Patterns of sedimentation and erosion of sacral architecture and secular memorials in Mostar, Banja Luka and Zenica

This article analyses evolving patterns of sedimentation and erosion of sacral and memorial structures in three cities that were first urbanized in the early 16th century by the Ottoman conquerors of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since that time, society has been grounded on interactions between Muslims (mainly Sunni), Christians of varying denominations and Jews, and from 1945 until 1990, state-empowered secularists. We first analyse the formation of the towns during Ottoman rule, to enable understanding developments after the Ottomans lost power, and Islam was no longer the dominant religion. Further, the relative isolation of Bosnia and Herzegovina compared to other locations in Ottoman Empire enable us to analyse an ideal structure of Ottoman urban development. We then address the ways in which non-Muslim religious or atheist structures were manifested in new processes of sedimentation and erosion. Historical maps of the cities served as the basis for the analysis of patterns of sedimentation and erosion of sacral architecture and secular memorials. After selecting reference years, data acquisition on ‘erosion’ and ‘sedimentation’ of religious buildings were collected through field research, interviews, literature analysis and internet sources. In all three cities, development of the religioscapes has reflected changing patterns of dominance by Muslims, Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians. When state secularism was dominant under socialism, the religioscapes of all communities were eroded and new religious sedimentations were impeded. Post-socialism, political and social actors have fostered re-sedimentations of eroded religioscapes, and new sedimentations. The post-socialist polities within Bosnia and Herzegovina (Entities and the cantons within the FBH), while officially secular, have favored the religion of the locally dominant community.