The formation of the company Mamula with headquarters in Herceg Novi is the first step towards fulfilling the obligations from the contract on the long-term lease of the island of Lastavica with the fortress of Mamula, announced the PR advisor of the Swiss Orascom on that project, Dragana Bećirović.
The company, as she said, expects to sign two contracts with Morski dobro, one of which refers to the pier in Mirišta bay, which will be of a public nature, which are also conditions for the contract to enter into force.
Orascom leased that attractive location at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor for 49 years, in the reconstruction of which it plans to invest 15 million euros.
"After the formation of the Mamula company, in cooperation with and under the supervision of the Administration for the Protection of Monuments, we will begin the preparation of the main project, which must be completed within six months. During that process, with the permission of the Administration, we will also do the conservation project," Bećirović told Dnevni novine. .
The competent authorities should, as she explained, respond to their request for approval of the main project within three months.
"Only then do we acquire the condition to request a building permit. From the date of obtaining the construction permit, the deadline for the completion of the works is 18 months," Bećirović said, adding that the main project will be presented in detail to the general public in Herceg Novi.
According to her, the concept of Orascom is fully in agreement with the state vision of the development of Lastavica and Mamula.
"The planned restoration and conservation will result in a five-star hotel with accompanying facilities and a museum of the anti-fascist history of Bokelje," said Bećirović.
In July 2014, the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Properties issued conservation conditions for the creation of a conservation project for the protection and revitalization of the island of Lastavica with the Mamula fortress. One of the conditions is that before the development of the project, the investor must carry out architectural and conservation studies, as well as research into historical documentation, written and other sources. In the conditions, it is clearly stated that the project should foresee an adequate presentation of the memorial collection related to the imprisonment of Bokelje in the fortress during the First and Second World Wars.
"We have already completed the technical examination and analysis of the current state of the Mamula fortress. The goal of the examination was to collect and analyze all available data on the Mamula fortress from the time of Austro-Hungarian domination in the Bay of Kotor. The material presents a comprehensive overview of the fortress, analyzes military, technical, historical and the architectural aspects of the fortification, its condition, as well as its values and significance," specified Bećirović.
That, she added, helps them to fully understand the locality and preserve all those features as much as possible during the development of the main project.
According to Bećirović, there are many examples in the world where concentration camps, camps and prisons have been converted into hotels and tourist facilities. The former Austro-Hungarian fortress, the so-called Nazi Tower of Death, otherwise similar in architecture and "peer" with Mamula, today is a privately owned hotel, the Citadel Inn.
The famous Four Seasons hotel brand in Istanbul has opened a hotel in a former prison. Great Britain, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Portugal record positive experiences of converting former military facilities or cultural monuments into touristic purposes.
The establishment of the museum implies the arrangement of one unit so that it can reflect the history of the island in both world wars. However, the investor's plans will go even further, i.e. part of the museum will also be the lobby of the hotel where documents and objects will be exhibited. Also, the idea is being considered that, in an appropriate manner, historical objects will be exhibited outside the museum in several locations of the fortress.
"Our special interest was to explain our concept to the members of veterans' associations, including former camp inmates and their families, with special respect for the victims of the wars at this location. We presented the project to SUBNOR representatives, which they officially supported, and they are very interested in cooperation during the conception of the presentation of museum materials", Bećirović concluded.
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