A few days ago, the cleaning of the old two confessional cemetery, which is more than a hundred years old, began. With the industrialization of Zenica, the monuments of Catholics and Orthodox were overgrown with weeds, and the cemetery was completely forgotten.
The cemetery located on the so-called Halda not far from the center of Zenica hides monuments more than a hundred years old. Many monuments, the ways in which the messages were made on them, as well as the nationalities found in the cemetery, intrigued historians who began to analyze this area in more detail.
Many people knew about the cemetery at this location, but as it grew into a thicket over time, it was hidden from the public eye and forgotten. As it was found out, with the industrialization of Zenica and the expansion of mines and Zeljezara, all citizens who had deceased people were offered to exhume their dead in the 60s and bury them in the Crkvice cemetery. But, a large number of them remained at that location, and the monuments were mostly damaged due to bad weather and the war. However, many of them clearly show who is resting below.
Fr. Marko Kepic from the Parish of St. Ilija in Zenica explainedthat the deceased and locations were registered in their registers and that with the industrialization a large part of the bodies was moved from the tombs to Crkvice.
”We have no official data, we should look in the archives, but asit is known, at that time it was paid for the exhumation and relocation of the bodies of the dead to another cemetery. However, there were those who had no one so they stayed there. When everything is cleaned up, we will visit the cemetery with Fr. Marko Males from the Orthodox Church, and hold a mass,” Kepic stated.
A historian from Zenica Mirza Dzananovic pointed out that it was a Catholic cemetery and that there was a chapel in the cemetery itself.
Also, he added that cemeteries are always a very important source of information where the influence of cultures and foreigners can be seen, as is the case with this cemetery, where there is a diversity of Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, and said that there are such cemeteries throughout other cities of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
In the end, he stressed that these are testimonies about the life of different nations and religions in this area and an indicator of an open cosmopolitan Zenica, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
