Original scientific paper
The Requisition of Bells in the Dubrovnik Bishopric in the First World War
Đivo Sjekavica
Abstract
In the course of the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy twice requisitioned the church bells of the Dubrovnik bishopric because the material from which they were made, bronze, proved to be the best metal for casting cannons. The correspondence related to the first war requisition between the military authorities of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Dubrovnik Bishopric Ordinariate along with the parishes of the Dubrovnik bishopric lasted from May 1915 to April 1917. In a letter of 15 October 1915, military governor Attems informed the Bishopric Ordinariate in Dubrovnik that all the church bells would be taken down from the belfries and recast into cannons except those necessary for religious service and those of monumental value. On the basis of the information gathered from the parishes, the Ordinariate was to make a list of all the bells throughout the bishopric, including the ones not subject to requisition. The paper affords a list of the bells that don Frane Bulić, the conservator in charge, marked as those to be preserved or worthy of preservation, adding the ones known from literature. The requisition of bells started in the last week of April 1917. However, in May the bishopric was officially informed that another, an even stricter requisition would be carried out, on the basis of which only the bells marked as valuable by the Pokrajinski Konservatorijalni Ured (Regional Conservation Office) would be exempt. Although the list of the church and chapel bells of 1956 has not survived in full, the sources confirm that some of the bells were not recast into the cannons of the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I despite the undertaken war requisitions.
Keywords
Dubrovnik bishopric; Austro-Hungarian Monarchy; bells; requisition; World War I
Hrčak ID:
104683
URI
Publication date:
24.5.2013.
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