FUNDS FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF THE BUBANJ MEMORIAL COMPLEX SECURED
November 29th
The memorial complex Bubanj will be reconstructed in 2017. The funds in the amount of 19.8 million dinars have been provided by the Ministry of Labor, Social and Veterans Affairs to the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Nis. According to Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic this project is of great importance for the City of Nis, because, for the first time, in ten years, the complete reconstruction of the memorial complex on Bubanj will be done. “The city is very interested in changing the image of Nis and the renovation of cultural and historical monuments is just an opportunity to show how important it is that the monuments that testify about the historical past of the city and the people who lived in this area present themselves to tourists in the best possible way”, said the Mayor. “The City of Nis will reconstruct the Summer Stage in the Fortress, sports terrains at small trench location. The city is preparing projects to compete with the competent ministries for funds. We are trying to make up for the missed and make Nis a worthy center of this part of Serbia in every way. “The Director of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Nis Elena Vasić Petrović said that the usual procedure regarding the tender and the selection of the contractor would be conducted in the next few days.” The works will start in the first half of 2017. It will be completed by the middle of the year. It will include conservation and restoration works on “fists” and “walls”, reconstruction of the access path and plateau, the creation of decorative and functional lighting and the introduction of video surveillance, “said Vasić Petrovic.
Memorial Park Bubanj represents a memorial complex, built to remember the citizens of Nis and southern Serbia who were executed there during the Second World War. Memorial Park Bubanj, as an authentic place of mass fascist terror, was placed under state protection in May 1973. In March 1979, by the decision of the Serbian Parliament, the Memorial Park Bubanj was declared a cultural asset of exceptional importance. About 10,000 inmates and prisoners of the Special Police and War Prison were killed on Bubanj. The entire terrain of the memorial park is intersected by the trenches in which the victims were buried. Before the withdrawal of the Germans, the captured Italians dug trenches and burned corpses, in order to destroy every trail of done atrocities. The location was originally marked by a memorial pyramid in 1950, and a new, monumental monument, the work of sculptor Ivan Sabolic, was erected on October 14, 1963, on the Day of the Liberation of Nis. The complex is arranged as a park, the memorial trail is about half a mile long, and a 23 × 2,5 m marble relief consists of five compositions symbolizing the “killing machine”, hanging and shooting, the rebellion of the people, the capitulation of the conqueror and the victory, and three concrete monuments that symbolize the raised hands with clenched fists. Each of the three fists is of different sizes and they represent a symbol of a male, female and child’s hand that defies the enemy because the entire family is shot. Nearby there is a summer stage. Since 2004, a glass and metal chapel was built within the complex, the work of the architect Aleksandar Budjevac.
