The Monastic Library of the Sveti Duh, Fojnica, BiH

I directed the reconstruction of the Franciscan monastery of the Sveti Duh (Holy Spirit) in Fojnica, Bosnia and Hercegovina, from 2006-2008. This project was part of Builders for Peace, an organization established by Thomas Butler, which engaged in various projects across Bosnia, from restoring an historic minaret in Mostar to teaching English in Fojnica and Gračanica.

When the team arrived in Fojnica in 2006, we found tens of thousands of books—including thousands of antique books—piled in a storage room in the monastery. They had been moved here from a different storage room with a leaky roof, where they had incurred serious damage. In addition to the “killer fungus,” as specialists at the National and University Library of Sarajevo called it, we found dead animals among the books stored here.

Read more about the monastery’s history, its library and museum, and relevant ethno-politics here (Balkan Insight).