Sanctuary of fallen freedom fighters

One of the atypical communist monuments spread all over Yugoslavia, work of a Bogdan Bogdanovic, who was an architect, philosopher, writer, mayor of Belgrade and urbanist.

It was built between 1973 and 1975. Monument is located above the river Vlasina, on an area no larger than 1 ha. Central figure in the design stage was like a mighty telamon (male caryatid, Atlas, Atlant) with ornamental profile. However, derived figure is more like a pylon as the boundary between the profane and the sacred places. Height of 12 m. The structure is clad in stone, in regular rows on its sides and where delineating decorative aspects occur, but with irregulary shaped stones covering the faces of the column that look upon theampitheatre and the town. The investor called  this piece the “Guardian of the revolution”. Small amphitheater on three levels is made of rough granite block. Around the amphitheater are “stone gardens”, which are also made of granite blockswith abstract floral designs carved into them. Circle and pylon-shaped megalith resemble the semiological vocabulary of Neolithic culture. Near the monument is the old graveyard.

Upon a stone boulder beside the monument is chiselled a stanza of a poem by theYugoslav-Romanian poet Vasko Popa:

Our star has survived us

And I will burn every incinerator

Friends, dance where our heart has stopped

Vine, prolong the song of our beats

If you ever desired our cheeks

Caress this stone at noon