Dotrščina Memorial Park
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The Dotrščina Memorial Park ( Serbo-Croatian Spomen-područje Dotrščina ) is a 365-hectare memorial park in Zagreb in Croatia. It consists of a main monument erected from 1963 to 1968 by the Yugoslav sculptor Vojin Bakić and other secondary monuments erected by various artists until 1993. During the Second World War, around 18,000 civilians were murdered by the Ustaša , the Wehrmacht and other fascists in Zagreb , an estimated 7,000 of them in the Dotrščina Forest.
From around 1959, various gravestones were erected in the forest by bereaved families and other groups. From 1960 the city of Zagreb and veteran groups planned to rebuild the site into a memorial park. The Yugoslav sculptor Vojin Bakić was selected for this, and he planned the park together with the landscape architect Josip Seissel and the writer Juri Kaštelan . When it was officially opened, the park only had the main monument; the other monuments were only added in the following decades.
Monuments
Main monument (1963-68)
Location: 45 ° 50 ′ 34 ″ N, 16 ° 1 ′ 40 ″ E
The main monument of Bakić is a crystalline shaped monument made of stainless steel about four meters wide and two meters high. Bakić later used this design for his Valley of Tombs , which also consists of crystalline monuments.
Memorial to those who died in the streets of their city (1981)
Location: 45 ° 50 ′ 48 ″ N, 16 ° 1 ′ 36 ″ E
The monument, named Monument to Those Who Died in the Streets of their City ( Serbo-Croatian Spomenik poginulima za na ulicama našega grada ) was designed by Branko Ružić and officially opened on July 27, 1981. The bronze monument represents a stylized prison from which birds fly out. The memorial commemorates those who died during the liberation of Zagreb.
Valley of the Tombs (1980s)
Location: 45 ° 50 ′ 52 ″ N, 16 ° 1 ′ 26 ″ E
At the beginning of the 1980s, Bakić added six more small monuments to the park. The complex is known as the Valley of the Tombs . The monuments mark mass graves and are also made of stainless steel. In addition, small stone blocks were placed in other places where individual bodies were found.
- Valley of the Tombs (2011)
Monument to the revolutionaries and patriots who died in Zagreb in 1919–41 (1985)
Location: 45 ° 51 ′ 2 ″ N, 16 ° 1 ′ 31 ″ E
The monument to the revolutionaries and patriots who died in Zagreb in 1919–41 ( Serbo-Croatian Spomen-obilježje revolucionarima i domoljubima poginulima u Zagrebu ) was created in 1985 by the sculptor Stevan Luketić . It consists of two paved courtyards to the left and right of the main path. The western courtyard, on which a monumental bronze stands for the fallen revolutionaries. The eastern courtyard represents the ideas and struggles of future generations. There is no monument on it, just an empty courtyard. This does not mean that there are no hopes, but that the future has not yet happened. The bronze monument in the west courtyard is a semicircular figure on a granite-clad base with several incisions.
The monument is in poor condition today. A large bronze plaque in front of the memorial was stolen in the 1990s and has not been replaced to this day.
Memorial to the residents of Zagreb who died in the liberation struggle 1941-45 (1993)
Location: 45 ° 50 ′ 48 ″ N, 16 ° 1 ′ 28 ″ E
The last memorial from Yugoslav times in the complex is the memorial to the residents of Zagreb who died in the liberation struggle in 1941–45 ( Serbo-Croatian Spomen obilježje poginulim Zgarepčanima u NOB-u, 1941–1945 ). It consists of several bronze panels that are attached to an L-shaped wall. The bronze was completed in 1989 by the artist Kosta Angeli Radovani , but was not installed until 1993 due to financial difficulties. Therefore, the original design of the plant had to be changed drastically. The bronze plaque is nine meters long and shows the dramatic situations of the liberation of Zagreb.
In 2007 the right one of the bronze plaques was stolen, but was then reconstructed based on photos and drawings.
