The Traditional Tower Houses of Kosovo and Albania -Origin, Development and Influences

Gheg-Albanians as well as Tosk-Albanians consider a distinct tower-house type of their traditional cultural heritage. Hence the closer look upon the structures in their geographical distribution from the Dukajin plains in nowadays Kosovo to the Dropull valley close to the Greek border provides a wide range of variations. Generally those structures serve as impressive residential houses (banesa) for rich landlords, warlords, tax collectors and merchants performing a rural-urban lifestyle. Therefore, a sophisticated blend of the all-time defendable Albanian tower house (kulla), still existing quite intact in the western Kosovo plains, and the comfortable Turkish life-style influenced residence was developed during the long centuries of the Ottoman rule. In the later 19th century, within the important trading towns of the south-eastern Balkan Peninsula, also Western European ideas of Historicism and Romanticism seemed to have led to the transformation of the rural kulla type of the Dukajin plains into the totally urban kullat of Gjakova and Peja. With the distinct knowledge of the widely renowned Albanian interdisciplinary craftsmanship of masons and carpenters, - well organized under master craftsmen for the planning and contracting -, stunning and sophisticated building structures were successfully erected on most difficult morphological sites, fulfilling different wishes of their multi-ethnical clients all over the Ottoman empires. Additionally to the solid and earthquake resistant stone basements, light weight construction methods of plastered wooden lath upper floors guaranteed since the middle of the 19th century an expanded climatic comfort for the hot seasons and avoided heavy damage in the seismic emergency case for the quite high-raised houses. This article tries to trace the different cultural influences transforming the original stone-tower houses probably kept for a long time in their Mediterranean-Medieval original configuration. Besides, it refers to the 19th century Austrian descriptions giving a deeper insight into the usual workflow of the craftsman troops from Dibra, responsible for the mason – carpenter structures, the gypsies (Egyptians), which they contracted for the metal work and the stone mason specialists from the Adriatic coast, who were in charge of specific fortification features

Monuments, Protection and Rehabilitation Zones of Vienna. Genesis and status in legislation and administration

Austria has a very long tradition in monument protection. Already in 1853, the central commission to research and preserve the built historic monuments started to operate. The current law on monument protection is from the year 1923. Hence, the most successful steps to secure the country’s built cultural heritage date back to a new provincial legislation, administration and finance system implemented in the early 70ies of the 19th century based on so-called Old-City Preservation Acts. By this sensitive approach, Austria safeguarded the most important historic city centers of Austria like Salzburg, Graz and Vienna vividly in their traditional characteristics without turning them into museum cities without contemporary life. Especially Vienna managed to balance the protection of its extent historic urban environments with parallel ongoing directed urban expansion. This paper will reflect the genesis of this very successful integrated conservation process for its capital Vienna in the context of the Austrian tradition of monument protection and the European Year of Architectural Heritage 1975. Further, it will outline its legal, administrative and financial framework. Finally, it will describe its different phases of development reacting on shifting goals during the course of the times

Habsburg-Bosnia (1878-1918) condensed - The distinct architectural ensemble at Jajce

When the Austro-Hungarian monarchy started to administrate the former Ottoman province of Bosnia on behalf of the decision of the Berlin Congress in 1878, it took over a neglected country in Southeastern Europe. Immediately, the new government established efficient structures to enhance the educational system and the public infrastructure. By means of type planning, the necessary new buildings of this first emergency-period grew in a still breathtaking speed. During the following 1890ies, the planners and responsible politicians developed a special architectural language for representative buildings of this region between orient and occident. It intended to strengthen the identity of the majority Muslim population. After 1900, also private residences of the upper classes and some urban apartment blocks used this kind of a pseudo-Moorish style for its decoration. After intensive discussion on a potential Bosnian romantic-style according to the “Heimatstil” in other European countries, some characteristic attributes of the traditional buildings mingled with Secession and Art Nouveau features, to finally overcome this “foreign” and “exotic” phase, nowadays reflected with credits. On the southwestern slope of the castle hill at Jajce in central Bosnia, we do find representative objects of all three stages of development in architectural style in absolute vicinity. Next to this distinct group of new buildings stands the St. Luke’s tower, a medieval monument listed and protected already in 1892 by the Austrian officials. Traditional residential houses from Ottoman-Bosnian times frame the whole. Contemporary travel reports already mark this group of buildings by the term “ensemble”, which is worth a closer consideration from the standpoint of monument protection theory. Besides, the ensemble represents condensed at one prominent site – Jajce was once the capital of the medieval Bosnian kingdom – the new approaches of the Austro-Hungarian administration to modernize the country. Currently this distinct cultural landscape, - the Habsburg-Bosnian ensemble in combination with the important medieval monuments and the traditional Ottoman-Balkan residential houses-, tries to reach UNESCO world heritage status. This paper summarizes the overall background for the Habsburg-Bosnian building ensemble and its architectural styles by comparing with other objects more in detailed traced so far through a European Research Council Grant on Islamic Architecture and Orientalizing Style in Habsburg-Bosnia (www.kunstgeschichte.univie.ac.at/ercbos; facebook.com/ercbos). The author is part of this interdisciplinary research team based at the University of Vienna

UNESCO World Heritage and Kosovo Towards a Tentative List for Kosovo

In 2015, Kosovo tried to join UNESCO and failed by three quotes. Is Kosovo ready for its UNESCO membership? At least for its national architectural heritage, this question is to answer with no. The intensively discussed issue of the medieval monuments of Kosovo inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage by Serbia and Montenegro before the declaration of independency in 2008 and their further management through Kosovo is just one aspect. More troubling is that the rather young state not yet could establish sufficient structures to gain a systematic inventory of its monuments, sites and historic ensembles, nor to extract a tentative list for UNESCO out of such an encompassing inventory. This article intends to clarify the definitions of World Heritage, the institutions and NGO’s involved, the mechanisms and philosophies behind. What is the urgent homework for Kosovo? Which national and international groups of experts Kosovo has to name and make responsible for the systemic inventory of its architectural heritage and for creating a tentative list? What is the role and importance of ICOMOS in that process? Which other stakeholders have to be Identified and educated towards that issue? Based on such general considerations the author tries to design finally a preliminary tentative list for the architectural heritage of Kosovo. Hence, not the list itself is of importance but the discussion of the pro and contra arguments for single candidates

Documentation and Inventory of Architectural Heritage.The European model including the role of universities within

Preserving its architectural heritage has a long tradition in the European history. For the famous Renaissance and Baroque architects especially in Italy it was considered to be integrated part of their “art”. Hence, it were art historians to start systematic documentation of the cultural heritage around 1900. For Central Europe Georg Dehio in Strasbourg and Alois Riegl and Max Dvořák in Vienna were most influential. Their legacy are printed inventory handbooks and art-topographies, which documented the built heritage and gave public access to heritage information. This is the inevitable base for protection and care of monuments as well as for rehabilitation and adaptive reuse, and last but not least cultural tourism. It is high time for Kosovo to start a similar systemic inventory. European expertise has already developed various methods for different heritage categories - from sacral single monuments to representative domestic architecture, from ensembles to vernacular architecture and most recent for industrial heritage, in the meantime hotspot of the private real estate market for re-development. Nevertheless, documentation and inventory is of public interest, if we really intend to save our heritage seriously. Therefore the involvement of neutral institutions, like universities, is inevitable and a long-term investment on both sides. The students gain expertise during their academic education, learning by doing on the site and experiencing the knowledge of their grandfathers by accurate observation and serious analysis. Only the ones who experienced the traditions will be able to build the future. If you have a strategic program for all universities of a certain region, you quickly gain information on the valuable building stock: Reports on the development of the structure, detailed sketches and drawings in scale, full sets of technical plans as result of detailed measurement give information on material, construction and space distribution. The reports are base for evaluation and protection, the measurements base for care, repair and adaption to contemporary use. A central architectural heritage database has to be accessible for everyone

UNESCO World Heritage and Kosovo Towards a Tentative List for Kosovo

In 2015, Kosovo tried to join UNESCO and failed by three quotes. Is Kosovo ready for its UNESCO membership? At least for its national architectural heritage, this question is to answer with no. The intensively discussed issue of the medieval monuments of Kosovo inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage by Serbia and Montenegro before the declaration of independency in 2008 and their further management through Kosovo is just one aspect. More troubling is that the rather young state not yet could establish sufficient structures to gain a systematic inventory of its monuments, sites and historic ensembles, nor to extract a tentative list for UNESCO out of such an encompassing inventory. This article intends to clarify the definitions of World Heritage, the institutions and NGO’s involved, the mechanisms and philosophies behind. What is the urgent homework for Kosovo? Which national and international groups of experts Kosovo has to name and make responsible for the systemic inventory of its architectural heritage and for creating a tentative list? What is the role and importance of ICOMOS in that process? Which other stakeholders have to be Identified and educated towards that issue? Based on such general considerations the author tries to design finally a preliminary tentative list for the architectural heritage of Kosovo. Hence, not the list itself is of importance but the discussion of the pro and contra arguments for single candidates

Monuments, Protection and Rehabilitation Zones of Vienna. Genesis and status in legislation and administration

Austria has a very long tradition in monument protection. Already in 1853, the central commission to research and preserve the built historic monuments started to operate. The current law on monument protection is from the year 1923. Hence, the most successful steps to secure the country’s built cultural heritage date back to a new provincial legislation, administration and finance system implemented in the early 70ies of the 19th century based on so-called Old-City Preservation Acts. By this sensitive approach, Austria safeguarded the most important historic city centers of Austria like Salzburg, Graz and Vienna vividly in their traditional characteristics without turning them into museum cities without contemporary life. Especially Vienna managed to balance the protection of its extent historic urban environments with parallel ongoing directed urban expansion. This paper will reflect the genesis of this very successful integrated conservation process for its capital Vienna in the context of the Austrian tradition of monument protection and the European Year of Architectural Heritage 1975. Further, it will outline its legal, administrative and financial framework. Finally, it will describe its different phases of development reacting on shifting goals during the course of the times

Christian Basilica, Serbian Orthodox Church or Ottoman Mosque? Some remarks on national monuments of sacral architecture

The territories of Kosovo do hold quite a number of historic sacral monuments that several national entities call “their” architectural heritage. Can we really speak of a single nations’ heritage in territories where, through the course of history, the politically leading or majority nation was shifted in place? To which nation does immoveable heritage belong, if the nation is no longer dwelling around the monument? Who takes care of such national heritage? Is heritage “national”? How can a national state administrate and manage architectural heritage that is not considered to be “his” national heritage? Questions like those are current status for Kosovo nowadays. Answers are getting more urgent as the new state has to complete his new legislation within this or the next year(s). Kosovo hardly knows about all of his built heritage, as many of the information collected in the past is scattered in different national archives refusing exchange of information and documents. And finally , hasn’t the term “national” heritage any how been rep laced by “world heritage” within the last decades? But again, how can the care and protection of this heritage be managed in future, by national states and their national heritage organizations or by the international community and its official organizations? The paper is not trying to answer those questions but to show irrelevant the terminus of national heritage nowadays became. Therefore it will dig into the history of several buildings, ensembles and towns in Kosovo and trace back their architectural history, like for Novo Brdo and Gracanica, Prizren, Decani and Peja. Additionally it will show that this is not a unique situation for a specific region, but that similar cases have happened elsewhere in Europe, too

Little Cricket on the Hearth: The Quiet Feminism of _Little Women_

Since the advent of the cult of domesticity, the stakes for female characters in domestic literature have been notoriously high. There was no room for flaws, rebellious decisions, and certainly no room for mistakes—whether of the woman’s own accord, or simply as collateral damage of a male character’s immorality. In this shallowly Calvinist domain, women were never more than one broken guardrail away from social ruin or death. In writing Little Women, Louisa May Alcott breaks these molds through unflinching kindness to her female characters from childhood to adulthood, even unto death. Alcott achieves this quietly feminist feat by allowing women to learn and grow through emotions and mistakes that in a different novel may have been dehumanizing; providing them the agency to choose whether to work inside or outside of the home, with equal dignity given to either choice; and providing female characters the agency to choose their life partners and the ability to enjoy egalitarian marriages. Alcott also provides a female authority figure in religion who is both wise and lovingly maternal; and the humanity for her female characters to live and die as regular people, rather than angels or whores. Little Women has been studied extensively for how it approaches Protestant domestic values, egalitarianism in marriage, the reality of female anger and anxiety, and its complicated sisterly relationships in the midst of other noted domestic works of the same time period. The novel has been both praised and critiqued for how it handles all of these subjects. This thesis seeks to broaden focus and celebrate Little Women as a revolutionary and positive landmark in the history of the genre and depiction of female characters

Historic Trading Routes in Kosovo and Albania and their Potential in Improving Rural Tourism through Cross National Approaches

Trading routes have been aligning different parts of the world since prehistoric times, transporting scarce commodities from one area to another. Primarily, the majority of these routes had military character used during wars in enlarging territories but with the flourishing of trade in agriculture, craftsmanship, and mining, they gained important economic value. Parallel to this exchange of goods, these communication systems expedited influences and cultural exchange in cuisine, traditions, religion, crafts, arts and architecture. Main centers of present day Kosovo and Albania were part of this dense communication network for trading activities, for example Via Egnatia, Via de Zenta and more. Historical infrastructure that remains today such as bridges, khans (inns), bazaars, road defense towers and remnants of road pavements are testimonials of this worldwide trading interchange. Such structures were a monetary investment of powerful guilds, carefully created from widely renowned local masons and stone cutters with an intuitive awareness in creating complementary harmony between the nature and tectonics of structures, now deeply embedded in the rural and urban tissue. This article identifies these forgotten cultural and trading structures as potential tourism accelerators in rural and urban communities, especially in remote regions far from the main centers of tourism attractions. As these structures were part of a large trading constellation, they cannot be interpreted, neither understood as singular structures, therefore revival strategies should be based on holistic, cross-national tourism strategies and recognition. One strategic methodology can easily link different sites into singular or several cross-national themed heritage trails with combined transportation and manifestations through land and sea. These can create alternatives for community-based rural tourism as a part of a wider tourism circuit, returning the economic prosperity these routes brought