FOJNICA LIBRARY AND MUSEUM OPEN AFTER RECONSTRUCTION

FOJNICA, Bosnia (April 7,2008) – After eight years of reconstruction, the St. Spirit Franciscan Monastery library in Fojnica has been made available to public.Numerous officials attended the opening of the library and museum, including representatives of diplomatic chorus in Bosnia and the International community's High Representative in Bosnia.

The Monastery’s Guardian Friar Mirko Majdandzic stated that there is a lot of work to be done, but that there is no use waiting for another year or two to complete the entire project.

The former Guardian of the monastery Friar Janko Ljubos talked about the history of the monastery. He stated that Franciscans came to Bosnia 670 years ago.

The Croatian Ambassador to Bosnia Josip Vrbosic emphasized that a victory is celebrated today at the monastery.

”We are celebrating the victory of caring over negligence; the victory of responsibility over no responsibility. We are celebrating the victory of responsibility for past, present and future. Memory has managed to claim victory over oblivion here”, Vrbosic said.

The Bosna Srebrena Provincial Friar Mijo Dzolan thanked all the people who helped perseverance of the Fojnica monastery. He emphasized that friars are trying to treat everybody in a humane way and to build friendly and brotherly relations with everybody.

At the end of the ceremony, a member of the Bosnian State Presidency Zeljko Komsic addressed the guests and emphasized the role of Franciscans in perseverance of Bosnian heritage. He called all the people interested to participate in the project of reconstruction and complete it.

Komsic gave the Bosnian Royal Family Kotrtomanic's genealogy to Friar Mirko Majandzic.Embassy of Croatia donated 1.200 books to the monastery.

The ribbon was cut at the entrance to the library by Croatian Ambassador to Bosnia Vrbosic and Bosnian Presidency member Zeljko Komsic.

The monastery library has a collection of 40.000 books, including some valuable hand-printed books. Some of them date from 17, 18 and 19 centuries.

There are 155 manuscripts in the library, some of them written in Bosnian in the Bosancica alphabet, as well as over 2.500 manuscripts written in Turkish.

The monastery has a museum containing many metal artifacts, which is a characteristic of Bosnia. Those are the textile artifacts and a valuable cover presented to Friar Andjelo Zvizdovic by Sultan Mehmet Fatih, in 1463. That act allowed Franciscans to freely practice their faith in Bosnia.

Apart from that, there is the famous Fojnica Coat of Arms collection, containing about 139 emblems, a numismatic collection and other artifacts.
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