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has been introduced in order to ‘weatherproof’ the wood as
well as to protect the buildings against insects and fungus.
Unfortunately the type of paint used prevents the boards
from the necessary ‘breathing’, thus risking an accelerated
process of decomposition.
Management:
The ICOMOS expert commented on the current
management of the property, which was not considered
adequate to the needs. The site had no short-term or longterm
management plans. It was recommended that such
plans should be prepared after the creation of a body
dedicated to the management of the Franja Partisan
Hospital and its conservation area, and that this body
should include representatives of all responsible agencies,
local and governmental, as well as landowners of the
farmsteads. In fact, at the moment of the ICOMOS site
visit, a new construction was being built in the vicinity.
This building had an official permission, but it was
considered to disturb the traditional harmony of the
landscape. The current visitor facilities are not sufficient,
and they are much too close to the entrance to the gorge. It
was also noted that the management regime should take
care of, eg, correction of earlier inappropriate interventions
in the cabins; better control of building permissions for the
privately owned lands; providing a new visitor centre at a
greater distance from the gorge entrance for presentation of
the site and information to visitors, including proper
parking areas.
Subsequently, 30 December 2002, the State Party has
provided a new, comprehensive management plan for the
property, taking into account the comments of the
ICOMOS expert. The property now has a management
plan with an indication of the short-term and long-term
measures to be taken, including monitoring and control of
the works.
Risk analysis:
The site has been conceived and built as a temporary
structure. Consequently, many issues that would normally
have been taken into account need here special attention.
These include, eg, the protection of the buildings against
humidity and weathering without the loss of authenticity.
Secondly, the natural environment causes some risks, as
can be seen in the rock falls, requiring monitoring and
prevention. Thirdly, the present lack of proper control in
the privately owned conservation area may result in
incompatible constructions in the vicinity of the site.
Authenticity and integrity
Despite certain changes and some losses over the past five
decades, the Franja Partisan Hospital can be considered to
have maintained its integrity. Most of the cabins, as well as
their furniture and equipment are authentic. The site thus
represents a genuine testimony of the life in a clandestine
partisan hospital during its operation in the 1940s.
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Comparative evaluation
The nomination document provides a detailed comparative
analysis of the phenomenon of clandestine partisan
hospitals based on a serious research and inquiries
addressed to those countries where well-developed
resistance movements existed during World War II, asking
whether similar facilities were developed and existed in
such countries, how the medical service was organised by
their resistance movements, whether any special facilities
for treating the wounded were built and what were their
characteristics and if any such facilities are preserved today
and protected as monuments. Replies received from 11
countries have confirmed that such clandestine partisan
hospitals were built only in Slovenia, Croatia and some in
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most of these facilities fell into
ruin after the war and only memorial signs were placed at
the locations. Relatively few such facilities still exist in
Croatia and Yugoslavia. In Slovenia, 4 clandestine
hospitals (out of 120) have been preserved. The Franja
Partisan Hospital is the largest and best preserved.
Care of the sick is one of the fundamental needs of society,
and has always existed in some form. In the Middle Ages,
most hospitals were associated with monasteries. Military
hospitals were established along travel routes. In 1099, the
Knights Hospitallers of the Order of St. John established
such a hospital for 2,000 patients in the Holy Land. In the
19 th century, some people specially contributed to the
development of the care of the sick and wounded: Florence
Nightingale (nursing), Louis Pasteur (germs), and Lord
Lister (surgery). The Red Cross came out of the initiative
of Jean-Henri Dunant, a Swiss humanitarian who was
present in the battle of Solferino in 1859. He initiated the
voluntary relief societies of Red Cross. The first
multilateral agreement, the Geneva Convention, came into
being in 1864, later revised and complemented with other
agreements. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies form a worldwide organisation.
The care for wounded advanced during the First World
War. Then, medical care was provided in improvised
facilities, and attention was given to the control of
contagious deceases. The Second World War brought new
improvements. In particular, it was understood that long
transport could be fatal for the wounded due to infection.
First aid should be given as soon as possible. Particular
attention was therefore given to the development of
movable hospital facilities. Hospital buildings out of the
war zone, or hospital ships, were used for long-term cure.
The fixed partisan hospitals in the former Yugoslavia can
thus be seen as an exception during the Second World
War.
The following World Heritage sites refer to hospital as an
important element of the site: Archaeological Site of
Epidaurus (antiquity), Great Mosque and Hospital of
Divrigi in Turkey (medieval), Medieval City of Rhodes,
Colonial City of Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic,
The Palau de la Música Catalana and the Hospital de Sant
Pau in Spain (Art Nouveau), and Robben Island in South
Africa. The significance of these sites, however, is
different from the Franja Hospital.