Kozara Spomenik & Museum
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A very large Yugoslav-era “Spomenik” (monument) with an adjacent museum, located in Kozara National Park in north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unlike so many other Spomeniks in the Balkans, this one is in excellent shape and well looked after.
More background info: When large parts of Bosnia, including Banja Luka, were occupied by and incorporated into the “Independent State of Croatia” under the rule of the Ustaša, who formed a puppet regime controlled by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, a partisan resistance movement was formed. When in the spring of 1942 the Nazis/Ustaša got wind of the partisans having made inroads into the hills and villages north-west of Banja Luka, they feared their new base in that city could come within reach of partisan attacks.
So they recruited large numbers of troops and launched the “Kozara Offensive”, a ruthless campaign aimed not only at driving the partisans out of the region but also at stamping out any support they might have amongst the local population, especially ethnic Serb peasants who were unhappy with their Croat Nazi occupiers. Thousands of civilians, including many children, were either massacred or taken to concentration camps like the infamous Jasenovac or Stara Gradiška.
The partisans put up a good defence, but were vastly outnumbered. Of the original 3000 partisans more than two thirds were killed in the battles, and the surviving ones, including Tito, retreated by September 1942. So this was effectively a resounding defeat for the partisans.
However, in the post-war Yugoslav narrative and propaganda, the Battle of Kozara and the perception of the sacrifices made by the partisans grew to a veritable mythological level. So Kozara was seen as symbolic for this willingness of partisan fighters to sacrifice their lives for a greater good – anti-fascism and communism.
Hence the “Spomenik” (monument) erected atop the Mrakovica mountain in the Kozara National Park was to be one of the grandest in the country. It’s actually called “Monument to the Revolution” but is far better known under its place name designation. The monument was designed from 1962, construction began in 1971 and was completed the following year. The official inauguration ceremony was held in September 1972.
The main monument is a whopping 33m (110 feet) tall and surrounded by horizontal angled structures of concrete that are actually best appreciated in aerial views. The wall of names of fallen partisans (over 9000 of them) are behind the main monument within a grove of pine trees. In 1973, a small museum was opened at the site. Its building was designed by the same architect and echoes the concrete structures around the main monument. An additional element are the wide steps that lead from the car park to the mountain top with the monument complex. In the Yugoslav days these wide steps at the bottom were also used as a kind of amphitheatre for commemorative youth events held here.
As usual with Yugoslav monuments, you can find much more, and much more detailed, information about the monument, its design and the historical background in the Kozara entry in the ever so trustworthy “Spomenik Database” (external links – open in new tabs).
What there is to see: From the car park you first have to ascend a very wide flight of ceremonial stairs. In the past, they would have been used as a sort of amphitheatre for large events, but this would hardly be possible nowadays, what with so many of the concrete steps being broken or unstable.
When you get to the top a wide vista opens up in a clearing at the top of the mountain. In its centre stands the grand main monument. It is in fact one of the biggest “Spomeniks” (Yugoslav monuments) of them all. And it is in remarkably good shape, quite unlike so many others (like Petrova Gora, Vraca or the partisan memorial in Mostar).
The fact that it is located within a national park may have helped prevent the same level of vandalism experienced by so many other Yugoslav-era monuments. The aspect that the victims commemorated here are mainly ethnic Serbs and that the monument lies within the Republika Srpska entity of BiH may also have contributed to the better protection and ongoing maintenance of the complex.
The design of the main monument is actually not so easy to describe (but see the photos below) … a tall tubular structure made from concrete fans emanating from a central hollow core (like a vertical tunnel). At the ends of each of the concrete elements shiny strips of stainless steel reflect the sunlight. Children and very thin people could even slip through the gaps at the bottom to access the inner “tunnel” core. I could not.
Radiating out from the main monument at ground level are several more concrete structures slightly sloping up as these get further away from the core monument.
Behind the main monument to the west of it, shaded by a grove of pine trees, is a complex of walls of names of fallen partisans together with associated place names. I even saw wreaths placed in front of the main long wall, so evidently some commemorative events still take place here. Unlike at other Spomeniks theses days I did not spot any graffiti. And the lawn around the main monument is meticulously mown.
Crossing the lawn in a southerly direction you come to the museum. It’s officially called Memorijalni muzej na Mrakovici, so after the mountain within Kozara that it is located on. The concrete architecture of the museum building resembles that of the elements around the main monument – and it was in fact designed by the same person. Outside the entrance to the west of the museum stands an old piece of field artillery, while to the east there's an old armoured vehicle with a drooping gun barrel.
Inside the museum is a very old-school Yugoslav-style exhibition about the Kozara Offensive (see above) and its context. Exhibits include the predictable pistols, machine guns and mortars, but also more unusual items such as a piece of a wooden door with a metal object embedded in it, which, as a sign explains, was apparently used to slaughter a Serb family. There are helmets artfully arranged around a mound of earth, and some of the glass windows bear inscriptions in red (to look like they’re written in blood), but in Serbian Cyrillic, so I did not manage to decipher them.
Labels and text panels are all in Serbo-Croat but come with English translations. These are often quite faulty, though, full of linguistic flaws, but you can more or less get what they are trying to convey. Content-wise there is a strong focus on a) the military side (with complicated-looking battle charts) and detailed statistics, and b) a strong focus on atrocities perpetrated by the Ustaša and German Nazis (see above), especially against children. This is accompanied by several gruesome images of rows of dead small children – maybe more such photos than would have been strictly necessary. Another focus is on a handful of particular individuals and their respective roles in the history of Kozara. There are many portraits, some are photos, others are drawings, and sometimes it’s not clear which. It all has a very old Yugoslav feel – like from a bygone age. No interactive screens or other such newfangled stuff here …
At the museum entrance there’s also a desk with some books (none in English or any other foreign languages) plus a few souvenirs. I couldn’t resist the temptation and bought a fridge magnet with an aerial photo of the Kozara monument on it …
All in all, this is one of the grandest and best-maintained Spomeniks I have ever encountered. It really is quite something to behold, worth the considerable detour it takes to get there. The museum on the other hand is dated, lacking balance and has quite defective English texts. But at least it still exists, is also maintained, and is regularly open – unlike the (former) museums at other Spomeniks that are either closed (e.g. at Sutjeska – see under BiH) or have been completely looted and vandalized (like at Vraca).
Location: in the Kozara National Park in the north-west of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ca. 22 miles (35 km) north-west of Banja Luka (as the crow flies; by winding mountain roads it’s significantly more).
Google Maps locators:
Main monument: [45.0138, 16.9092]
Museum: [45.0129, 16.9087]
Car park: [45.0129, 16.9131]
Access and costs: a bit remote, requiring a car; inexpensive as such, but private tours cost.
Details: You can in theory make your own way here if you have a (rental) vehicle at your disposal (required). For that take the main M4 road from Banja Luka heading north-west all the way to the small town of Kozarac. Turn right there on to the R477 heading north towards the Kozara National Park. At the entrance to the park there’s a gatehouse where you have to pay a small park admission fee (2 KM), but otherwise the monument is freely accessible at all times. The small museum at Kozara also charges an additional 2 KM (1 EUR) admission.
The Kozara monument is in theory freely accessible at all times. As regards the opening times of the museum I have to admit that I failed to take note of them (I normally do, but on this occasion somehow it got forgotten). And when I searched for them online I also drew a blank. I was there on a Saturday at around midday. That’s all I can vouch for.
When I visited Kozara it was as part of a longer, four-day private tour with a driver-guide organized by the Sarajevo-based operator Funky Tours (see their sponsored page here). The guide also paid the national park admission fee, but for the museum I had to pay myself. As a stand-alone half-day (five hours) excursion from Banja Luka, the price starts at 95 EUR per person as a private tour. These tours may only be available seasonally, so not in winter. On their website it says “available from May to October”, but my longer four-day tour that Kozara was part of was in mid-April. So it may not be strictly set in stone. Just enquire.
Time required: I spent a bit under half an hour at the monument, plus ca. 20-30 minutes in the museum (though I did not read all the text panels). It takes longer to get there … an hour or so by car from Banja Luka.
Combinations with other dark destinations: in general see under Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Kozara combines best with Banja Luka, and in fact on the four-day tour I was on (see above and BiH) we used Banja Luka specifically as a jumping-off point for Kozara. But the city also has a few of its own merits that are worth taking in.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: in general see under Bosnia and Herzegovina, and under Banja Luka in particular.
Kozara National Park is also popular for hiking, camping, rock climbing, in winter skiing, and other such outdoorsy things – but mainly with locals, hardly with foreign tourists. There is even a fairly large chalet-like hotel by the car park at the bottom of the hillside that the Kozara monument sits atop of.
