Gradačac Old Town Complex - Current State Evaluation

Abstract

In the protection of historical heritage evaluating the current state of a facility is a very important phase since it provides for the project framework and the decision-making guidelines, which is all crucial for the final goal – protection of Gradačac Old Town complex. There are several historical layers encompassed by Gradačac Old Town - starting from the medieval fortification system, expanding to the Ottomans’ period where main buildings (a residential tower, a clock tower, and a mosque) were added by the Ottomans, extending and continuing the works on adding a library and a gymnasium in the Austro-Hungarian period. The overall Complex flows with the natural morphology of the terrain; nowadays these green areas are used as the main city park. Complex of Gradačac has two separate fortification zones, the main area of around 33 000 m2, and the accentuated part with the tower, of around 3 000 m2. The fortification (The Old Town) ground plan is approximately a square one, with sides from 180 to 200 m, consisting of the two main parts: The Lower and the Upper City. In the north-west area, there’s the Upper City (fortification inside the fortification, namely Husein-Captain Gradaščević’s Tower). The Old Town is accessed through three gates: The North (the main gate), the South, and the West gate. Upper City with Husein-Captain Gradaščević’s tower is positioned on the topmost point in the north side of the fortification complex. It rests on a terrace which encloses it from the south and the east side. On the north side of the Upper City, there are outer perimeter walls constituent to the whole of the Complex. Architectural heritage preservation and valorisation are increasingly important social and economic issue in many countries. The issues encountered in these undertakings range from defining and choosing required level of safety, via the question of electing methodologies relevant for contracting reliable structural analyses and safety check-ups, up to choosing the design and installation of suitable materials, and the intervention.