Organized by the Ministry of Culture and Media and the Croatian Center for Earthquake Engineering, the conference "Lessons learned through structural renovation of built heritage after earthquakes" was opened, whose two-day program will be held on October 30 and 31, 2024 in Zagreb and Petrinja. In the introductory part of the conference, the participants were addressed by the Minister of Culture and Media, dr. sc. Nina Obuljen Koržinek and Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia and Minister of Spatial Planning, Construction and State Property Branko Bačić.
After the implementation and supervision of the renovation of about four hundred buildings protected as immovable cultural property through emergency protection measures and structural renovation projects, in just four years after the earthquake, the intention of our experts is to share the knowledge and experience they have gained through these processes and to expand the expert discussion on the future of earthquake reinforcement of historical buildings in Croatia and emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of the process of implementing urgent measures and restoration, which can be used as a model for similar crisis situations.
The conference brought together Croatian and international experts who participated in the reconstruction process: representatives of the International Expert Advisory Commission for the Restoration of Architectural Heritage in the Area Affected by the Earthquake (which was established by the decision of the Minister a few months after the Petrinja earthquake), civil engineers, architects, conservators and art historians, representatives of line ministries and international organizations that are professionally or financially helped in the reconstruction process, from representatives of the European Commission and UNESCO, through ALIP and ICCROM, to the World Bank and others.
In her address at the opening of the meeting, Minister Obuljen Koržinek expressed great gratitude to all experts, conservators, engineers, architects, contractors, members of the Blue Helmets and HGSS and all those who contributed to the demanding and complex reconstruction process from the first day after the earthquake, from the inventory and assessment of damage, through evacuations and urgent measures to planning, financing and now the final works. She especially thanked the representatives of international organizations and associations, who offered their help from the very beginning, which was extremely important to us at that moment, given the severe crisis caused by the COVID pandemic, in which the economy was stopped and there was no clear perspective on the funds for reconstruction. She added that, given the closure of the borders of certain counties and countries and the impossibility of labor mobility, all activities on damage lists, assessments, clearance of buildings and implementation of urgent stabilization measures were significantly difficult. She also reminded how important the experience and knowledge transfer of our conservators was in the protection and restoration of cultural heritage during and after the Homeland War, not only in the inventory and assessment of war damage, but also in the methodology of the reconstruction of the center of Petrinja, for which the restoration of the cultural and historical center of Vukovar was a model. She especially emphasized the efforts of colleagues in the Conservation Department in Sisak and the City Institute for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Monuments in Zagreb.
Emphasizing the exceptional importance of the assistance of the European Union Solidarity Fund, without whose funds it would not have been possible to reconstruct such a large number of damaged buildings, the Minister especially emphasized that for the first time in history, Croatia was given the opportunity to extend the use of the Solidarity Fund for the City of Zagreb. "Precisely because we had a specific case of two disasters that hit the same area within a year, and massive progressive damage to the architectural heritage," the minister warned, adding that some progressive damages set the reconstruction "a few steps back", which is why it was necessary to re-prepare damage documentation for some buildings and redesign the renovation.
She also presented the models and procedures of reconstruction carried out by the Ministry after the earthquakes in Zagreb and Petrinja, pointing out that the structural reconstruction is nearing completion and that Croatia can now help andcountries in disaster situations. She also reminded that the Ministry of Culture and Media has taken responsibility for the complete state property in cultural and historical units, all buildings of the city of Zagreb, administrative buildings, buildings for cultural purposes that were damaged, all ministries, all buildings of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the center of Petrinja, which is a total of about 400 buildings, among which the most demanding are cultural goods.
"We are nearing the end of the structural renovation, most of the buildings have been completed as far as the Ministry is concerned, and the most complex projects remain to be completed", the Minister announced at the end, thanking once again all the experts who participated in this generational endeavor and showed the high quality of their expertise, but also the speed in decision-making and implementation and the ability to lead the interdisciplinary renovation process. The Minister expressed the hope that through cooperation with international organizations we will enable the transfer of knowledge in case this happens to others", said the Minister.
In his address at the opening of the conference, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property Branko Bačić also pointed out that the structural renovation of public buildings has been completed. "There is no school or faculty in the area that has not been reconstructed. This shows the strength of the Croatian administration, contractors and others in the past four years," Bačić said. As for the reconstruction of private property, Bačić pointed out that the Ministry is now "in charge of this reconstruction" and that the reconstruction plan envisages the completion of the reconstruction of private property by the end of 2030. In this regard, I reminded that there has never been and will never be a minister of culture who will participate in the renovation of 400 cultural heritage buildings in his or her department for a term of several years. "We are happy that day after day, from month to month, Minister Obuljen Koržinek and I are witnessing the completed reconstruction processes, which really fulfills us because we are witnessing a historic reconstruction", concluded Deputy Prime Minister Bačić.
In the morning, the participants of the conference participated in a tour of examples of the reconstruction of damaged buildings protected as cultural property, where the Minister of Culture and Media Obuljen Koržinek and her associates were joined by the head of the Croatian Center for Earthquake Engineering and the designer of the renovation project, dr. sc. Josip Atalić, designer Mario Todorić and chief auditor of the project Milan Crnogorac, while the works at the Croatian Music Institute were presented by the chief designer Roman Šilje and the structural designer Juraj Pojatina. On October 31, the participants of the conference will participate in a tour of the buildings in the protected cultural and historical complex of Sisak and Petrinja.
More about the conference program can be found at the link.