Franciscan monastery and church of St. John the Baptist
Located next to the ban/royal castle of Grgurevo and built in the same time
during the rule of ban Stjepan II Kotromanić (1314-1353), the monastery is
certainly one of the oldest institutions continuously active in BiH. Its
existence and activities encompass periods of Bosnian independence (until 1463),
Ottoman Empire (1463-1878), Austro-Hungarian Empire (1878-1914), Kingdom of
Yugoslavia (1918-1941), WW II events, SFR Yugoslavia (1945-1992) and regained
BiH independence (from 1992).
Fulfilling primirily spiritual mission among catholic Christian population, the
monastery has encountered numerous obstacles and difficulties in its
centuries-long history and managed to survive only by miracle. There are no
written records of its destruction during the Ottoman Empire's conquers. If it
had been destroyed it was rebuilt soon afterwards based on the permission issued
in Ahdnama and there are records of it in a Turkish document from 1469. there is
however a reliable report of its complete destruction in 1524. Italian historian
Franjo Gonzaga writes: „When the flourishing Bosnian kingdom fell to Turks they
completely destroyed the monastery togeher with the other three so there was no
stone left unturned. It took 30 years of wondering around and 900 imperial gold
coins to obtain the permission to build new monastery. However, it could not
have been made of stone and bricks, only of wood and mud. From it the friars
performed their spiritual mission not only in Sutjeska but in Ukrina and
Posavina as well.“
The monastery was destroyed in fire in 1658. Library, archive and numerous
valuables were destroyed in the fire. The monastery was rebuilt by fra Mijo
Brežanin in 1664. During wars with the Austrian Empire the friars had to abandon
the monastery as they could not pay constant taxes and hid in surrounding
villages. They returned after 17 years. A historian wrote: „There was danger
that the monastery's walls might split apart, but it was forbidden to perform
any restoration works. After two failed attempts at rebuilding and restoring in
the first half of the 19th century, the current monastery was built in the
period from 1890-1897.
The church suffered the same faith as the monastery. Minor repairs were done in
the 18th century. Fra Bono Benić, a local historian, wrote this account of the
repairs done by fra Juro Bilavić in 1728: „As soon as he received bujruntija
(permission) he begun repairing it, firstly replacing three church walls. He
ordered them to be made of stone as raw bricks were used in previous works.
After replacing the walls and covering the church with pine boards, he took care
of its interior coating it with arch shaped boards as well; previously – God
forgive – it looked like a barn.“
The church was destroyed in 1821 and then rebuilt again in a simple and modest
manner as shown on a photo from 1899. The present-day church was designed by
Josip Vancaš and built in the period from 1906-1908. It is a neo-renaissance
building with interior painted by the Italian painter Marko Antonini. Beneath
the church there is a crypt with tombs of two bishops. Complete artistic and
liturgical content of the church dates mostly to the period when it was built
apart from the oldest preserved organ in BiH from 1865.
Oldest preserved organ in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1865.
Text by: prof. dr. Fra Stjepan Duvnjak
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