Partisan Necropolis (Mostar)
| Partisan necropolis (Mostar) | |
|---|---|
 Tito visiting the memorial (1969) |
|
| Data | |
| place |
Mostar , Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
| architect | Bogdan Bogdanović |
| Coordinates | 43 ° 20 '28.5 " N , 17 ° 47' 46.9" E |
The Partisan Necropolis ( Serbo-Croatian Партизанско гробље / Partizansko groblje ) in Mostar is a cemetery for 810 partisans who died fighting the Ustaše and the German occupiers during the Second World War . The monument, designed from 1959 and built until 1965, was designed by the Yugoslav architect and sculptor Bogdan Bogdanović and is one of his most important projects. It covers an area of over 5,200 square meters.
The cemetery area is divided into several stages by gates and invites visitors to walk through it. A so-called lion gate leads to a forecourt, from which a serpentine-like path leads to the terraced cemetery (also known as the theatron ). The individual grave fields are accessed through gate openings in a narrow walled alley. More than 12 noon worked limestone elements were made for the monument . In addition, slates from the houses of the resistance fighters resting in the cemetery were used to clad the walls . A symbolic act of remembrance was thus set in the choice of building material. The flowing spatial effect was also reinforced by a well system, which also ties in with Mostar's location on the Neretva and thus represents a reference to the location. The so-called cosmological circle , a large central element made of limestone (see picture), is preceded by a fountain. The effect appears that it is connected to a water-organ-like cascade in the forecourt. However, in reality there are two separate water pipes. This illusion creates an impression of simultaneity.
After the wars in Yugoslavia in the first half of the 1990s, the monument was no longer maintained and the water pipes were badly damaged, so that impression is lost today. In 2006 it was decided to make the partisan necropolis a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Since 2008, the first attempts have been made to bring the site back into a good condition.
The monument was honored as part of an exhibition on Yugoslav architecture between 1948 and 1980 in the Museum of Modern Art . The designs for the memorial shown there were on loan from the Vienna Architecture Center .
literature
- Bogdan Bogdanović. Memoria and Utopia in Tito Yugoslavia . Wieser, Klagenfurt, ISBN 978-3-85129-834-5 , p. 66-69 .
- Martino Stierli, Vladimir Kulić (ed.): Toward a Concrete Utopia. Architecture in Yugoslavia 1948–1980 . The Museum of Modern Art, New York 2018, ISBN 978-1-63345-051-6 , pp. 140-144 .
Web links
- Decision of the Commission for the Protection of National Monuments of Bosnia-Herzegovina to place the Partizansko spomen-groblje under protection , January 2006 (Bosnian) (broken link)
- Interview with Bogdan Bogdanovic
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Bogdan Bogdanović. Memoria and Utopia in Tito Yugoslavia . Wieser, Klagenfürt, ISBN 978-3-85129-834-5 , p. 66 .