What is a monument of cultural heritage?

A monument of cultural heritage is an immovable cultural resource. Monuments of cultural heritage include a constructional and architectural piece of work of particular historical significance along with other components of its structural unit, a traditional building, a piece of monumental and decorative painting, sculpture, applied art and/or movable resources appraised and considered to be of special cultural and historical significance, which are located in a monument of cultural heritage (Law on Cultural Resources, Article 19. - PDF - 280 KB).

What are your rights?

An owner or a user of a monument of cultural heritage is entitled to (pursuant to Article 30 of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Resources- PDF - 280 KB):

• Use the monument of cultural heritage in accordance with the law;
• A just compensation in case of an imposed prohibition or restriction on the use the monument of cultural heritage;
• To the compensation of any damage suffered during the implementation of technical protection measures on the monument of cultural heritage.

What are your duties and obligations?

• To protect and maintain the monument of cultural heritage and to implement the technical protection measures (as specified by the Institute). This means thatyou must first contact the competent Institute if you wish to demolish some element, to replace the permanent wooden fittings, to make any additions or modifications, to paint the walls or install advertising signage;
• To mandatorily notify the institution in charge of protection (the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia - Belgrade) on any legal and/or physical changes relating to the monument of cultural heritage;
• To allow scientific and expert research, scanning, filming, etc., and implementation of technical protection measures;
• To provide access to the monuments of cultural heritage to the general public (Article 30 of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Resources - PDF - 280 KB)

What are you prohibited from doing?

• Using the monument of cultural heritage for any purpose that is not in line with the very nature of the cultural monument, its purpose and significance, or in a manner that may potentially lead to any damage to the cultural monument;
• Demolishing, modifying, building partitions and conducting the works of any type whatsoever that may potentially impair the characteristics of the monument of cultural heritage (Article 32 of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Resources - PDF - 280 KB).

What will happen if...?

• the owner or user of the monument of cultural heritage has temporarily or permanently left the cultural monument thus endangering the monument of cultural heritage, whereby it is damaged or ruined? In such cases, the Ministry of Culture may decide to hand over the cultural monument to the so-called custodian that will take care of and implement protection measures (Article 33 of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Resources - 280 KB).
• the owner sells the monument of cultural heritage? In that case, and where any budgetary funding has been used for the investments in the building whereby its market value has increased, the owner shall be obliged to compensate the difference between the former value and the increased valued of the cultural monument (Article 34 of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Resources - PDF - 280 KB).

In case of any doubts, suggestions or a need for consultations with us, do feel free to contact us - we are jointly working on the protection of our cultural heritage.