Ahead of local elections, Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić has launched a monument building campaign.
Yesterday it was the first Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, and today it is the Homeland itself. Ahead of upcoming local elections, Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić, who was first elected to the post 17 years ago and wants to be re-elected once again, has apparently decided that the best way to get some more votes is to erect various monuments all over the city.
On Friday, Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić and Dean of the Faculty of Architecture Krunoslav Šmit signed a contract on the construction of the Monument to the of Homeland which will be located between the city administration building and the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall. The author of the design is architect Nenad Fabijanić.
The monument will consists of three parts – The Wall of Pain, inspired by a similar war memorial which existed during the Homeland War, an altar and a pavilion-portal. It should be constructed next year, and starting from 4 May the proposed design will be presented at the Museum of Arts and Crafts.
Fabijanić said that the monument included a symbolic portal and was a combination of symbolic memorial architecture and art. It will be a place where people will gather to honour the homeland, and it will represent future and optimism. “It will be based on the victims, on the fact of the development of the Croatian state, and we will register everything which it means – victims, culture, customs, strength, ability, people. That should all be included, more in the hearts and minds than in the monument itself”, said Fabijanić.
Mayor Bandić expressed his satisfaction with the monument and the place where it will be located. “I was touched yesterday when we signed an agreement with sculptor Kuzma Kovačić to erect a monument to the first Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, and today I am even more touched. I am happy as a small child, because we are going to erect an impressive monument to the Croatian homeland,” he said.
No statesman, no international delegation will come to Zagreb and not visit this place, he added. “This is the essence of this monument – to remind ourselves of Croatian history, but also that people who come here can see that we are a serious people and that we have a serious monument to our homeland,” said Bandić said at the signing of the agreement which was organized at the location of the future monument.
Bandić has also announced that numerous other monuments will be erected all over the city.
