Backing Down from Church Building Is Unprecedented

The new church, in whose foundations hundreds of stones from all Croatian mass graves will be built is better and closer to believers.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – The Croatian Society of Art Historians has asked of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader to intervene in the case of backing down from a project by architect Nikola Basic due to the “protection of the right of art”. According to Basic’s project, the Church of Croatian Martyrs was to be built in Udbina. Backing down from the implementation of the project that was legally chosen in a tender for which there was a national consensus is a “case without precedent” the society says.

They dubbed the new, ordered project of the church “a counterfeit without value – completely non-innovative and significantly increased imitation of the old Christian church of St. Cross in Nin, for which there is no justification from a historic, art or any other aspect”.

- I saw that the critics had the wrong image of the project and I recommend to all to study what Basic suggested and what we are doing now, then we will see what this is about. We will even send a copy to the Croatian Society of Art Historians – said Monsignor Mile Bogovic, Gospic-Senj Bishop and initiator of the construction of the church in Udbina. The foundation stone for the Church of Croatian Martyrs was blessed by Pope John Paul II in Rijeka in 2003.

They backed down from the project due to a lack of money 

One of the reasons why the original project was backed down from is its realisation which was to cost more than 150 million kuna. The new project costs some 30 million kuna and so far some 17 million kuna have been collected. The new project of the church, in whose foundations hundreds of stones from all Croatian mass graves will be built is better and closer to believers.

- We are building a church and shrine for them. I respect the work of Nikola Basic and his project, but for us it is financially unfeasible, it is too difficult to maintain and would, according to the latest conditions, be a significant step away from the idea that I formulated and presented to the public – Bogovic said in his statement.

Nikola Basic made his further work conditional upon his full freedom of interior decorating and he did not indicate with one word what it would look like, the bishop said.

- Such a freedom for the decoration of a church is not to be given by any parish priest to any architect. And it was not to be given by me – he said.

National consensus was not reached regarding the shape of the building, but the idea of a Church of Croatian Martyrs, Bogovic continued.

- I can confirm this with certainty because I spoke about this in all parts of the homeland and everywhere abroad where there are large groups of Croats – Bogovic said.