Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets Minister Branko Bacic and Sisak Bishop Vlado Kosic on Monday signed an agreement under which the state and the Sisak Diocese will trade properties in order to build a housing settlement for earthquake victims and Church facilities.

The Holy Cross Parish will give the state a property of 8,366 square metres in Sisak, while the state will give two plots and grazing land.

Bacic said the project would make it possible to build prefab homes for earthquake victims currently accommodated in mobile homes.

State Secretary Domagoj Orlic said the settlement would have 35 houses and six community modules. The project is worth €2.3 million. Similar housing settlements will be built in Petrinja and Glina, he added.

Bishop Kosic said the properties given to the diocese would be used to build chapels and parish houses.

He added that 23 churches in the diocese damaged in the 2020 earthquake are being rebuilt with the help of the Croatian Bishops Conference and that 32 should be rebuilt.

Sisak-Moslavina County head Ivan Celjak said the Petrinja settlement for the earthquake victims would have 57 houses and the one in Glina 74, with construction expected to last six months.

Responding to questions from the press, Bacic said the reconstruction of a number of religious buildings was being financed from the EU Solidarity Fund. Their reconstruction is faster because public procurement is simpler and faster, he added.