Monument to the revolt of the residents of Kordun and Banija
| Monument to the revolt of the residents of Kordun and Banija | ||
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.jpg) The monument as it was in 2010. The condition has now deteriorated significantly due to the continued theft of the stainless steel plates. |
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| place | Petrovac, Petrova Gora, Croatia
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| architect | Vojin Bakic | |
| Construction year | 1981 | |
| Coordinates | 45 ° 18 '58.9 " N , 15 ° 48' 17.6" E | |
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The memorial of the uprising of the inhabitants of Kordun and Banja (often simply called the Petrova Gora memorial , Serbo-Croatian : Spomenik ustanku naroda Banije i Korduna ) is a memorial of the Yugoslav resistance in World War II . It is located on the highest peak Veliki Petrovac of the central Croatian mountain Petrova Gora . The site is located in the three municipalities of Gvozd and Topusko in the Sisak-Moslavina County and in Vojnić in the Karlovac County . The memorial has been abandoned since the 1990s in the course of the Yugoslav war of disintegration and has been falling into disrepair ever since.
Historical background
The memorial commemorates the uprising and the resistance movement of the residents of Kordun and Banija against National Socialist fascism as well as its civilian victims and the fallen resistance fighters.
The first units of the Yugoslav partisans in the area of Kordun and Banja were set up in the early summer of 1941. In these ethnic Serbs and Croats fought together against the fascist occupiers. The region around Petrova Gora played an important role in the liberation struggle of the partisans: The Croatian headquarters of the People's Liberation Army was established here, a large partisan hospital was located here during the war and in 1944 the third meeting of the anti-fascist National Council for the Liberation of Croatia took place in Topusko (ZAVNOH) instead.
The design came from the well-known Yugoslav sculptor Vojin Bakić . The memorial was completed in 1981.
Construction of the monument
Bakić, whose monument to the victory of the inhabitants of Slavonia in Kamenska was completed in 1968, won the 1970 competition to build the memorial in the second round. The monument in Kamenska also had reflective stainless steel cladding.
The contract was initially awarded to Igor Toš, but his design was postponed after conflicts, including the structural implementation. The committee for the construction of the monument was chaired by Vladimir Bakarić . Although the construction took a decade, only the facade was completely finished at the time of the inauguration on July 4, 1982 ( Day of the Fighters ). The final completion of the interior could not be completed due to the political instability after Tito's death in 1980.
The monument
The monument consists mainly of architectural elements. The basis is a reinforced concrete structure clad with molded stainless steel plates. The interior of the building contained a museum that housed a permanent exhibition on anti-fascist resistance in the area. The surrounding buildings and areas of the complex were used for recreation and leisure. From a vantage point on the building it was possible to see as far as Slovenia , Bosnia and Herzegovina and Zagreb .
The art expert Tonko Maroević points out the clear similarity of the monument with an earlier sculpture by Bakić with the title " Sliced Segments" . Maroević saw this as a “step backwards”, since this sculpture was created in the mid-1970s. Maroević assumed that Bakić had a dwindling creativity in the early 1980s, so that he went back to his earlier sculptures.
Destruction after 1991
After the declaration of independence of the Croatian republic from Yugoslavia in 1991 and the subsequent war , anti-fascist monuments and memorials began to be increasingly neglected, and after 1995 the museum was increasingly subject to decay and wanton destruction. The destruction of the memorial is still ongoing - in particular the valuable stainless steel jacket is being stolen. Despite protests from anti-fascist organizations, neither local nor national authorities have yet been able to prevent further destruction.
In addition, a telecommunications provider received permission to reach a transmission mast on the main building, which further distorts the original appearance.
The WHW cultural collective, founded in 2004, plays an important role in the preservation and possible restoration of the memorial . WHW organized two exhibitions in 2007 and 2008 (in Graz and Zagreb) that dealt with the legacy of Bakić. In 2013 they launched the “ Petrova Gora: yesterday, tomorrow, how to think Petrova Gora ” campaign. The cost of a restoration is estimated at tens of millions of euros.
Cultural reception
The memorial adorned the cover of the album Unkown Mortal Orchestra by the US-New Zealand rock band of the same name .
In an exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art in New York on architecture in socialist Yugoslavia under the title " Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980" , the monument was presented and discussed in detail in the volume accompanying the exhibition.
The Croatian daughter of the beverage manufacturer Beck's shot an advertising film in the ruins. The previously unpublished Netflix production " Tribes of Europa" is said to have also been shot in the vicinity of the memorial.
Individual evidence
- ↑ PETROVA GORA - Spomenik i Partizanska bolnica / Petrova Gora - The monument and Central partisan hospital ( hr ) In: DGC PRODUCTION - Drone Guerilla Crew . January 17, 2016. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
- ↑ Pionirov glasnik: ovde je metak ludovao ( page no longer available ), Retrieved 7 November 2014
- ^ Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980 ( en ) In: mo.ma/art . July 10, 2018. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
- ^ Toward a Concrete Utopia: Yugoslavian architecture - in pictures ( en ) In: The Guardian . July 13, 2018. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
- ^ Beck's Legendary - Croatia Infiltration. Accessed April 12, 2020 (German).
- ↑ Historian on Brutalism: "The Agents of Forgetting". Retrieved April 13, 2020 .
Web links
- Spomenik Database - Petrova Gora Monument Comprehensive database of Yugoslav socialist monuments