The activation program of the Španjola fortress, which is being held for the fourth year in a row, began with the decoration of the fortress by volunteers, in which the "Artist residence" and music festival of DJs will be organized.
According to the organizers of the NGO "Sinergije", every year they strive to improve the conditions for staying and visiting the fortress, and the idea arose four years ago as a result of the desire to breathe life into the area of Španjola through the activities they organize there.
With the "artist residence", we want to evoke for visitors the very space of Španjola, in the form of an open gallery in the area of the fortress. We believe that this space can one day be used for the stay and work of artists as well as for the organization of various events, which is the third part of our program. After the "Artist Residency", we are organizing a two-day music festival, where local, regional and foreign DJs will be guests", announced the executive director of the NGO "Sinergija" Vuk Čvoro.
From August 18, artists Žarko Glavatović, Tanja Đokić and Matvej Krilov will be creating in the open gallery on Španjola, and on August 21, exhibitions of painter Tanja Đokić and sculptor Matvej Krilov will be opened, as well as a retrospective exhibition of works created on Španjola in 2016-2018.
The program at Spanjola ends with a two-day electronic music festival featuring two international names: Alienata from Spain, currently living and working in Berlin, and DJ Stenny, an Italian who lives and works in Munich.
Čvoro points out that for the second year they have no financial support from the Ministry of Culture, even though they are the only organization that takes care of this cultural asset and recognizes the values of Spain.
"The institution that should stimulate such projects does not accept them at all and probably does not support them because they want to privatize this cultural asset, so we would like to take this opportunity to tell them that it will never happen under any circumstances!", asserted Čvoro.
He claims that, on the other hand, "the Ministry of Culture recently signed and gave conditions for the legal devastation of the Mamula fortress on the island of Lastavica, which is in the UNESCO buffer zone", arguing that the valorization" of this cultural property is carried out according to the rules of the profession.
"We are witnessing the lack of application of conservation methods and the use of modern methods, so there is a danger that this magnificent monument of category I will be permanently destroyed," said Ćvoro.
The organizer of the program on Španjola is the NGO "Sinergija" in cooperation with the Municipality of Herceg Novi and the Tourist Organization and Herceg Fest.
upper Town
The Španjola fortress on the Bajer hill at 170 m above sea level was named after the Spaniards who ruled Herceg Novi from October 28, 1538 to August 25, 1539.
It is also called Gornji grad.
There is an assumption that Španjola was connected to the Lower Town, today's Old Town, by an underground tunnel.
When the Turks recaptured the city, they demolished part of the Spanish fort on Bayre in 1548 and built a new, larger fort.
The fortress is rectangular in shape (43x40 m) with round stone towers. Inside the fortress there are seven smaller stone buildings.
At one time, a program for the reconstruction of the fortress was carried out, which provided for the organization of a number of catering and tourist contents within it, which is also the goal of the NGO "Sinergija" program.
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