At least 150 cultural heritage sites are located on the route of the future "Brajići" wind farm on Paštrovska gora, the construction of which would devastate the entire area, warned a group of citizens from Brajić, Paštrovići and Crmnica.
"Once again, we are addressing the Montenegrin public to draw attention to the problem concerning the "Brajići Wind Farm" project planned on the centuries-old territories of Brajić, Paštrović and Crmnica. Every month we discover new potential cultural assets and cultural heritage sites in this area, so far over 150 such sites have been identified, and this number is not final and is growing every month," warn the citizens in an open letter, submitted to "Vijesti".
They have previously repeatedly called on the Government of Montenegro to abandon this project, and demanded that the turbines be "deleted" from the Spatial Plan, presenting a number of facts that do not support the construction of giant turbines along the edge of the hill.
In August 2020, on the eve of the then parliamentary and local elections in Budva, a consortium led by the German company WDP concluded an agreement with the Government of Prime Minister Duško Marković a land lease agreement for the construction of the "Brajići" wind farm, in which, as announced at the time, 101,3 million euros will be invested...
Citizens recall that they previously informed the public that two or three giant turbines were planned on Velja Trojica Mountain, where the remains of the Church of the Holy Trinity and a prehistoric hillfort with great cultural and historical value are located.
"In addition, turbines are also planned on the Goli vrh mountain, which is considered a sacred cult site of the Paštrovićs, where there is a large cross and a memorial plaque dedicated to the suffering of the Paštrovićs in the 14th century during the Paštrović raid by the army of the Hungarian King Ludwig. There are also numerous hiking trails and many old corrals, i.e. the katuns of the Brajićs, Paštrovićs and Crmničans. Considering that katun tourism is becoming increasingly popular in the region and some parts of Europe, the construction of a wind farm would also endanger this type of tourism, and would greatly impoverish the tourist offer of Budva and Montenegro."
They argue that the construction of a wind farm would jeopardize the prospects of rural development as an important item in Montenegro's negotiation process with the EU (Chapter 11).
“Therefore, it is not surprising that France has decided to block the closure of the chapter on agriculture and rural development. This decision is especially understandable if we consider the fact that last year the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management issued a positive opinion for the construction of the Brajići wind farm with accompanying infrastructure on approximately seven million square meters of forest land, as officially categorized in the cadastral records. This is contrary to legal provisions as well as Article 2, paragraph 3 of the Regulation on detailed criteria for issuing urban and technical conditions for the construction of facilities for the production of electricity from renewable sources, which clearly states that such facilities cannot be built on forest land. Despite this, the Government issued urban and technical conditions for the Brajići wind farm project, although we have long warned that there are no legal conditions for this. We do not know whether French experts had direct insight into this case, but it can certainly serve as evidence that rural development is being treated incorrectly by the competent institutions.”
They remind us that they have repeatedly stated that the wind farm on Brajići and Paštrovska gora would disrupt the natural landscape of the mountains in the hinterland of the coast.
"In this sense, the investor and the relevant ministries will have a hard time justifying such an idea to representatives of the Council of Europe, given that Montenegro is a signatory to the Council of Europe Landscape Convention. In addition, as stated in the technical report of Europa Nostra and the European Investment Bank Institute, giant turbines on the beautiful mountains in the hinterland would also damage the cultural landscape of Sveti Stefan, the national treasure of Montenegro, because Paštrovska gora, in terms of conservation, is treated as the visual backdrop to Sveti Stefan."
In addition to the cultural landscape of Sveti Stefan, as they warn, the cultural landscape of the old town of Budva would be additionally "disturbed, and from the perspective that was the only one preserved due to concreting - which is the view of the Old Town from the promenade towards Mogren Beach, otherwise the most popular place for tourists to take pictures of the Old Town, where Goli Vrh and its surroundings rise in the background, and it is precisely there that the giant turbines are planned."
"Once again, we ask the investor and the Government of Montenegro to abandon this controversial location for the construction of a wind farm and find an adequate alternative. We are not against green energy, as we have repeatedly stated, but we are against sacrificing our beautiful hinterland and rural tourism, which is increasingly popular in the world, while endangering our iconic historical places. Europe teaches us to respect each other, and that means respecting what someone else considers sacred and valuable to them. We respect the German investor, especially the country he comes from. We also believe that we should all respect each other, not only in some legal or morally formalistic sense, but essentially and sincerely. This, among other things, means that we should also respect the cultural and historical values of other people and their feelings towards the cultural heritage to which they attach their feelings, regardless of whether we value that heritage in the same way or not," the letter reads.
The Budva Municipal Assembly unanimously adopted the Declaration on the Protection of Pastrovska Gora on August 18, 2023. The declaration calls for the protection of Pastrovska Gora and calls for a permanent ban on the implementation of large infrastructure projects, in order to preserve immeasurably valuable cultural and natural resources.
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