On Fighters' Square in the centre of Kolašin stands the Monument to the Victims of Fascism, also known as the monument to fallen fighters: a bronze of a man and a woman with raised hands, made in 1949 by the Zagreb sculptor Vojin Bakić in the Socialist Realist style of his early years, before he turned to abstraction. It is the oldest of three Second World War memorials in a town that changed hands many times in the war and hosted the ZAVNO assembly of 1943. This page covers all three.
Getting there
Kolašin is on the Podgorica-Bijelo Polje road and the Bar-Belgrade railway. The town centre is 57 km and about 57 minutes by car from Podgorica, 67.9 km (about 1 hour 13 minutes) from Podgorica Airport, 23.1 km and about 36 minutes from Mojkovac and 24.7 km (about 38 minutes) from Morača Monastery. The monument stands in the open in the centre, beside the Spomen-dom.
The three memorials
- Bakić's monument (1949) on Fighters' Square: a bronze man and woman with raised hands. The black stone panel in front is dedicated to the fighters and victims of fascist terror who fell in the People's Liberation Struggle, 1941-1945.
- The Partisan memorial cemetery at Breza, north of the town, for the patriots who were held in the Kolašin prison and shot there during the war.
- The Spomen-dom (memorial house) by the architect Marko Mušič, opened on 15 November 1975 to commemorate the ZAVNO assembly of 1943. Its sharply angled concrete roofs echo the steep roofs of the local houses; it is still a civic building used by the municipality.
History
Kolašin changed hands many times in the war: the Partisans took it from the Italians in January 1942, and it was lost again a month later. On 15 November 1943 the first assembly of ZAVNO, the Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Montenegro and Boka, met here in the old gymnasium, and the final liberation came on 29 December 1944. Bakić's monument was completed in 1949. The Partisan cemetery at Breza gathered the victims of the prison, and the Spomen-dom opened on the anniversary of the assembly in 1975.
Nearby
- Morača Monastery, 24.7 km towards Podgorica.
- Biogradska Gora National Park and Lake Biograd.
- Kolašin 1600 and Kolašin 1450 ski resorts on Bjelasica.
- The Tara, which flows past the town.
Questions
Who made the monument in the centre of Kolašin?
The Zagreb sculptor Vojin Bakić, in 1949: a bronze man and woman with raised hands, the Monument to the Victims of Fascism.
Is this the same as the Spomen-dom?
No. The Spomen-dom is the concrete memorial house of 1975 by Marko Mušič, commemorating the ZAVNO assembly of 1943. Bakić's monument is a separate, older work.
Where is the Partisan cemetery?
At Breza, north of the town, for the patriots held in the Kolašin prison and shot there in the war.
History
1943
ZAVNO assembly
The first assembly of ZAVNO, the wartime council of Montenegro and Boka, met in Kolašin on 15 November 1943; the Spomen-dom of 1975 commemorates it.
29 December 1944
Final liberation
The Partisans liberated the town for the last time.
1949
Bakić's monument
The Zagreb sculptor Vojin Bakić completed the Monument to the Victims of Fascism, a bronze man and woman, on Fighters' Square.
15 November 1975
Spomen-dom
The memorial house by the architect Marko Mušič opened.
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Sources
Spomenik Database, Vojin Bakić (secondary) · Večernje novosti, Kolašin ne da partizane (press, secondary) · Kolašin Tourist Organisation, Partizansko spomen groblje · Spomenik Database, Kolašin Spomen-dom (secondary: Bakić's bronze on Fighters' Square, ZAVNO 15 Nov 1943, liberation 29 Dec 1944) · Wikipedia, List of Yugoslav World War II monuments and memorials in Montenegro (secondary, unreferenced) · OSRM routing (car, OpenStreetMap data, ODbL; times without traffic)
