UGIP "Rino Zandonai" Tuzla, in cooperation with the Majlis of the Islamic Community of Živinica - Džemat Šerići, is launching a campaign for the restoration of the old mosque in Šerići.
In the small town of Šerići near Živinice and Tuzla, the Italians, the Piccolotti brothers from Breze near Kiseljak near Tuzla, built a mosque, as written in the mosque diary, from 1926 to 1928. They built a beautiful mosque measuring 9X8 m (8.65X7.25 m), with an entrance hall, a wooden minaret and a wooden interior. The mosque served for decades for the religious ceremonies of the local population, and when it became too small to accommodate all the believers, the locals built a new large mosque in the relative vicinity of the old mosque. The mosque is built of hand-hewn pine beams with classic bricks in between. The foundations are made of oak wooden beams combined with crushed stone. The interior consists of a prayer space made of oak wood, as well as a gallery (balcony), and the minaret is made of pine wood. The four-pipe roof is covered with tiles that have never been replaced. It is located on land owned by the Islamic community in Šerići, as it is recorded in the official land registers. The mosque has not been used for many years and was not maintained. It is in a very bad condition, intensively decaying, and if it is urgently rebuilt, the mosque will collapse.
The building is of exceptional beauty because it has its original shape, with beautiful metal windows and ornamentation in the interior. The mosque has a special significance because it was built from 1926 to 1928 and in three years it will mark its 100th anniversary. The value is that the mosque was built by Catholics of Italian origin. The town of Šerići, where the mosque is located, has always been inhabited by a population exclusively of the Islamic religion, but they entrusted the construction of the mosque to the Catholic Piccolotti. And such a decision showed that even in the twenties of the 20th century, workers were respected and valued, regardless of which religion they belonged to.
Initially, a project was drawn up for the construction of a new mosque that would be a replica of the existing mosque, but the locals decided to renovate the existing building. The building has well-preserved walls, there is no government in the building, there is a hole in the roof with a size of about 2 m in diameter (which will be repaired in November 2024 to prevent further leakage), the wooden minaret is bent, the internal wooden elements are undamaged. The interior of the mosque has its original form with great potential for restoration and restoration of the mosque to its original form.
Association of citizens of Italian origin "Rino Zandonai" Tuzla, in honor of the builder Piccolotti, supports the campaign to collect money for the reconstruction of the mosque, which after reconstruction and 100 years of existence will have the function of a museum of the local community and a library. The expected costs of rebuilding the mosque amount to EUR 90,000, and the local community of Šerići has already provided EUR 15,000. Those who want to help financially or in other ways to preserve the mosque in Šerići as a valuable historical heritage, can direct their interest to the association of Italians "Rino Zandonai" at the association's email info@ugip-tz.ba or at tel/vib +38762335930 Tihomir Knežiček, president association or administration of Džemata Serići.
