Work has been started — and apparently is progressing — to restore and preserve the historic mikveh (ritual bath) in Pirot, Serbia.
Thanks to Jasna Ciric, the president of the Jewish community in nearby Nis, who has kindly shared her photographs from Dec. 13 documenting the work.
According to Ivan Ceresnjes, of the Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the small, semi-ruined brick building, one of the very few tangible relics of Jewish presence in Pirot (aside from a gravestone or two from the destroyed cemetery, a fountain erected by Jewish merchants and the site of a Jewish-owned business), is the only remaining mikvah from the Ottoman period in the Balkans.
Early this year, city officials and the Ponišavlja museum in Pirot erected a protective roof over the the semi-ruined building in an attempt to safeguard it, after the condition of the mikveh had suffered serious deterioration in preceding months.
It appears now that the building will be placed on the list of protected cultural monuments.
And much more intensive restoration work, spearheaded by the museum and the city, has commenced, as well as archaeological research aimed at establishing the date and details of construction.
The little, free-standing building — which may date back centuries — has the remains of floor and wall heating, and the interior was lined with marble slabs. There are also specific decorative features, such as a decorative panel, but much of the domed roof has caved in. (See JHE Coordinator Ruth Ellen Gruber’s report on the building from 2012.)
The current work removed vegetation, walls, sheds and other buildings around the mikveh, as well as a layer of soil, showing that the building stands in what was once a paved courtyard. Researchers have also removed dirt and other material from inside the building, to investigate the foundations.