ARHIVSKI VJESNIK 42. (ZAGREB, 1999.)

Strana - 227

S. Sarić, Destruction of archival records in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Arh. vjesn., god. 42 (1999), str. 223-230 nors, court's decisions and numerous reports, while a Collection of court protocols being an excellent source for studying local histories of certain places and regions, included 66 court protocols within the period from the 17

th through the 19

th century. The most numerous was a "Vilajet archive" including around 200.000 documents. A collection of deeds from the 19

,h century was one of the original collections. A well-known document of sultan Mohammed IV from the beginning of the 17

lh century was burnt. It had a magnificent sultan's seal fascinating everybody despite their education or origin. The manuscript originated in 1023 was burnt although saved for nearly 1000 years as well as a famous fragment of astrological document with miniatures representing signs of the Zodiac from the 15

lh century. As regards the percentage of saved archive sources, if the institution is in question, less than 1 % of the archive sources has been saved. In addition to the original archive materials, photocopies and microfilmed material of other Archives from our country and foreign countries were burnt. The archive holdings of the Franciscan monasteries, keeping great number of archive documents from the Medieval Bosnian period, Turkish rule, Austria-Hungary reign representing a real cultural-historical fortune, have suffered minor damages or destruction. Some buildings of the Islamic religious community and an old Orthodox church also suffered minor damages. The Archives and archive holdings in the Republika Srpska have suffered no damages according to the reports of our colleagues in Banja Luka. Recent experience has shown that the archive sources and register's documents outside the archive depots had suffered heavy damages. As far as we have learnt in the register's offices in Sarajevo around 90% of operative sources were destroyed especially those of the Government and the Assembly since their buildings were intensively shelled and set to fire. The archive sources in around 50% of the register's offices have been destroyed and damaged although the Department for protection of archive sources and register's documentation outside the Archives intensified its work even in 1991 and at the very beginning of 1992. The similar situation was in other Archives and institutions. The archive sources including important data, design and other documentation in the buildings of the School of Mechanical Engineering, School of Mathematics, School of Forestry and Agriculture, School of Transportation and other buildings and institutions were destroyed. For example, in the business building of the Water Management Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina which was heavily damaged, in the Centre for documentation placed within the basement flooded premises, a small part of the designs out of 10.000 designs has been saved. The following institutions and documentation suffe227