Spomenik in Montenegro

Monument to War Heroes

When Tito liberated Yugoslavia from the Nazi's in WWII, he faced a problem of building a nation out of previously independent nations, or parts of the Austria-Hungarian or Ottoman Empires. The short history between WWI and WWII was not a particularly good example of how to do it.

So he forged an identity of heroes in the fight against the Axis. He set out to bind his nation together with a shared history or resistance.

Yugoslavia itself was a great-power artifact lumping 3 independent countries, 3 A/H provinces and 2 Ottoman colonies into a lump. And two of these, Serbia and Croatia, pretty much hated each other. Yugoslavia has one language, but 2 was of writing (latin and cryillic), 3 main religions (Catholic, Serbian Orthodox, Islam) and had multiple government styles.

So Tito crafted a unique Yugoslavian identity - and then used sculpture in a post impressionist / fascist style that was uniquely Yugoslavian. This has results in lots of remaining monuments to the people of the region.

After the fall of Yugoslavia, most of these have fallen into disrepair. I will, at some point next year, go on a tour of these. They are so very cool.

This is a monument to a battlefield, not a duck.

The ones noted here are all in Montenegro, which - remember, is tiny. More are in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia. And they haven't even found all of them yet.  The one in Bosnia I have posted about many times is pictured at the bottom (with me!)