These structures were commissioned by former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito in the 1960s and 70s to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place (like Tjentište, Kozara and Kadinjača), or where concentration camps stood (like Jasenovac and Niš). They were designed by different sculptors (Dušan Džamonja, Vojin Bakić, Miodrag Živković, Jordan and Iskra Grabul, to name a few) and architects (Bogdan Bogdanović, Gradimir Medaković...), conveying powerful visual impact to show the confidence and strength of the Socialist Republic. In the 1980s, these monuments attracted millions of visitors per year, especially young pioneers for their "patriotic education." After the Republic dissolved in early 1990s, they were completely abandoned, and their symbolic meanings were forever lost.
From 2006 to 2009, Kempenaers toured around the ex-Yugoslavia region (now Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.) with the help of a 1975 map of memorials, bringing before our eyes a series of melancholy yet striking images. His photos raise a question: can these former monuments continue to exist as pure sculptures? On one hand, their physical dilapidated condition and institutional neglect reflect a more general social historical fracturing. And on the other hand, they are still of stunning beauty without any symbolic significances.
Podgarić
Petrova Gora
Kosmaj
Tjentište
Kruševo
Kozara
Grmeč
Ilirska Bistrica
Jasenovac
Sanski Most
Niš
Košute
Korenica
Knin
Makljen
Tjentište
Kolašin
Kadinjača
Mitrovica
Brezovica
Kamenska
Ostra
Sisak
Nikšić
Sinj
Zenica
From 2006 to 2009, Kempenaers toured around the ex-Yugoslavia region (now Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.) with the help of a 1975 map of memorials, bringing before our eyes a series of melancholy yet striking images. His photos raise a question: can these former monuments continue to exist as pure sculptures? On one hand, their physical dilapidated condition and institutional neglect reflect a more general social historical fracturing. And on the other hand, they are still of stunning beauty without any symbolic significances.
beautiful architecture art...
ReplyDeletenice pic..
Yugoslavia isn't soviet.
ReplyDeleteAll of them are made of concrete!
ReplyDeleteIt seems they liked this material a lot...
wow looks like halo battle places
ReplyDeletenice designs for it's age... :)
ReplyDeleteOMG. 25 beautiful architecture art
ReplyDeletewow!
ReplyDeleteCan anyone find me the latitude and longitude for these places?
Wow...these are absolutely breathtaking! These need to be preserved...
ReplyDeletep.s. is this really Yugoslavia?
Amaaazing!
ReplyDeleteI love these retro-futuristical concrete sculptures, the soviet artists where very inovative! Speccial attention to the half-cut ellipse with broken edges. Expression and solemnity perfectly combinated. You really got me, astonished.
BLOG
(in Spanish)
http://barriendogarabatos.blogspot.com/
these are amazing. are there more of them somewhere? i want a whole book of these!
ReplyDeleteIt's not Soviet! I't's Yugoslavia, mostly Bosnia.
ReplyDeleteIs this blog run by yankees??? Clinton pointed out where serbia is positioned on national tv the same night as he launched natos 72-day bombing campaign in -99 but i guess you didnt give a fuck
ReplyDeleteNot to be too picky, but Yugoslavia under Tito can't properly be called Soviet. Ideological and esthetic similarities to be sure, but the term "Soviet" really only applies to Russia. Cool pictures, though.
ReplyDeleteYugoslavia was never part of the Soviet Union.
ReplyDeleteAren't four and sixteen the same?
ReplyDeleteLove these! As much as they film movies in eastern Europe I'm surprised one of these hasn't ended up in a Conan the Barbarian type or SciFi movie. I can totally see them working for one or the other. For some reason the first one makes me think of Warhammer 40K.
ReplyDeleteJeeeeeeeeez. Not only is Yugoslavia NOT the soviet union, Tito told Stalin to stick it and managed to keep the red army out of his country. Yugoslavia had a completely different political and economic model. Nice pics, though.
ReplyDeletemaybe they've just served their purpose...they seem to be decaying quite naturally for the most part, and you know, time marches on...
ReplyDeleteVery poignant, It's truly fantastic, now that they don't serve any political statement, they find they real fonction: to meditate on the human condition.
ReplyDeleteThe sculptures have been neglected because they are ghastly. They are really bad.
ReplyDeleteThis is AMAZING. They look like movie sets.
ReplyDeleteDear eflux and cracktwo, as a source of information, can you please keep it together and correct the tiltle "25 Abandoned Soviet Monuments..." to "25 Abandoned WWII Monuments from Yugoslavia Depicting the Struggle and Celebrating the Victories of Yugoslav Peoples over the enemies". Also, it would be only civil to restrain cynical remarks about Yugoslav patriotism, pioneers and youth. "Democracy" was never forced fed in Jugoslavija, as is the case west of the Balkans. Brainwashing with softener. There may be 25 abondened monuments, but hey, look around; recent and hopefully final glitch of capitalism caused by "free" market, capital and greed is abandoning people. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteMy name below. Dear eflux and cracktwo, as a source of information, can you please keep it together and correct the tiltle "25 Abandoned Soviet Monuments..." to "25 Abandoned WWII Monuments from Yugoslavia Depicting the Struggle and Celebrating the Victories of Yugoslav Peoples over the enemies". Also, it would be only civil to restrain cynical remarks about Yugoslav patriotism, pioneers and youth. "Democracy" was never forced fed in Jugoslavija, as is the case west of the Balkans. Brainwashing with softener. There may be 25 abondened monuments, but hey, look around; recent and hopefully final glitch of capitalism caused by "free" market, capital and greed is abandoning people. Cheers. Tomislav Terek
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ascmag.com/blog/2011/02/28/spomenik%E2%80%94jan-kempenaers-and-%E2%80%9Cthe-end-of-history%E2%80%9D/
ReplyDeleteHere are same monumnets but explained a little.
And yes Yugoslavia is not SSSR, ffs you could at least do 10 sec of research before copy pasting someone elses blogpost.
Visually stunning!
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry to be a pedant, but 'Soviet' isn't an apt description, as Yugoslavia had already left the Watsaw Pact by the time the monuments were constructed.
as someone else pointed out already: yugoslavia wasn't part of the soviet union. it's like saying canada is US-american.
ReplyDeleteAfter going through this post, i am thinking that how creative a human can be that invent such kind of architecture.
ReplyDeleteSome look the inspiration for Stargate. Very interesting snd evocative of the Stalinist period of heeroic art. The Wabbit would love to hop around these. .
ReplyDeleteYes, it's Yugoslavia.
ReplyDeletehi,
ReplyDeletei think it is very important to precise that this has nothing to do with the soviet at all.
Yugoslavia was never part of the Warsaw pact and the artistic movements were completely independant.
Be carefull not to simplify history (and art) too much, it has been more than americans and russians around.
best,
G.
None of these compare even remotely to the Enterprise-looking spacecraft called Buzludja (Бузлуджа) in central Bulgaria.
ReplyDeleteprimeriso, I would say 23, not 25...
ReplyDeleteSoaring concrete for the space age! Ingenious.
ReplyDeletethey look from the future when you know nothing about art :')
ReplyDeletefuturism is old.
Check this one out then :)
ReplyDeletehttp://i.focus.ua/img/a/2/5/43052.jpg?1244195212
Yugoslavia was communist but not Soviet.
ReplyDeleteyougoslavia was really in opposition to soviet union, this is quite a misunderstanding and historical confusion to call this soviet monuments !
ReplyDeletebut there's been similar stunning modernist sculpture and architecture in soviet russia, though these ones are particularly bold.
these are not soviet artists but from yugoslavia...
ReplyDeleteHistory lesson: "Soviet" (a Russian word) usually reefers to the late Soviet Union. Yugoslavia was never part of the Soviet Union. Tito was President of the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. Both countries were Marxist states (as China still is, at least officially) but were not allies.
ReplyDeleteWow! What an amazing set of sculptures. They certainly can stand alone without the background of the military regime of the former Soviet Union. These sculptures bring beauty all on their own. They need to belong to a guided tourist route.
ReplyDeleteTHEY DO LOOK LIKE HALO SETS!!!
ReplyDeleteThey are stunning. They are also not soviet.
ReplyDeletereminds me of a lot of final fantasy dungeons.
ReplyDeletehttp://jeffedwardsart.com/main.php
http://www.veganbuttholeexplosion.com/
http://losangelesswimmin.com/
http://thepube.com/
It's kind of funny that the second one from the top, now has a cell tower on the roof.
ReplyDelete...how times have changed.
It's kind of funny that the second one from the top now has a cellular tower on the roof.
ReplyDelete....how times have changed.
Not sure if they can be called soviet if they're from the former Yugoslavia. Some photographs of these monuments can be found in the book: Josip Broz Tito: A Monograph/Monografija ed. Drago Zdunic. Zagreb: Spektar, 1977.
ReplyDeletethis is really (the former) Yugoslavia. some are in Croatia, Serbia... I think at least one in Crna Gora (Montenegro)... and Kosovo as well.
ReplyDeletemost of them are ini ex-yugoslavia
ReplyDeletehttp://modernsauce.blogspot.com/2010/05/i-squee-for-former-soviet-architecture.html
Amazing - love this .. INSPIRED!!
ReplyDeleteThose are not Soviet. They are from the former Yugoslavia. Majority of those are located in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. The last one is in the city of Zenica, one is in Kozara, Sutjeska and so on.. I was there last summer, quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteAmazing!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteyes! Its ex yugoslavia
ReplyDeleteYes, it is ex yugoslavia, some of realy breathtaking :)
ReplyDelete(Ex-)Yugoslavia (where these monuments are located) was never part of the Soviet Union. The title of this is article is completely incorrect, and quite insulting to be honest.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYou obviously don't have a clue of what you're writing about it you're talking of SOVIET monuments in former Yugoslavia!
ReplyDeleteGo study some History 101...
Interesting pics, though.
Maybe you've stumbled on the meaning and purpose of stonehenge, avebury, and many other stone monuments of the past. Awesome.
ReplyDeletewaw thats fascinating and beatifull. i wonder about the locations, timing and perhaps the position in which these were placed, there has to be some pattern of meaning for these, ppl dont just put huge amounts of reasources into complex artistic sculputer and place them in specific locations just for the hell of it u know? some one had to pay to put em there and they must have had a good enough reason. hmm fascinating, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAs someone already commented, Yugoslavia was never Soviet.
ReplyDeleteIt had its own brand of communism, entirely independent of the Soviet Union. Actually, the relations between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were quite strained because Yugoslavia was quite western-friendly and openly defied Soviet hegemonism in the Eastern Europe.
anyone knows the exact location of this monuments?
ReplyDeleteWhy does the title call these Soviet? These are in Yugoslavia.
ReplyDeleteHalf of these are from ex Yugoslavia, mostly Serbia and Bosnia. That is not ex USSR
ReplyDelete25 Abandoned Soviet Monuments that look like they're from the Future ??
ReplyDeleteIn the next line described as part of ex Yugoslavia history ... those are 25 Abandoned Ex-Yugoslavian Monuments.
Yes, those are in Slovenija, Coratia , Serbia ect ...
25 Abandoned Soviet Monuments that look like they're from the Future ??
ReplyDeleteIn the next line described as part of ex Yugoslavia history ... those are 25 Abandoned Ex-Yugoslavian Monuments.
Please correct that title to prevent confusing people.
yugoslavia was not part of the soviet union. in fact, after 1948 it even distanced itself openly from stalin (who had demanded that tito & the rest of the partizan communist leader step down i favor of cadres chosen by moscow, which the former refused). this led, with time, also to a distancing from socialist-realist dogmas and conceptions of aesthetics. it was, largely, meant as a deliberate ceasura, an act of polemic distancing transposed from the political field into the aesthetic. without this history and the level of contingent political opportunism, none of the above monuments would even remotely look the way they do. monuments of the people's liberation struggle and revolution were not allowed to interact with avantgardist tendencies in the eastern block proper. so, all of the above are also consequences of tito's break with stalin, and, in consequence, also monuments of political and aesthetic distance from stalinism.
ReplyDeletefreakin awesome
ReplyDeletewow, this is a lot nicer then most people would think would be coming out of soviet union
ReplyDeleteFantastical
ReplyDeleteBeauty
Frank Gehry is a hack compared to these guys!
ReplyDeleteyeah, this is Yugoslavia, and these monuments are scattered throughout it's former republics, now each an independent state, but Yugoslavia was never part of the Soviet block
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that so many have been vandalised. I wonder how they would have looked before getting damaged.
ReplyDeleteIt is really impressive that a lot of people only read the title and not the text.
ReplyDeleteIn the text it is clear that this monuments are from former Yugoslavia and not form the Soviet Union but people still in there comments and now on twitter talk about Soviet monuments.
Does it really matter ?
Well you could say in the title that the monuments where from Japan and that they where made by Eskimos wich would make the title even more interesting if it does not matter.
It should be "25 Abandoned Yugoslav Monuments that look like they're from the Future".
ReplyDeletePlease dear author correct this. Yugoslavia was never part of Soviet Union.
Thanks.
Soviets forever! Georgeous!
ReplyDeletehttp://supergenau.com/archives/1097
I don't see what is the problem in these sculptures continuing to exist, even if their meaning (and original intent) were to remain the same. As far as I know, in Europe we all have monuments honouring our heroes from WWII. The regime that commissioned these sculptures has vanished. But it was not an illegitimate regime, nor the cause they were honouring was honourable (as far as I know, we are all against nazis and concentration camps). The photos are indeed stunning. But your opening text is very weak.
ReplyDeleteYou *really* should link to the source of your pictures, because what you're doing right now is just re-posting and profiting from someone else's work.
ReplyDeleteThere is only one mention of the author of the pictures in your post - and a very vague one at that.
Like the above commenter said, these aren't "Soviet." Although incorrectly calling them such adds a nice touch to a post that's about the erosion of historical memory.
ReplyDeletePlease, change "Soviet" is not EX Yugoslavia.
ReplyDeleteat least 2 are from croatia...
ReplyDeleteYugoslavia was never soviet you fucking retard. Google before you post.
ReplyDeleteThanks to the anonymous poster at #2 for pointing out the glaring error - Yugoslavia was /not/ "Soviet", it was a non-aligned country. 10 seconds with Wikipedia can save a lot of embarrassment. Cool pics though!
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito
but it was Soviet when the sculptures were made
ReplyDeleteThese pictures are from Yugoslavia.
ReplyDeleteYugoslavia was never part of Russia or Soviet union.
All of these architects were Yugoslav, not Soviet. Yugoslavia was not part of the Warsaw Pact, aka Soviet sphere of influence, and indeed part of the initial story of the design of these monuments was being consciously anti-socialist realist and not influenced by architectural trends in the Soviet Union.
ReplyDeletesome of the monuments are from Yugoslavia. and yugoslavia was never part of the soviet union. so, you should change the title.
ReplyDeletebtw, the 5th monument is from Krushevo, which is a town in Macedonia. Macedonia was one of the 6 federal republics in SFR Yugoslavia. It is not mentioned in the introduction.
ReplyDelete@ sneakerfreaker. I will give you the lat./long. of 2 of those monuments.
ReplyDeleteExcept Jugoslavija (Yugoslavia) was never part of the Soviet Union.
ReplyDeleteVery cool, I wish there was more information about these... also, there are only 24, one is shot from two angles
ReplyDeleteI am confused by the one that's just trees. Minimalism!
ReplyDeleteAnyone have an idea where are dome of these? I travel to Balkan a lot and I want to visit some of them.
ReplyDeleteThank
note: these monuments are also symbolic of the fight against Fascism in the former Jugoslavia... not merely socialist propaganda.
ReplyDeleteAny possibility of scanning and uploading the map too?
ReplyDeleteMarija Vauda
ReplyDelete...GOLDEN AGES OF CONCRETE...IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA/YOU COULD SEE THAT FACT JUST OPEN LINK/WE USED TO HATE THAT AESTHETIC BECAUSE OF HUGE SOCIAL PRIVILEGE OF THEIR AUTHORS AND EVIDENT UGLINESS OF THOSE ART-IDEOLOGICAL-OBJECTS /...DON'T WANT ...TO MENTION HUGE SUM OF MONEY THEY GET FOR THOSE MONUMENT-MONSTER/...MYSTERY OF TIME AND SECRET OF MATTER MAKE SOMETHING *OTHER*FROM THOSE MONUMENTS...BUILD TO MARK PARTIZAN'S FIGHT AGAINST NAZISM AND FASCISM... TO MARK PLACE WHO REMIND ON GERMAN AND CROAT KONC-LAGER WHERE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS SERB,JEWISH AND ROMAN AND COMMUNIST...AND OTHERS... WHERE KILLED...TO TEAR OFF PLACE OF HUMAN SUFFER FROM UNIVERSAL INFECTION-OBLIVION...TODAY THOSE OBJECTS ARE WITNESS OF EROSION FROM ALL SIDES-EROSION OF ANTIFASCIST IDEOLOGY SAME AS PHYSICAL EROSION WHICH TOGETHER BRING IN FRONT OF OUR EYE SCENOGRAPHY OF DISAPPEAR AND MIXED PAST-FUTURE FEELING WHICH SUIT GOOD TO PHENOMENOLOGICAL DESCRIBE OF TIME AS SOMETHING'..WHICH IS NOT ANYMORE AND IT'S NOT YET...'/M.M.PONTY/...WRITE N TIME/CHRONOS/AND UNIVERSAL TIME-SPACE /AEON/ IN ONE TINY SEGMENT OF SPACE/IN GEOGRAPHICAL SENSE WHERE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA WAS/AND TIME/TITO'S TIME FROM 1945-1980/SHOW US MELANCHOLIC PASSING OF ALL *GREAT*IDEA AND EPHEMERAL OF WAR...PEACE...WEST AND EAST...COMMUNISM AND CAPITALISM...BELIEVE AND NOT BELIEVE...IN THAT SENSE THAT REALLY COULD BE/IF YOU ASK ME BUT YOU DON'TEnhanced by Smiley Central/...IN SIBERIA AS MONUMENTS OF XX CENTURY TRANS...MANIK..APRIL...2011...
If you were there in the late 60's as was I, you'd know that Yugosalavia was very very much a subservient Soviet state - in fact the Russians of the Party summered there - we met a whole crew of them.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and wierd pieces though!
Unfortunately, there are no details about the place where you can find everyone!
ReplyDeleteMost of these 92 comments are saying the same thing, doesn't anyone else want to know the names and stories behind these monuments? How can we find that information?
ReplyDeletecroatian contemporary artist david maljkovic used some of these architecture for his beatufil work,
ReplyDeletericcardo
yugoslavia was part of the soviet union. that's a fact.
ReplyDeleteNo. Pretty sure it's Soviet.
ReplyDeletestunning
ReplyDeleteidk if anyone knows this or has commented this but.. did you know yugoslavia wasnt soviet?
ReplyDeletethere is no yugoslavia anymore so quit bitching
ReplyDeleteShort note on the history of these beautiful monuments and country that no longer exists !
ReplyDeleteYugoslavia employed itself in fighting the fachist in the WW2 on a big scale. The army was set up by communists from serbia, croatia, slovenia, bosnia, macedonia and montenegro, and it was LED by TITO, in order to kick out Germans, Italians and local nazis (chetniks and ustashas) who btw held notorious concentration camps, so some of these monuments were built on sites of these camps as well.
Unlike neighbour countries namely: czecoslovakia, poland, hungary, albania, bulgaria, rumania, - YUGOSLAVIA fought the nazis on its own territory, protecting its land and its people, its jews and its gipsies, because of this (after the war ended), Yugoslavian bravery and resistance was recognized world wide and gave a new country a BIG credit. Being the WW2 resistance and fight an inspiring part of yugoslav history, it was glorified for decades after, and that is how These monuments were built up In memory to the victims of the war and people who lost their lifes fighting the nazis in sake of the freedom.
(Nothing really to do with socialist propaganda or soviet whatever !!!)
cheers ! and long live antifachist movement !
this source is much better :
http://www.ascmag.com/blog/2011/02/28/spomenik%E2%80%94jan-kempenaers-and-%E2%80%9Cthe-end-of-history%E2%80%9D/
Wow these are very cool... I would love to check them out sometime!
ReplyDeleteugly and weird, yuck
ReplyDeleteThis monuments are all located on the backside of burnie mountain, which is located the mountains of north carolina about 16 miles before you turn left on that road to go to the sears, the one with the Subway on the inside.
ReplyDeleteex Yugoslavia was created as a buffer zone between east and west...with a great support of the CIA (Cia at the time did not have that name) agent "Joseph" Josip Broz, Jewish from Brooklyn USA.
ReplyDeleteFormer Yugoslavia was part of "non aligned" movement that kept India,Egypt,Libya...from becoming a communist countries or being exploited by the communist countries.
Wow, there are so many of them. I wonder if there are plans to eventually tear them all down.
ReplyDeleteTétric, this is a horrible arquiterure create from socialism of Tito.
ReplyDeletethe time past..
It would be possible receive more info about number 21?
ReplyDeleteAs several people have remarked these excellent public scultures are not 'typical soviet' - to see some of those go to the Memento park in Budapest:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.szoborpark.hu/index.php?Content=Szoborpark&Lang=en
Quite a contrast!
JL
Could someone put these on a map (Google maps), please please please!
ReplyDeleteI see a whole lot of potential album covers...
ReplyDeleteThe abandoned state is half the charm. Monuments like these are more alarming than impressing when people actually care for them.
ReplyDelete//JJ
Astonishing architecture! Nice photos!
ReplyDeleteYou should also check these two:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0umarice_Memorial_Park
http://sites-of-memory.de/main/novisadzrtvamaracije.html
geweldig!
ReplyDeleteit's planet Krypton!
ReplyDeletelabmaster has to take a trip... 3 amazing ones, I´ve never seen!
ReplyDeleteI prefer naked russian women
ReplyDeletehermosas imagenes!!!www.flickr.com/photos/jihbran
ReplyDeleteBlogmaster ... is it possible to get a copy of the map your writers used? I'm planning an Eastern European trip in a couple of months and would love to see some of these things in person.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Gorgeous. they could really make moving sculptures.
ReplyDeleteOne more stupid motherfucker says that Yugoslavia isn't Soviet and will be fucking shot in their unfuckingbeleivably stupid ass with spiky bullets
ReplyDeleteTrailer of a documentary film about these memorials:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.balcanicaucaso.org/Media/Multimedia/Il-cerchio-del-ricordo
A dossier about war memorials in the former yugoslavia
http://old.osservatoriobalcani.org/memorial
long interview with one of the architects of these monuments:
http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/Dossier/Dossier/Il-secolo-di-Bogdanovic-I
collapsing Soviet legacy, its very sad :(
ReplyDeleteThere's a book with these pictures: http://www.orderromapublications.org/Product.aspx?pid=187
ReplyDeletemaybe someone should credit the photographer…
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jankempenaers.info/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=762451387&sk=wall
great work indeed
I am sure that some of us are still seeing great symbolic significances in these monuments - shame on the those who are allowing their deterioration!
ReplyDeleteThe 4th & 16th images are in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sutjeska National Park.
ReplyDelete"After the Republic dissolved in early 1990s, they were completely abandoned, and their symbolic meanings were forever lost."
ReplyDelete"...without any symbolic significances."
Dude, the 90's were not so long ago, I'm pretty sure there are still quite a lot of people around who remember the symbolic meanings of these monuments and for whom they still mean something...
Yugoslavia was never a Soviet country, from 1948 they were very much opposed politically, still people from both country's considered themselves brothers. Here are wiki pages for these sites and there you have latitude and longitude, they're in the order of the images. Not all of them have direct links but are links to the location of the sites or towns near them.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spomenik_revolucije
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrova_Gora
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmaj
http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Тјентиште [there ain't a better link]
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_à_l'insurrection_d'Ilinden [it's called Macedonium]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozara
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grmeč
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilirska_Bistrica
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasenovac_monument
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanski_Most
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubanj [ I actually live about a mile from this one :) ]
http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Košute
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korenica
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knin
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=43.8475271&lon=17.5925446&z=14&l=0&m=b [ Makljen ]
this one is Tjentište just from a different angle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolašin
http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Спомен_комплекс_Кадињача [ there's a link to more images for Kadinjača, 43°51′N 19°51′E ]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovska_Mitrovica
This one is at Brezovica, but I don't know which one, sorry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamenska
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostra_(Čačak)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niksic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinj
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenica
For those interested, here are Google Earth placemarks for eight of these monuments (uploaded as one .rar file):
ReplyDeletehttps://rapidshare.com/files/459425200/Yugoslav_Monuments.rar
And here are some photos of the most beautiful Yugoslav monument, the one on the Kozara Mountain:
https://picasaweb.google.com/voicelove/KozaraMonument#
If you are interested you can come to the city of Banja Luka, where you can find this monument:
ReplyDeletehttp://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/5542645/img/Anonymous/Banj-Brdo.jpg
44° 44' 39" N 17° 9' 46" E
and then from Banja Luka it's easy to visit two of those monuments presented here:
number 6 - Kozara
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/5542748/img/Anonymous/kozara.jpg
45° 0' 50" N 16° 54' 33" E
number 9 - Jasenovac
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/5542759/img/Anonymous/jasenovac.jpg
45° 16' 49" N 16° 55' 42" E
For those who wonder what the soviet-discussion is all about, the title of the post used to be "25 Abandoned Soviet Monuments that look like they're from the Future".
ReplyDeleteNow it has been corrected.
25 Abandoned Yugoslavia Monuments
ReplyDeleteOne have to clearly distinguish between SSSR and Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was never a part of the Soviet Union. If one can not accept this fact than I can not accept there is anything between Mexico and Canada.
These monuments are in places of great battles from World War II. Genius loci will make you cry. Please stop connect it with soviets you ignorant. Tito (president of Yugoslavia)said NO to Stalin, and had great relationship with western leaders. Yugoslavia were between east and west. Still it was a socialist propaganda similar to Lenin`s Agitprop...Even Obama found inspiration in the Agitprop of his presidential campaign. Read some books for God sake...obviously people form east are more educated and see more than our own backyard.
ReplyDeleteSorry if english isn`t good...you understand don`t ya?
Stunnig!
ReplyDeleteTo echo, Yugoslavia wasn't soviet.
ReplyDeleteThen, these monuments were built by a legal and legitimate regime to commemorate, yes, battles, concentration camps, etc. but mainly they were/are there to remember those who lost their lives in WW II, adults and children alike.
Whatever the regime was then, or is now, or will be, history has happened.
BTW the Yugoslav postage stamps from the 1980's feature some of these monuments.
Madafak!
ReplyDeleteat least 40 people pointed out Yugoslavia is not Soviet, does anybody read comments before posting???
great stuff btw...
P.S.
YUGOSLAVIA IS NOT SOVIET! ...:)
not ABANDONED
ReplyDeletethese monuments are from ex yugoslavia - bosnia, serbia, croatia and macedonia. yugoslavia was not under soviet control although it was heavy influenced but yugoslavia was also influenced by western countries. yugoslavia was not even part of eastern block. this country was far more prosperous than many countries from eastern block. now, disintegrated leftovers are not even close to europe
ReplyDeleteNumber 11:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubanj_Memorial_Park
Number 09:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasenovac_monument
Number 06:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kozara
Number 04:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Sutjeska
Could you please add locations next to the photos
ReplyDeleteThey are from Croatia and Bosnia mainly, one of them is close to where I live. I would agree on that they are essentialy ugly, but still they are visually stunning.
ReplyDeleteSome Russian monuments however, are really massive and breathtaking.
they are not without symbolic reference, you just net 1 history sentence to completely understand
ReplyDeleteI've been to 2, 4 and 9 myself.
ReplyDeleteYugoslavian, Soviet - same thing. Both were sad, ugly regimens filled with sadder, uglier people. No wonder Communism failed, and that that whole part of the world is failing still to this day.
ReplyDeleteYugoslav, Soviet - same thing pretty much. Both filled with pathetic, sad, ugly people. No wonder Communism failed, and that whole part of the world is failing today!
ReplyDeleteFew days ago (24 April) I was on a mountain march, 18 miles long, to commemorate the struggle of the partisans against German forces in WWII on Kozara mountain. Final destination was Mrakovica peak where monument on picture no.6 (from top) is built on. There was almost 1000 people that attended the ceremony and more than 400 mostly young people (14-18 years old) that attended the march route. The statement that those monuments don't have symbolic value in this time is just not right. Truth is that most of the people are neglecting the historical facts about great struggle that Yugoslavian nations fought against Nazis and their domestic allies. When you take that fact in consideration these monuments are even small in their physical size. Greetings from Banja Luka
ReplyDeleteSeriously! Those monuments are CRAP! Ugly to the Nth degree.
ReplyDeleteAmazing locations and architecture.
ReplyDeleteThey are absolutely wonderful pieces of art
ReplyDeleteSoviet? These are Yugoslav monuments commemorating WWII heroes. And, yes, they are amazing.
ReplyDeleteOvo su Yugoslavenski umjetnici ! These are Yugoslavian artists,not russian!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteyou can get precise positions by google: just tipe in: "sutjeska tjentiste" for example, or "kozara mrakovica", etc.
ReplyDeleteVideo inside Kruševo monumet Macedonium http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFEUpfDPuE0
ReplyDeleteMakljen before demolition http://www.mycity-military.com/slika.php?slika=111703_47150916_makljen01.jpg
ReplyDeleteKamenska or "Spomenik pobjedi naroda Slavonije" is destroyed too. It is not a minimalistic :)
Košute is replaced with cross with names of ustaše and partisani on the same memorial. Although the first monument was erected for shooting 40 civilians by the Nazis, even though Ustasha were their allies
http://tinyurl.com/6zy3bgj
number 21 is a dud!
ReplyDeletepicture number 4 is tjentiste,border of bosnia and montenegro.nearby is place where 7000 yugoslav partisans died in one of the bigest german ofansives.sutjeska batle is world famous in army schools because of tito's tactics.where:east43,20west18,41
ReplyDeletepicture number 9 is 'stone flower' in jasenovac and comemorate place where croatian and german fascis killed 1 000 000 serbs and jews.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasenovac_concentration_camp
each of them is part of our history and it is on places where many people died for freedom. they died for yugoslavia and future generations,sadly there is no yugoslavia and that future generations didnt respectlost lives and that monuments...they vandalised monuments and fighted again
the monument in Krusevo isn't abandoned... its a memorial site for the Krusevo uprising and the fight against the ottomans.
ReplyDeleteFor me the mos beautiful one is Tjentište with spomenik Sutjeska and museum. More pictures: http://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tjentište
ReplyDeleteThey are still relevant even without YU because people fought and lost their lives defending free world!
ReplyDeleteMost of these monuments (if not all, I'm not sure) are works of genial Bogdan Boganović (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogdan_Bogdanovi%C4%87)! And yes, Yugoslav architecture is not connected with so-called ''Eastern European'' or ''Stalinistic'' architecture.
ReplyDeleteone more:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.croatiaholidayshr.com/Naslovnica/Pregledclanka/tabid/63/ArticleId/526/language/hr-HR/SPOMENIK-PODHUMSKIM-ZRTVAMA-ndash-Cavle.aspx
Yugoslavia was really a country from future. Not in capitalism, not in communism. People in Yugoslavia lived in peace, no greedy banks, no dicatators, everyone had a job, a lot of free time, but West didn't tolarated this and started a war to brake this country apart.
ReplyDeleteThey forgot maybe most beautiful, Galebovo Krilo (Seagul Wing) in Podgora near Makarska
ReplyDeletehttp://www.destinacije.com/Slike/Hrvatska/SpomeniciiGroblja/Spomenik_Galebova_Krila.JPG
http://www.podgorainfo-apartmani.t-com.hr/IMG_0139.jpg......Spomenik%20Gal.krilo%207.2009.jpg
http://s2.pticica.com/foto/0000701663_l_0_byv3vy.jpg
Podgarić
ReplyDeletehttp://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=45.640755,16.777818&daddr=Podgari%C4%87ko+Jezero,+Berek,+Croatia&hl=en&geocode=%3BCRMywzcJ_tlzFdpuuAIdAe7_ACntOoB6lVRmRzEgq3qUUK0AKg&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=19&sll=45.640772,16.777743&sspn=0.000983,0.002642&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=19
PODGARIC, CROATIA : 45°38'27.06"N
ReplyDelete16°46'40.54"E
PETROVA GORA , CROATIA : 45°18'54.27"N
15°48'20.30"E
TJENTISTE, BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA : 43°20'46.09"N
18°41'16.22"E
KOZARA, BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA : 45° 0'49.13"N
16°54'35.49"E
JASENOVAC, CROATIA : 45°16'49.39"N
16°55'42.72"E
Yugoslavia was really a country from hell.
ReplyDeleteYougoslav monuments are honouring partisan resistance against nazi/fascist occupation during WW2 - the largest local resistance movement in Europe during WW2, led by Tito.
ReplyDeleteThe 5th monument is located in Krushevo, Macedonia, which was part of the Yugoslavian federation. However, the monument does not honour WWII heroes or battles, but instead the Krushevo Republic of 1903, which lasted for 10 days and was part of the macedonian revolutionary movement against the Ottoman Empire.
ReplyDeleteBeing Macedonian, I'm ashamed to say I don't really know when the monument was built (Tito may have comissioned it, but it may have been built after Macedonia separated from SFRJ), but I know that it's definitely not abandoned.
I feel sorry for blind people (brainwashed) the truth is: Yugoslavia was an artificial country one big concentration camp!
ReplyDeletewell there are a lots similar buildings not only monuments that can be found in almost every ex yu city
ReplyDeletethose arhitects designed also hospitals, schools, buildings...
I feel sorry for blind people (brainwashed) the truth is: Yugoslavia was an artificial country one big concentration camp!
ReplyDeletewow. i live in croatia and i didn't know about half of this stuff. they look really cool. i was looking at some sci-fi russian arhitecture the other day and i was like : "Cool, i wish we had that"
ReplyDeleteYou are sooooo true about Yugoslavia being from the future. We has EU when EU did not even exist in the heads of west. 6 nations living together in piece and prosperity. We could travel where ever we wanted from Rusia to US without visa. We had free health care, education, people would get appartments from the companies they worked for. My parents had private company, we had workers, swimming pool etc. I left when I was 18, lived in Germany and now in US, and I'll tell you, if people new what capitalisam truly is, we would have never voted KPJ out of power. True, we did not have fancy cars (at lease not all), but we had free time, and we were still humans, communicated with our neighbors, and had fun. Where are these good old days....
ReplyDeleteTjentiste:
ReplyDeletehttp://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Tjenti%C5%A1te,+Republika+Srpska,+Bosnia+and+Herzegovina&aq=0&sll=45.640774,16.77774&sspn=0.001463,0.002411&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Tjenti%C5%A1te,+Republika+Srpska,+Bosnia+and+Herzegovina&ll=43.346115,18.686843&spn=0.006086,0.009645&t=h&z=17
Kozara, Tjentište and Jasenovac are not abandoned. That is for sure. Probably some other monuments are not abandoned so please do Your homework before You write blog.
ReplyDeletePOdgora is the bitrh-town of the Yugoslaw War Marine in WW II...Some of the sculptures was in croatia and they was destroyed by the croatian army in this war...2 of them are in my town "Sinj" and "Kosute"...In Sinj the partisans from Split are mordered by Italians and Ustascha, and in Kosute they were arested in the battle.
ReplyDeleteTjentiste commemorates this battle (there was a movie with Richard Burton made about it):
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Sutjeska
that was my country... nice country in many ways
ReplyDeleteovo je umijetnost gamad kapitalisticka!!!
ReplyDeleteljubim vas :*:*:*:*
yeah, too bad they are in this condition now
ReplyDeleteanyway, some of those presented are not abbandoned but well preserved
anyway, if someone interested there is 2 tourist associations that organize guided tours to these monuments (some of them), check www.viaggiareibalcani.it or write to udruzenjepromotur@gmail.com if interested
and PLEASE Yugoslavia struggled a lot since 1948 till the death of Stalin to preserve its independence from Sowiet Union and is unique among other communist countries in Europe for having done it. Lets not forget it :)
@The Great Smell Of Brute
ReplyDeleteYugoslavia was never part of Warshaw Pakt.
There are a few total idiots trying to make an intelligent comment of sort 'it is ugly', 'it is Soviet' etc.
ReplyDeleteBooks, history, and then go there and see for yourself. Learn about one of the greatest countries of all time: Yugoslavia (ie. what Bosnia and Herzegovina represents today albeit in impoverished, aftermath of a genocide from Serbia).
YUGOSLAVIA WAS NEVER SOVIET, YOU STUPID UNEDUCATED FUCKS!!! AND I HOPE YOU ARE NOT CONFUSING SOVIET WITH SOCIALIST... DAMN YOU STUPID... FUCK, SRSLY CAN'T BELIEVE...
ReplyDeleteBeen to few of these as a child under "young pioneers for their "patriotic education" banner :)
ReplyDeleteAlways was a good day out with your friends.
From the Future ???
ReplyDeleteTo me, most of this pictures looks like computer generated images done according to templates from comics books (Connan Barbarian and similar - maybe american/english pilots or other military personels in former Yugoslavia, or during the WW II, droped some books to Tito/partisans - and it stayed carved in brain, than later transformed in concrete...
Yugoslavia was a big, powerfull country :( Something like Spain or Italy today. They are the most "sport" nation. I remember their basketball, football, voleyball, waterpool, handball teams...they are amazing.
ReplyDeleteYes we were amazing,but then the wars came...
ReplyDeletetheese monuments all represent horibble things that people on Balkans survived durring WWII, like this one in Kragujevac, raised as a monument to executed students and their professors
ReplyDeletehttp://cache.virtualtourist.com/2330521-Travel_Picture-Kragujevac.jpg
it's so ironic how something that has so horrible roots can have so stunning effect,
theese should remind us what war really is..
I was just about to mention Kragujevac and post the same photo.
ReplyDeleteAmazing photos, amazing monuments.
The big flower(Jasenovac) was built to commemorate the victims of the nearby death camp. It is still in use today. Every year on the anniversary of the camp's liberation there is a gather up under it to mark the event.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasenovac_concentration_camp
What happened to another great one too (ok, maybe not a sci-fi as the rest but nevertheless an inspiring one):
ReplyDeleteNow (I believe destroyed) in Croatia (former Yugoslavia):
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stjepan_Filipović.JPG
Also I like this one in Montenegro (former Yugoslavia):
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/49365182
1000 000 killed in jasenovac, yeah, right! as if they were that effective. try 80 000.
ReplyDeleteI am not a fan of Communism, nor of Yugoslavia. What's gone is gone and it cannot be brought back. However, it is a part of history and many of those monuments look interesting and unusual. Twenty years ago, when my country started to fall apart in agony and the Communist ideology began to wear itself out, there was so much shock and pain, that I wanted to erase every trace of Communism. Now I think this is all history - someone may like it, someone may not, but it is history. So, I say, restore (renovate) all these monuments and let them be. Thanks to the author for sharing those photos.
ReplyDeleteThese structures are incredible. I have never seen most of them before, thanks for posting them.
ReplyDeletebe amazing. akayakfortwo.com
Someone said Yugoslavia was the greatest country of all times... If it were, it wouldn't have fallen apart so quickly and so bloodily. It's gone. Deal with it. I have cried a million tears for that country - the country of my birth and childhood. But, one morning I woke up and the tears were gone. It's dead. Over. Caput. Finito. After all the pain that has happened - and stop blaming the whole thing on Serbs 'cause you know it ain't true and that all sides did bad things - we have to let go of the past and look into the future. Yugoslavia will never be again. But, all of us will be here and we have to make the future better, if not for ourselves, then for our children and grandchildren. Thank you.
ReplyDelete