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Road tunnels
The road
tunnels, like those for railways, are in mountain areas, and are very
numerous - especially on roads from Sarajevo towards the coast, and
towards Višegrad. In the valley of the Drina, there are road tunnels on
one side and railway tunnels on the other (some are now flooded by the
creation of a reservoir.)
Tunnels of
hydro-electric power plants
All the
larger hydro-electric power plants are in limestone karst areas. There
are often overflow tunnels associated with these installations, to cape
with abnormally high water levels. One such overflow tunnel can be seen
from the Sarajevo - Trnovo road, at the
Bogatići power plant. All hydro-electric stations have subterranean
turbine halls and associated tunnels. The puped-storage
Čapljina
station probably bas the longest tunnel system - around 60 kilometers.
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Metal mines
Traces of mining go back to prehistoric times in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The oldest mining areas are in the Vranica mountains (central Bosnia),
and around the town of Srebrenica (eastern Bosnia.) The Roman
historian Pliny mentioned gold mines in the upper course of the river
Vrbas in Dalmatians. Even now there are folk stories about the
ancient miners. Large numbers of ancient mines are found around
Fojnica,
Kreševo
and
Dusina. Same of the 'caves' in this area are actually mines. |
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Old mine (Kreševo) |
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Coal mines
Coal mines,
many of them abandoned, are numerous, especially around Tuzla and
Zenica. Usually they have a standard layout - a vertical shaft
with bracing galleries towards or within the coal seams. There are also
shafts from which the coal was dug directly, for example
Zanesovići
(near Gornji Vakuf) in southern Bosnia. The
Zanesovići
shaft was
initiated as a trial pit or early work by Austro-Hungarian mining
engineers at the end of the last century. During the Second World War,
this shaft was used as a communal grave.
Culverted
streams
There are no
underground Roman aqueducts. But historical source mention the karst
spring Hrvatin in a cave in Sarajevo yielding a stream which was
partially culverted. Some other Sarajevo streams (Koševski
potok, Mošćanica, Sušica, Bistrički potok)
are also largely culverted. The streams in culvert in this area amount
to about 10 kilometers.
Underground
stores and shelters
All recently
built parts of Sarajevo have underground shelters, of a wide range of
dimensions, constructed for many purposes from human shelter to
materials storage. Many are found at
Bentbaša
district in Sarajevo, at Mostar, at Jajce (an underground
factory excavated in travertine), and at Kaonik between
Busovača
and Vitez in mid Bosnia.
Military
objects
Bosnia and
Herzegovina was of strategic importance for the former Yugoslavian army,
so extensive underground works can be expected. There was an underground
airport near
Bihać which was destroyed in 1992 during
Serbian-Montenegrin attacks. The Austro-Hungarian monarchy's army also
had underground sites, including some in the
Trebević
mountains
near Sarajevo.
Hambarine
(grain stores)
Small (often
not larger than 1 - 1.5 meters) bottle-shaped underground storage
chambers have been investigated in two area - near Kiseljak, and
(in north Bosnia) near Detlak. The word "hambarine" originated
from the Bosnian word "hambar", meaning "store, pentry, larder". These
structures often occur in clusters, and are interpreted as grain stores.
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Hambarine (Detlak) |
Chapel
At Rataji,
a village near Miljevina in east Bosnia, there is a single small
room or cell cut into the rock, as a burial chapel. This is now believed
to have been a "
hiža",
a sort of chapel for the heathen "Bosnian church" of the middle ages.
Later, after the arrival of the Turks in these areas, a mosque was built
nearby.
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Cell cut into
the rock
(Rataji) |
Catacombs
The
best-known artificial underground site in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the
"Catacombs" in Jajce. This is in fact a subterranean church,
built on the orders of the Bosnian Grand Duke Hrvoje, at the beginning
of the 15th century. The church is 10 by 15 meters. Drawings and a plan
and section (taken from the work of Truhelka, 1892) can be found at the
end of this page.
Caves in
sandstone
Near the
village of
Preočica
(close to Vitez in mid Bosnia) is situated a "cave" formed by excavating
for milestones. There is a similar "cave", "
žrvena peć
" (originally
from the word "
žrvanj") near Zagreb.
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Caves adapted
to human uses
Same natural
caves have been adapted, at various times, to man's needs. The cave
Pećini Radohne krstjanina
near Vareš, has many recesses. In fact this entire cave may be the
result of human activity. In the cave at Krupac, near Sarajevo,
much construction and building work bas taken place. Similar adaptations
can be seen in the cave near the spring of the Krupa (near Gornji
Vakuf), the
Hajdučka
pećina,
cave (near Olovo), the
Kaštela
cave (near
Foijnica), and many others (Mulaomerovic, 1979). |
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Cave
Radohne krstjanina
(Vareš) |
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Kaštela
cave (Fojnica) |
References / References / Literatuur / Literatura:
Čokić,
J.,
1889: Ćelija u selu Rataji. Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja, I, 3, p.
75-77 (Sarajevo)
Mulaomerović, J.,
1979: Zazidane pećine u Bosni i Hercegovini. Naš krš, V, 7, p.
27-32 (Sarajevo)
Truhelka, Ć.,
1892: Katakombe u Jajcu. Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja, IV, 1, p.
57-68 (Sarajevo)
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