The gloomy present and even more uncertain future of the monuments of Bokele's past

What is the present of the monuments of our past" is the name of the striking exhibition that was organized on Saturday evening in the gallery of the Cultural Center in Kotor by the local NGO "Anima - Center for Women's and Peace Education".

In addition to the exhibition, the publication "Examples of the management of the natural and cultural heritage of Kotor" was promoted on this occasion, so the public had the opportunity to see in one place carefully collected data and a detailed reconstruction of the complete current course of (mostly controversial) events and activities of local and state authorities, in in connection with the management and "valuation" of some of the largest and most beautiful parts of the natural and cultural heritage of Kotor.

In the publication and at the exhibition, through the presentation of the documentation and everything that has been done with them so far, as well as striking photographs by Martin Kmet, the cases of the Glavati locality, the Vrmac hill, Kostanjica, the Visković palace in Perast, the "School" house in Prčanje are presented and the Slavic reading room in Dobrota.

These are localities located in the area of ​​the Bay of Kotor, which is protected by UNESCO as a world natural and cultural heritage. Some of these localities have already, thanks to the activities, economic and spatial planning policies of the DPS authorities in Kotor and Montenegro, been devastated, as is the case with Kostanjica, for some such a fate is being intensively prepared because megalomaniacal construction is foreseen in Vrmac and Glavati. tourist capacities", and in the case of real estate for sale on the market, and some such as the Slavjanska čitaonica or the "School" house in Prčanje are nowhere near protected and used in a manner appropriate to the historical and architectural significance of those monuments.

"In the atmosphere of advanced devastation of space and the imperative commercialization of cultural monuments in Boka Kotorska, we are witnessing that some of the cultural and historical monuments owned by the Municipality of Kotor are neglected, some are being used for non-purpose, and there are some whose future purpose is unknown to us because the process of changes or deciding on their purpose was non-transparent, and as it turned out in some cases - also harmful to the public interest and needs of the local community, which was not taken into account despite the need to stop the process of narrowing the scope of those spaces. The process of planning, commissioning and repurposing is non-transparent (often motivated by non-public interest), which makes it even more difficult to involve the public and stop further inappropriate use and devastation. The problem is further complicated by the fact that part of the cultural-historical monuments are privately owned, and through the process of the transfer of former state property to private property, the public is not aware of which monuments the state still owns, nor what their planned purpose will be. Many of them were originally intended for a socially useful purpose, some were left to the community through endowments. This was not an obstacle to witnessing abuses: the repurposing of some of them into tourist facilities, plans to expand some monuments, their immediate surroundings intended for use by the community through planning documents are parceled out and new residential buildings are drawn", note the authors of the exhibition and publication that has for the purpose of drawing the attention of the wider public to how the "new development philosophy" of Montenegro is disastrously treating some of the most valuable natural and cultural-historical pearls of the Bokele heritage.

As a particularly negative example of devastation, the authors of the project cite the case of the Slavic reading room in Dobrota, where the building of the reading room is planned to be upgraded by one floor on the cultural monument of category III, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the church of St. Matthew, in the current planning documentation of Kotor, and the yard has already been parceled out. , two residential buildings were marked, the old local mill was demolished and the appearance of the terrain in this locality was permanently destroyed.

"We believe that it is important to familiarize the local community with the status and original purpose of historical monuments in time so that they can actively participate in stopping illegal actions (if they exist) and get involved in ensuring the basic purpose of those monuments," said the authors of the exhibition and publication.

The project "What is the present of the monuments of our past" was implemented by the NGO Anima - Center for Women's and Peace Education, in cooperation with the NGO Expeditio, which contributed to the project by summarizing the analyzes of the expert team, preparing publications and exhibitions. The team that analyzed the data obtained from the research consisted of experts in the architectural and legal professions. The publication was produced as part of the project "What is the present of the monuments of our past" financed by the NGO Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector MANS, and under the auspices of the OCCRP (Crime and Corruption Research Project).