
The Ilidža spring is located further down the path, some 20 metres upstream of Šugavica. Thermal waters emerge right next to the Vrbas river bank. Near this site is a habitat of the rare maidenhair fern (Adiantum capillus Veneris), which dates from the glacial period, and which has survived thanks to the hot springs, together with a habitat of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, which carpets the surface of the ground.
Residential properties in Ilidža
Houses were built to the north-east of the Ilidža mosque, which formed the core of the entire mahala. Some of the houses incorporated baths (for instance, the Demirović house); in other cases, the baths were built next to the house (the Gušić house, the Osmančević house, the house of Šeranić Bisera) or in the garden beside the house (for instance, the Šeranić house near the Vrbas).
The “Šeher house” is cubic in shape, with a steep-pitched, wide-eaved hipped roof clad with plain tiles (previously, shingles were used to clad the roofs), and the first floor projecting outwards beyond the ground floor. The walls of the ground floor are stone-built, and those of the first floor are half-timbered (post and pan), with an infill of wattle and daub, laths or unbaked brick. In layout, the ground floor consists of a hayat (antechamber or hall), with a corridor and staircase leading to the first floor, a halvat (main chamber) and a smaller room, a hudžera (pantry or larder), and premises housing the baths with thermal waters (as in the case of the Demirović house) or a shop (the house of Zejra Šeranić, the Hadžialić house). The first floor consists of the divanhana (spacious landing), sitting rooms – usually with a fine view of the Vrbas – and the “house”, as the kitchen was called, usually on the first floor and with exposed roof beams, leading to the vodnica, an overhanging room used for water storage and usually also equipped with a latrine; there would also be an outside staircase leading to the garden. Some houses (the Gušić house, the Hadžiisaković house) had a nursery on the first floor with a built-in stove with inset “pots”.
A wooden musandera (sergen) is an integral part of every room, consisting of a dolaf (shelved wall cupboard), banjica (washroom) and dušekluk (where bedclothes were stored), and shelves for copper dishes and decorative objects (for example, the Šeranić house, the Demirović house, the house of Zejra Šeranić). A sećija (built-in wooden settee) decorated with serdžade (mats), embroidery and embroidered cushions also formed an integral part of the room.
The buildings in Ilidža mahala that still retain the features of a Šeher house and are of townscape value are:
- The Šeranić family house (c.p. no. 630, c.m. Banja Luka III-8)
- The house of Sadik and Ibrahim Demirović (c.p. no. 674, c.m. Banja Luka III-8)
- The Gušić house (c.p. no. 670/1, c.m. Banja luka III-8)
- The house of Emina Osmančević (c.p. no. 685/1, c.m. BanjaLluka III-8)
- The house of Zeira Šeranić (c.p. 689, c.m. Banja Luka III-8)
- The house of Hadžiisaković Zlatko (c.p. no. 700, c.m. Banja Luka III-8)
- The house of Golbaher Štefko and Marta (c.p. no. 629, c.m. Banja Luka III-8)
- The Trokić house (c.p. no. 628, c.m. Banja Luka III-8)
Legal status to date
By Ruling of the National Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and Natural Rarities NR BiH in Sarajevo, no. 727/50, dated 16 July 1950, the Old Baths in Banja Luka, c.p 150/14, Land Register entry no. 641, c.m. Banja Luka, was placed under the protection of the state and registered in the Register of immovable cultural monuments.
The 1980 Regional Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina listed the Old Baths(18) in Banja Luka as a Category II cultural and historical property.
Pursuant to Regional Planning Decision no. 12-012-25/92, Article 10, para. IV – Protection of Sites of the Natural, Cultural and Historical Heritage, published in the Official Gazette of the municipality of Banja Luka, no. 1, the Municipal Assembly of Banja Luka listed the Thermal Waters in Gornji Šeher among the sites of particular natural value in Banja Luka municipality; within these sites, pursuant to Article 11 para. 1, all works are prohibited with the exception of works designed to make good the said sites, while Article 10 para. 2 lists Gornji Šeher among the group of complexes of particular cultural and historical value, within which, pursuant to Article 11 para. 2, works may be carried out only pursuant to the Regulatory Plan.
Research and conservation and restoration works
In 1851, certain repairs were carried out on Ebin hauz (a detailed description is given in section 2, Description of the property).
In 1982, when issuing provisional approval to the Building Institute of Banja Luka for the construction of an indoor pool in Gornji Šeher, the following conditions were stipulated:
When building in the area where archaeological excavations had uncovered the foundations of the Ilidža mosque, constituting an interesting example of building on damp ground, the foundations were to be conserved and provision made for their presentation;
Although the presentation and conservation of tombstones was provided for by the project, the solution was to be part of the landscaping of the area around the property and under the constant supervision of experts from the Institute for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Monuments of Banja Luka;
Within stage I of construction, as previously agreed upon, the reconstruction of Ebin hauz was to be carried out to restore it to use, and stage II of the works was to include the reconstruction of the remaining baths, which were to be restored to use.
Based on an on site inspection and information gathered during works on the site, it was learned that archaeological exploration of the site of the musalla and Ilidža mosque had been carried out in the early 1990s. Over the past few years, the archaeological finds presented in situ have been vandalized and destroyed, as have the boundary wall of the musalla and the nišan tombstones. It was also found that the works to reconstruct the Ebin hauz and other spas in Gornji Šeher have never been carried out.
Current condition of the property
As stated in section 2, Description of the property.
Specific risks
According to the statements in the Petition to designate the property as a national monument, submitted by the owners of the properties, the extraction of thermal waters from well no. 2 (situated a few metres from the Mazlin hauz and Ebin hauz) by the owners of the Gornji Šeher spa recreational centre is jeopardizing the operation of the remaining baths by interrupting or drastically reducing the inflow of thermal waters to the baths, posing a direct threat to their operation and thereby to their survival. During the first inspection of the condition of the buildings, conducted on 28 November 2003, it was observed that there was a very limited inflow of water. During the second inspection, conducted on 28 December 2004, the flow was normal.
(Source: Excerpt from Bosnia and Herzegovina Commissiona for Preservation of National Monuments - The architectural spa ensemble of the baths in Ilidža Mahala, in Gornji Šeher, Banja Luka - National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina)