Piva that has: Half a century since the commissioning of the "Piva" HPP

On these hot summer days, a doe, covered by the media, swam across Lake Piva...

And it awakened memories of the relocation of the medieval Piva Monastery, the construction of a hydroelectric power plant and the new Plužine.

Even when the idea of ​​a hydroelectric power plant was conceived, it was clear that the ancient monastery, built at the end of the 16th century for the Zeman, would Bishop Savatije, found at the bottom of the future reservoir. The proposal of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Montenegro to move the monastery to a new location was accepted. It was a unique feat on a global scale. Sixty top experts from all over Yugoslavia (including one Mexican) worked for several years on the relocation of the monastery.

Klokoće Piva's Eye, the source of Piva.

The monastery gate had been transformed into a large, unusual workshop. At every turn, there were conservators, painters, art historians, cleaning freshly removed frescoes.

Removing frescoes is a delicate, difficult task. First, they are cleaned of dust and soot, then the smaller openings are filled so that the glue can reach every particle, after which layers of canvas are glued. When the fresco dries naturally, after forty-eight hours or, alternatively, quickly, artificially, the places where it will be cut are determined. After removal, it is placed on molds, on the figure on which it was in the monastery, in order to maintain its shape. When it is processed, the layer of lime and plaster is removed, the fresco is returned to its old place in the newly assembled church, directly on the wall.

The smell of glue. It's impossible to imagine removing frescoes without it.

- I am working on reinforcing the removed fragments of the frescoes. I do this work in the classic way, using lime caseinate, and I use gauze and a thin-screened linen canvas as a reinforcing material. The removed fresco loses none of its authenticity. It is then stored in a warehouse and hangs like a ham until it is finally put back on the wall - he tells me Ivo Bogovcic, restorer-conservator from Ljubljana.

Among the conservators from all the then Yugoslav republics and provinces was the Belgrade academic painter Dragomir JasovicHe says that through conservation he gained new knowledge that benefited his painting.

- Beer is a big undertaking. It represents a very significant undertaking, both in terms of the team and the scope of work, so I am honored to have taken part in this work - says Jašović.

Experts say that removing frescoes is riskier than putting them back on the wall surface.

- We use the most modern equipment for this type of work. We have prepared detailed documentation for removing the murals, expert analyses and hydrometeorological measurements have been carried out - he told me. Ljubo Kapisoda, Director of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Montenegro.

To ensure that the removal of the murals was carried out to the highest standard, fans were installed that sucked in warm air from the outside and expelled cold air. In this way, a normal temperature was maintained during the work.

At Piva I also met a Mexican man from Mexico City. Young people Hulio Alberto Velasco Rodríguez, a restoration technician, was doing his specialization in Rome and when he heard about the relocation of the Piva Monastery, he came to Montenegro. He said he was interested in our art. He flew to Dubrovnik.

- And when I went from Dubrovnik to Piva via Bileća, passing through the rocky terrain, I felt like I was in my own Mexico! The Piva Monastery is wonderful! Until now, I have paid more attention to the problem of fresco conservation, so I have not fully understood the artistic side of fresco painting - Julio told me.

A Ljubo Ivanisevic, an architect from the Montenegrin Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, took care of the relocation of the architectural part of the building, which was neither easy nor simple; history moves.

Always in a hurry, on the move, dr Anika Skovran, an art historian, watches over the works; overseeing the delicate task of removing the frescoes, where one can only make one mistake.

The monastery was successfully moved, almost by hand, stone by stone, to Sinjac, three and a half kilometers away, forty-six meters above the level of the lake, and with its "Ecclesiastic Council" and other magnificent frescoes by the icon painter Cosmos, has become available again to lovers of ancient cultural monuments.

But, as Anika told me, it will be the same as with a patient who has had a heart transplant performed by a surgeon, so he needs constant care to stay alive.

Simultaneously with the relocation of the Piva Monastery, extensive work was underway on the construction of a new Plužine, with all the attributes of a city; the construction of roads... And: water for lakes, springs of silence, a two hundred and twenty-meter high dam, a "concrete rose", as the people of Piva called it, into which eight hundred thousand cubic meters of concrete were poured...

The lake has escaped. Boats sail on the Piva River.

The 13th of July 1976 dawned. The ceremonial commissioning of the “Piva” Hydroelectric Power Plant; at the gates of Sutjeska...

Masses of people. People of Pivljan and guests. A big event on the Day of the Uprising of the Montenegrin People.

By symbolically pressing a button, Dzemal Bijedic, the President of the Federal Executive Council (Federal Government) is launching a complex project, which could only have been undertaken by a country like Tito's of Yugoslavia.

During World War II, Tito and the Supreme Headquarters stayed in these regions from May 24 to June 9, 1942, where it was decided to form the Montenegrin brigades from the shock battalions, the Fourth and Fifth Shock Brigades and the Third Sandžak Brigade, which fought heroically against the fascist occupiers.

The people of Pivljana did not forget this, so they sent a telegram to Tito from the ceremonial commissioning of the Hydroelectric Power Plant:

“Dear Comrade Tito, on the occasion of the celebration of July 13, the Day of the Uprising of the Montenegrin People and the opening of the Piva Hydroelectric Power Plant, we send you our warmest greetings and our most sincere wishes that you lead us into new battles such as the ones we are celebrating today. Two acts in one celebration, two days in one day, two times in one time, blazing with the power of life in this region like the fires of July 13, like the eyes of Sutjeska and Vučevo. On July 19, 1941, the first guns of the insurgents dawned in this region, sprouting a great seed of rebellion. More than three hundred fighters, more than one thousand two hundred victims of fascist terror gave Piva during the People's Liberation War. Piva burned with the cries of mothers from Dol, where five hundred of the killed remained. It fed the wounded who walked over these cliffs with typhus, it gave lukewarm milk and love to the hungry and wounded. It gave this region youth to the Revolution. Young like the mornings of Durmitor, like the waters rivers that turn into a bird of light. Young people as builders who opened the gates of a new summer in the cliffs of the canyon. This high dam brings canyons closer together, bridges spaces and gives this land a ring of light. Thanks to you, we made all of this, comrade Tito. Long live us!" - says the telegram sent to Tita by the builders, guests and residents of the Municipality of Plužine from the ceremonial commissioning of the Hydroelectric Power Plant in Mratinje.

Pressed down by a huge flood, the Piva Eye disappeared. Artists mourned the loss of the Eye the most. A native of Piva, a poet, Kosta Radovic He told me that the lake water had a "sick color."

Who knows, maybe in some distant centuries time will carve out its current steep “artificial” shores and turn them into “natural” ones. Maybe.

Three powerful generators in Mratinje have been producing electricity for fifty years.

And Piva, the old one, continued to live in wondrous sculptures Mijo Mijušković, a meteorologist by profession, and a top sculptor at heart, who spent decades making a pilgrimage to Piva, collecting rocks and stones and turning them all into brilliant sculptures.

As the Montenegrin poet and journalist said: Petar Đuranović, a part of Piva, a part of what Piva was, remained in Mijušković's work. Piva was completely surrendered to the human hand and mind, so that from its waters, like a huge stream, all-seeing light gushed forth. Piva was transformed into light. And through human effort and creative power, Mijo Mijušković saved and shaped a part of what had lasted for centuries and coexisted with the Piva soil and rocks, from its blue eye, all the way to Šćepanica... Piva is gone. In its place, a different beauty has grown...

Mijo Mijušković exhibited independently in Cetinje, Titograd, Nikšić, Dubrovnik, Herceg Novi, Budva, Ulcinj, Rome, Belgrade... He participated in exhibitions of the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro and all exhibitions of the Art Salon "13. November" in Cetinje.

Taking Piva from oblivion, Mijo enriched it with artistic expression in numerous sculptures such as “The Wise Man from Piva” (bronze), “The Beer Bird” (bronze), “De Gaulle from Piva” (marble), “The Exile Under the Dam” (stone), “The Guardian of the Šćepanica Church” (wood, stone and plaster), “Head with a Halo” (wood), “Mratinjska Idyll” (wood and stone), “Swan from the Eye of Piva” (wood), “Eye of Piva” (wood), “Dream of the Eye of Piva” (wood), “Piva Embroidery” (wood), and many others.

... And that graceful doe, which swam across Lake Piva, seemed to say - There's beer!