The town authorities in Pirot, Serbia, have recently erectly a protective roof over the town’s semi-ruined mikveh (ritual bath) in an attempt to safeguard the historic building, reports Jasna Ciric, the president of the Jewish community in nearby Nis and a vocal activist for Jewish heritage preservation in the former Yugoslavia. The roof is a stop-gap measure that attempts to forestall further damage to the building, she says — as the town has no funds to restore it.
According to Ivan Ceresnjes, of the Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the small 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 mikveh from the Ottoman period in the Balkans.
Ciric reported last summer that the condition of the mikveh had sharply deteriorated over the prior year, with the building suffering extensive damage from snow and rain. Parts of the roof and walls crumbled and/or collapsed, leaving heaps of rubble in the interior and a big hole in the roof.
She says that the town erected the protective roof about a month ago. Pictures she took show that a garage that had blocked access to the mikveh was torn down and trees and bushes that had begun to encroach on it have been removed. The pictures, however, also show further damage to interior and exterior walls and roof.
JHE post, with pictures, from June 2013 about deteriorating condition of the mikveh
Report by JHE Coordinator Ruth Ellen Gruber on a visit to inspect the mikveh in April 2012 (Compare pictures on this post to current pictures in order to appreciate the threats and damage.)