The Valley of Heroes - a monument on Tjentište - Time is like a river, flowing fast and non-stop. Its tributaries come to it, years, each carries something new and unpredictable, but there remains something that testifies to each previous one, and these are monuments that represent one type of time machine, because time goes in one direction and memories in the other.
The Valley of Heroes is a memorial complex consisting of several monuments dedicated to the Battle of Sutjeska, one of the most important battles of the People's Liberation War that took place in 1943. The Valley of Heroes is located about 30 kilometers from the town of Foča. The central monument, of monumental dimensions and one of the masterpieces of memorial architecture, was erected in 1971 and is the work of sculptor Miodrag Živković. The monument was erected in front of the ossuary from 1958, in which 3301 fighters who died during the battle of Sutjeska were buried. Behind the monument there is an open amphitheater, and in its immediate vicinity a museum was built according to the project of the architect Ranko Radović. The memorial complex in Tjentište, which belongs to the Sutjeska National Park, is one of the most complex and largest of its kind in the former Yugoslavia.
The monument leaves you breathless with its appearance. The monument is built in the shape of two spread wings that represent freedom. These concrete boulders that give the impression of lightness of the wind in strong wings also symbolize the cruelty of the nature in which the battle took place; inaccessible terrain, river canyons, mountain peaks, but also penetration, or flight to freedom.
It was built with the aim of evoking and presenting the importance of the event it is witnessing.
Every year, a large number of citizens gather at this place to pay tribute to the fallen fighters with a cultural program.
The complex is reached by a narrow highway through the forest. A visitor from the access plateau near which the hotel and catering facilities and the parking space are located approaches the monument through one of the two violin-shaped stairs leading to the ossuary behind which the central monument is located.
The monument is open to visitors from 00-24 h
Author of the article
Suada Kaplan - [email protected]
photo credit: Luke Vodell
