Monument to the uprising of the people of Kordun and Bania
Time of creation – 1971-1981
Author – Voin Bakich and Berislav Sherbetich
Location: Petrova Gora, Croatia
Dimensions and materials – 37 m high, 40 m wide. Concrete, rebar, aluminum sheets
What is dedicated to
This monument is dedicated to the uprising and resistance movement of the people of the Croatian regions of Kordun and Bania against Nazism and perpetuates the memory of the fallen fighters and civilians.
History of creation
In 1972, 17 proposals were submitted for the competition to create a monument, among which the young architect Igor Tosh became the winner. However, during the construction process, his project turned out to be very expensive and complicated. In the second competition, organized four years later, the jury chose the design of the Serbian sculptor Voin Bakić, who won second place for the first time.
Due to the political upheavals in the 1980s associated with the death of President Josip Tito, the monument was never completed. During the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, it was attacked by vandals who stole almost all of the aluminum cladding.
Symbolism
There is not a single opening on the outside of the monument, so it looks like a huge sculpture that dominates the rural landscape.
“Sculpture, especially monuments, should be architecture devoid of its utilitarian function, something like a pure poetic conquest of space and the establishment of new human relations with it” – Josip Tito.
The monument is a kind of synthesis of the organic and the technological, achieved through the contrast of curving volumes with shiny cladding made of modern industrial material.