This weekend I went hiking through the snow with a very special mission: to start a trail of visiting abandoned abstract monumental structures that were built during Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, from 1960s to 1980s. This particular one is located at Petrova Gora mountain, south-west of Zagreb.
One of the many
Petrova Gora is one of the monuments, that are memorials to honor Yugoslavian people resistance struggle during the WWII (National Liberation War). Their purpose was to commemorate war victims during occupation and to celebrate Revolution led by Tito's Partisan Army of rebels.
The thing that makes those monuments unique is their sculptural style: GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION, EXPRESSIONISM, MINIMALISM, that embodied most important Yugoslavian political and cultural goals:
- those styles were exact opposite of traditional and figurative Soviet socialist-realism style, representing Yugoslavian distinction of USSR and looking up to Western artistic movements of the time
- new abstract style and decontextualization was supposed to create a new language that would unite different ethnic groups (Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian), as well as war victims and its perpetrators, commemorating tragedies of both sides.
Monument to the Uprising of the People of Kordun and Banija (Petrova Gora)
Memorial building is located at Mali Petrovac, the highest point in Petrova Gora Mountain. It is dedicated to ethnic Serb victims during 1941-1942.
Completed in 1981, it was designed by a sculptor Vojin Bakić and architect Berislav Šerbetić, that won second design competition in 1974. A 37 meters high concrete structure, divided in five undulating layers and cladded with stainless steel plates, hosted congress hall, library, reading room, cafe and museum in 3000 sqare meters.
Deterioration
Ever since the Yugoslavia fell apart, those monuments were abandoned to slowly decay, sometimes even destroyed because the resentment at the political system that commissioned them. This is even more visible on Petrova Gora, because most of the metal cladding was removed, allowing snow and rain into interior.
The day we went to visit the monument was snowing all the time, but that gave some monochromatic experience of the space and nature while hiking up the hill. Usually you could see far, far away from the monument and his top, but the thick fog was all around. Dreamy white diffuse light was inside the monument, and fog was translucent boundary that acted as long lost facade.
Petrova Gora offers more interesting places, historical and natural beauty. The plan is to visit again in spring, to finally experience the view from the top. These winter photos also have their dreamy quality so you can enjoy the hazy atmosphere of my visit.
If you want to know more about this magnificent monuments, I recently discovered this very informative page that is dedicated to this topic: http://www.spomenikdatabase.org/
The way you captured the atmosphere around this forgotten colossus is beyond anything I've seen on Steemit so far. Your future is bright on this platform. I'm so glad that true quality is appreciated the way it should be. Too bad I couldn't be with you guys to experience it myself, but there are more of this giants in ex-Yu to unveil, so I'm looking forward to your next adventures!
Congrats @nightscape! You've earned yourself a new follower (me), as well as a nomination (by @artwatch) to win some SBD in my contest: https://steemit.com/art/@flaccidfervor/name-drop-showdown-2-sbd-giveaway. If you win, you and @artwatch get to split the post payout 50/50! If you or anyone else would like to enter, do so by nominating your favorite photographer, and help them get some exposure, and perhaps a little $$$.
good post
Thank you! :)
wellcome
Scary photos. Looks like Yugoslavian Silent Hill :D
(being ex-Yu and everything!)
But what a yummy yummy link ! Thanks a bunch! Btw,
I'd expect you know about http://architectureofdoom.tumblr.com and other such places?
I don't know about blog you mentioned, thank you!
I'm following few others. That always fascinated and scared me, especially when visiting :D
Ooh well enjoy then. Brutalism is so sexy, and tumblr is full of it. (Well, you might take that sexy with a bit of reserve..) Even when populated (in Zagreb e.g.), it looks daunting. For the past couple of months I can't get my eyes off it. Here's one photo-manipulated by Tanja Deman. Color's got nothing to do with scary apparently: fog or no fog, it remains daunting as it was made out to be.
Woow, this looks like alien invasion! Very inspirational for dystopian art.
Cool! I wonder how'd it looked like during its best days...
:)
Nice! I was curious too so I searched it on the web. It's sad that the government neglected it though.
You should definitely get in on this contest every week, if you are into abandoned places
https://steemit.com/aswcontest/@customnature/reminder-abandoned-shit-weekly-contest-5-overgrowth-ends-sunday-aswcontest
OH and these shots are EPIC btw
WOW
This post is (maybe) not for this weeks theme, but I'll figure something out. Thank you because I didn't know about that contest at all!
(I'm glad you like it, this structure is so impressive!)
:)
Bok @nightscape pridruži nam se na novo podignutim Discord serverima za Hrvatske i Balkanske Steemit korisnike detaljnije o ideji možeš pročitati u linkovima ispod
O Hrvatskom Serveru:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@ivan.atman/official-croatian-discord-server-is-up-and-croatian-steemit-association-is-up-hrvatska-udruga-steemit-korisnika-husk
O Balkanskom Serveru:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@ivan.atman/official-balkan-discord-server-is-up-and-balkan-steemit-alliance-is-up-steemit-balkan-savez-sbs
(ispričavam se ukoliko si već tamo)
Već sam s vama :)
👍
Congratulations @nightscape!
Your post was mentioned in the Steemit Hit Parade for newcomers in the following category:
I also upvoted your post to increase its reward
If you like my work to promote newcomers and give them more visibility on Steemit, feel free to vote for my witness! You can do it here or use SteemConnect
Awesome!!
Thank you so much, that means a lot!
:D ::happy::
Congrats on @curie vote! Spend it on nice things :) Use @matko-md's Bittrex acc to deal with SBD!
Thank you! I still can't believe what happened! :)
I'm sure I'll have questions, so I appreciate help :D
It's a project that helps newcomers. It only upvotes you if you write quality material and you are below a certain reputation level. People are paid to find such posts.
The snow and fog make it feel almost other worldly. Was it hard getting up the snowy slippery stairs?
It was harder just get to the monument because snow was deep to the knee.
Inside the monument was pretty much ok :D
Woah, sounds awesome.
Holy crap, this is straight from an horror movie.
Yes, the atmosphere inside is like in a movie Stalker!
I like seeing your footprints walking around, that building looks so crazy too! Never seen that shape in architecture before
The design concept of the monument is shaped like Guggenheim museum in New York, especially from the inside:
woooah.. Amazing. just amazing...
Hi nightscape, arts shape the nation. How creative was those architecture in that time and now is abandoned. Become monument to remember.i hope I'm able to visit this place one day.
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