Valuable architectural works of the 2003th century are particularly endangered in Montenegro, because the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property, the former Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and the Ministry of Culture are not doing their job, claims architect Slobodan Bobo Mitrović, who was the director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Cetinje from 2007 to XNUMX.
"According to the old Law on the Protection of Cultural Monuments and the new Law from 2010, and according to its own Statute, the Administration is obliged to permanently engage in research and identification of cultural assets, which includes contemporary architecture," Mitrović states.
The last example of carelessness is the construction of a solitaire right next to the "Podgorica" hotel, one of the most significant architectural works of Montenegrin culture of the XNUMXth century, built according to the project of architect Svetlana Kana Radević. The construction, the expert public agrees, would have devastated the building for which the author received the Borba Award for Architecture.
Two years ago, architect Andrija Markuš submitted an initiative to acquire the status of cultural property for 40 construction objects in Montenegro in the XNUMXth century. There is still no response to the initiative of a group of young Herzegovinian architects to protect the building of the Children's Department of the Dr. Simo Milošević Institute in Igalo and prevent its demolition. Architect Mitrović submitted a similar initiative to the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Properties in Cetinje a year ago, and there is still no response.
"At the time when the JNA was attacking Dubrovnik in the 90s, the Municipality of Dubrovnik declared the Grand Hotel on Lopud, a masterpiece of the greatest Yugoslav and Serbian architect Nikola Dobrović, a cultural asset. They did it in wartime conditions, and even today we do not see and will not protect his work in Igalo and Herceg Novi," Mitrović points out.
"In the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property, they are simply silent and do not respond, and it is similar with many other initiatives. They do not deal with it, because there is no responsibility in society, and there is no respect for the honorable builders of Montenegrin cities. This speaks of the absence of ethical and professional awareness and disorganization of the institutions responsible for the protection of our cultural heritage", notes Mitrović. It reminds of the tragic fate of Kina Kultura and the hotel "Crna Gora", the Tabački bridge, the street that "tore apart" the unique fabric of the Old Town in Podgorica, the extension of the Dado Đurić gallery and the Blue Castle in Cetinje, the hotel "Avala" in Budva, the Home of the JNA in Herceg Novi, for "refinishing and additions to architectural buildings".
The building fates of Dobrota, Smokvica, Miločer have been mapped out.
"The conclusion is imposed that institutions for the protection of cultural assets exist to make it easier for 'imaginative' investors to realize their personal tastes and interests at the expense of national cultural treasures," remarks Mitrović sarcastically.
"To add to the shame, the Council of Europe adopted 'Recommendations on the protection of the architectural heritage of the 1991th century' in 25, but to this day, when we are on the way to the European Union, even though 1985 years have passed since the recommendations, we are not moving from the spot," he points out. Mitrović reminds that Montenegro undertook, as a follower of all ratified conventions accepted by Yugoslavia, to apply the Convention on the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe from Granada in XNUMX.
"Back in 2003, Slovenians completed the list of 100.000 buildings built in the 70th century and selected architectural works of modern architecture that received the status of cultural property. In the 60 years that the Republic Institute has existed, Montenegro has not graduated a single architectural historian (we have XNUMX art historians) who would follow Montenegrin architecture and construction in general. Although that shouldn't be a problem, because we don't have domestic experts for certain specialties in other areas either, so they are hired from the side," states Mitrović.
He claims that "it is about the irresponsibility and nepotism of state institutions, first of all the Ministry of Culture, which is always 'surprised' by the problems of architectural heritage, as well as the overall situation in cultural heritage. The Montenegrin absurdity is that large state commissions state in 2005 and 2014 in their reports for the Government that 75 percent of the cultural and monumental treasures have been degraded and destroyed, but they do not take any radical action. It is a kind of paradox that at the time when the state of Montenegro was restored, we did not have, as we do today, a clear strategy for valorizing its historical identity," Mitrović points out.
Consolidate, register and present
"Unfortunately, we are late and do not have a developed study of the institute of protection. We think that we have protected something if we have written a Protection Decision and entered it into the register.
This is a big misconception, because in recent decades the concept of Integral protection has been intensively perfected in Europe, which protects and valorizes not only the material component of immovable cultural property, but also protects movable property, i.e. furniture, interiors, exhibits, all forms of applied art, ethnology, especially intangible forms of life from crafts, cuisine, food and customs, costumes, songs, stories and legends.
All this needs to be unified and able to be integrated and presented in a form that enters the everyday life of citizens.
The world's great globalists were themselves afraid of where today's civilization is leading, and it is precisely with the nurturing of identity, local and regional culture and forms of traditional customs that they achieve spiritual enrichment and strengthen their immunity to the often uncontrolled and rapid development of today's technological civilization. That is why UNESCO and the Council of Europe pay so much attention to cultural heritage," says Mitrović.
No one has the right to "erase" the building history of the people
"In the history of cities of the XNUMXth century, there are those happy circumstances when one city creates a kind of time-epoch in the course of centuries with exceptional creativity and meaningful social development, urban aesthetics, customs and way of life, all of which characterized Herceg Novi and Cetinje.
These are the qualities that the world's top security institutions, UNESCO and the Council of Europe, favor and preserve as important.
It is not a rare practice in the world to restore destroyed buildings - architecturally significant: Mostar Bridge, Old Town in Warsaw (on the UNESCO list), Old Frankfurt, Dresden and many others. Why not rebuild the 'Boka' hotel in Novome and the 'Grand' hotel in Cetinje. It is a practice and conservation doctrines support it, especially when there is documentation and you know exactly what it looked like.
The ethics and philosophy of the civilizational development of a nation predominantly implies memory as the basis of development, and no one has the right to destroy the architectural memory of a nation. In the body of human rights, the right to cultural heritage is a fundamental right," concludes Mitrović.
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