0172 Die Partisanennekropole in Mostar

Abstract

After World War II, the communist party took control of the nation-building process of the newly established Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. World War II played a major role in the narration and was reinterpreted as the People's Revolution. The union of war veterans took part in this process by influencing federal legislation as well as the setting-up of war graves and memorials. In 1959, the municipality of Mostar decided to build a partisan cemetery, and commissioned the architect Bogdan Bogdanović to build it. Bogdanović planned a vast war cemetery surrounded by a large park area, with the memorial park embedded into the structure of the city. The main axes of the park are oriented towards important urban spots like the old town. Though – or rather precisely because – the monument has a high urbanistic, historic, and artistic value, it has recently been a target of politically motivated attacks.