Tag: Travel Inspiration

Cool Concrete: Yugoslavia's Extraordinary Abstract Monuments Scattered across the mountains and national parks of the former Yugoslavia — in countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia — are the region’s striking brutalist monuments, known as spomeniks. They are among the most striking examples of 20th-century modernist architecture anywhere in the world. Jutting from hillsides, rising out of national parks, and squatting on mountain peaks, some of these masterpieces of brutalism can be reached on Balkan hiking holidays and road trips. They were built from the 1960s through to the 1980s to commemorate the battles and losses of World War II in the Balkans. Their striking futuristic designs have several explanations: After the war and the establishment of Yugoslavia in 1963, Tito had to forge a united country from a federation that included multiple religions and ethnicities. Architects and sculptors were briefed to create something that would not offend the different sides. Instead of war heroes, neutral abstract designs were chosen, aligning with modernist trends of the 1960s and 70s. Of the thousand-plus former Yugoslav spomeniks that once existed, only a few hundred remain. Some are well maintained, with museums and parks attached. Others were destroyed during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s; or were vandalised, forgotten, or reclaimed by nature. Some have been stripped to their concrete skeletons, like the Monument on Mount Makljen (Tito's Fist). A comprehensive Spomenik database was created in 2016 by Donald Niebyl which documents every monument of the region. Here, we narrow it down to the spomeniks you can experience along beautiful hiking routes or scenic drives – including several we visit on our small-group adventures in the Balkans – and how to incorporate these fascinating sculptures into an adventure into nature. Bosnia & Herzegovina: brutalist monuments in the heart of the Balkans Battle