The Eparchy of Šabac has issued a statement regarding the fate of the Koviljača Orthodox temple at the entrance to the spa park, started in the wartime year of 1943, which was never finished. As they state, the Eparchy “has an obligation and a duty to inform the faithful people of Banja Koviljača and the broader public about the proposal of the urban planners of the City of Loznica that, according to the new Draft General Regulation Plan for the settlement of Banja Koviljača, a facility with ‘catering purposes, e.g. a cafe,’ i.e., a tavern, be erected on the foundations and crypt of the old Koviljača church, which was demolished by the communists in 1948.”
The construction of the old church in Koviljača, for which the project was designed by architect Vasilije Androsov, began in 1939 and the foundations were consecrated in 1943; it was demolished, the statement reminds, five years later by order of the then Minister of Health, Dragomir Karajović. This place of worship, intended to adorn the center of Koviljača, was the endowment of the commander of the Serbian army from the Serbian-Turkish war of 1876/77, General Ranko Alimpić and his wife Mileva, and it was supposed to be a memorial temple with a crypt dedicated to the Translation of the Relics of the Holy Great Martyr George, and in memory of the heroic sacrifices of the soldiers of the Drina Division who gave their lives at Gučevo, the Drina, and other battlefields for the liberation of Serbia.
Since the communists demolished the church, they buried its foundations with earth in order to build the “Švajcarija” dairy restaurant on that spot at the end of the 1960s, which operated until 2010 and went into bankruptcy. After the closing of the restaurant, the by-then ruined facility was sold in 2020. The statement emphasizes that representatives of the Eparchy of Šabac, ahead of the sale, held a meeting with the then mayor of Loznica, Vidoje Petrović, with a plea that the facility not be sold, but that the foundations of the temple be returned to the Church and the people, thus correcting a great injustice toward the warriors and ancestors who built the holy site. Unfortunately, the former restaurant on the foundations of the Koviljača church was sold, the Eparchy reminds. It is also pointed out that in the auction for the sale of the restaurant, the fact that the Eparchy of Šabac had submitted a request for the return of the parcel on which the foundations of the old temple sit as early as 2008 was not taken into account.
– The report of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Valjevo, Plan for the Protection and Revitalization of Architectural Heritage for the needs of creating a general regulation plan for the settlement of Banja Koviljača from 2021, is also scandalous, as is the Study of the Protection of Immovable Cultural Heritage on the territory of the settlement of Banja Koviljača by the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, according to which the fact of the existence of the foundations of the old Koviljača church with a crypt is completely ignored, while only the existence of the facility, the dairy restaurant, is noted as an object of no significance within the Immovable Property – spatial cultural-historical unit. In accordance with legal rights, the Eparchy of Šabac filed objections to the Draft General Regulation Plan for the settlement of Banja Koviljača, with supporting documentation, photographs, and the project of Vasilije Androsov – it is stated, adding:
– At the public debate and public presentation of the Draft General Regulation Plan in the assembly hall of Loznica, representatives of the Eparchy of Šabac emphasized that according to the new conditions issued by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Valjevo, the foundations of the Koviljača church with the crypt are defined as an archaeological site with permanent protection, on which catering facilities cannot be built because that would be in contradiction with the Law on Cultural Heritage and the Law on Cultural Property. At that archaeological site, only the reconstruction of the church can be envisioned, after archaeological research and based on the archival project – the statement explains.
The Eparchy appeals and believes that the Planning Commission of the City of Loznica will work in accordance with the laws and that it will designate the space of the old Koviljača church in the future General Regulation Plan as space intended for a religious facility.
– For us Orthodox Christians and Serbs, but also for all other believers of various confessions and faiths, reverence for the holy site is more significant than human laws – they conclude in the statement, mentioning that many locals are reaching out and offering to help in the restoration of the old church.
Otherwise, it was planned that the fallen soldiers of the Drina Division in the Great War would be buried in the completed crypt, but the new government in 1948 ordered the demolition of the nearly finished church since, as explained, it was not in an appropriate place, and at the expense of the Church.
MORE TOPICS:
DODIK: We love Serbia, and we cooperate with Croats in what is our interest!
“WE SLEPT LIKE SARDINES”: Confession of a Serbian truck driver who spent six weeks in ICE detention!
Source: Kurir, Photo: Eparhija šabačka