BUBANJ - PLACE of REMEMBRANCE, SYMBOL of RESISTANCE and VICTORY over FASCISM - ASMR sound of nature

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Here is the complete text that is printed on the memorial plaque at the entrance of the complex:

„Bubanj Memorial is a park located on a forested hill in the southwest of the city of Niš. The park covers the central part of the hill and is dominated by three magnificent monuments in the shape of a fist, the symbol of rebellion and resistance.

During World War Two, especially from 1942 to 1944, it was one of the bigger execution sites in Yugoslavia.

The first mass execution at Bubanjwas organiyed in 1942 and after the escape of prisoners from the Cencentration Camp at Red Cross on February 12, 1942, the number of executed sometimes reached a few hundred a day. The true number of victims cannot be established, since much of the evidence was destroyed by the perpetrators, by burning bodies and destruction of documentation. However, based on the testimony of survivors and the data collected by the National Museum of Niš, it is estimated that about 10,000 people were killed here.

The first mapping of the places of execution started in 1945 and five years later, the first monument, a modest stone pyramid, was unveiled.

The present day monument named „Three fists“ is the work of the Croatian sculptor Ivan Sabolić. It was unveiled on October 14, 1963, on the Niš Liberation Day. It is situated in the central part of the park, and consists of three parts symboliying the massacres that took place there.

The first part is the forest – representing the main place where the partisans fought for freedom; memoral path that leads to the monumentsymboliyes the pathtaken by the patriots in their fight for freedom; the monument itself is composed of three fists, symboliying an unrestrained energy and strength of progress, as well as a woman, man and child, all executed at this place.

The verses of Ivan Vučković from Niš are inscribed on the horiyontal relief frieze of the monument: ‘From the blood of communists and patriots the fists were born: fists of rebellion and warning, fists of revolution, fists of freedom. We were shot, but never killed, never subdued. We crushed the darkness and paved the way for the Sun.’

As a place of mass execution, Bubanj was protected by the Republic of Serbiain May 1973, and in April 1979 it was declared a cultural heritage of exceptional importance.”

"Execution site was originally marked with a memorial pyramid in 1950, while a new monument, the work of sculptor Ivan Sabolić, was unveiled in 1963.

The whole complex is landscaped, with a memorial path that is about half a kilometer long, and a relief in marble measuring 23 m x 2.5 m composed of five compositions symbolizing the "killing machine", hanging and shooting, rebellion of the people, capitulation of the conquerors and victory, and three concrete obelisks symbolizing raised hands with clenched fists.

Within the Bubanj Memorial Park, there is also a chapel, which was later added in 2004, it was built of glass and metal, the work of architect Aleksandar Budjevac.

Each of the three fists is of different sizes (13, 14 and 16 m), emerged from this hill sown with the bones of thousands of patriots, eluded by heaven, they are a symbol of male, female and children's hands defying the enemy because whole families were shot.

There is also a summer stage nearby."

Mr. Sabolic, sculptor, author, spoke about his work as follows:
“In terms of materials, I decided on concrete, not by chance. It is a rough material, and already indelible, raw, it contributes to the observer's even more elementary experience of the idea of a monument. The stylized fist itself is a very simplistic intention to emphasize the symbolism of the monument harder, stronger and more essential. "

And he spoke about the relief in marble like this:
"First, a fascist machine for killing people was presented, then traces of war and killed people, while in the fourth figure, a large number of fists express the uprising. In the fifth, last composition, a poetic text about the Bubanj is incorporated. The whole composition of the relief is characterized by the constant alternation of horizontal and vertical lines. The goal of such a rhythmic solution is to attract the viewer's attention as much as possible and immediately interest those who have not been here and know nothing about the Bubanj.

I hope that the visitor, when he finds himself among those strangely placed fists, will fully feel the drama and the greatness of what once happened there."

The Road Trip Family was there on the 23.5.2021.

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