The Ministry of Culture gave consent to the Municipality of Ulcinj on the proposal of the Program for erecting memorials and the construction of a monument to Đerđ Kastriota Skanderbeg on the roundabout of the boulevard named after the famous hero.
Mayor Ljoro Nrekić confirmed this to the "News", stressing that the Ministry approved the construction of a monument made of cast bronze, a meter and a half high, on a pedestal of three and a half meters, despite the fact that the local Assembly unanimously adopted the proposed decision that the height of the figure of the hero on a horse with a sword it is five meters.
"It was a mistake of the service, it should have stood up to five meters. We are not going to exaggerate, it is three meters in life size," Nrekić told "Vijesta" and added that this is the final epilogue of the procedure.
The first proposal, in article three, requested that the height of the figure be only 15 centimeters, but the obvious technical error was later corrected, after which approval was obtained for 150 centimeters.
This is the second time that proposals for decisions on the construction of a memorial to Skanderbeg in Ulcinj suffer corrections, despite the simple procedure necessary to get the green light from the Ministry headed by Aleksandar Bogdanović.
For the first time, Nrekić received approval from the Ministry of Culture for the proposed program and construction of the monument to Đerđ Kastriota, but the local Assembly adopted the proposed decision with the full name of the hero - Đerđ Kastriota Skanderbeg.
The Inspector for Cultural Heritage, Veselin Krstićević, then ordered the local Assembly to adopt a new Monument Erection Program, which would be in accordance with the decision of the Ministry of Culture from July 2018.
"SO Ulcinj can pass the Program on erecting memorials by building a monument to the legendary hero and military leader Đerđa Kastriota only within the framework of the given consent", it is written in the decision signed by Bogdanović at the time.
In his explanation, he stated that for the first time, Nrekić submitted a program proposal that was not fully compliant with the Law on Monuments. He explained that, when it comes to prominent personalities, the law essentially stipulates that along with the explanation of the reason for erecting the memorial, unnecessary wording that is not necessary for the content of the program should be omitted.
In March, the Ministry passed a decision on giving consent to amendments to the program for erecting memorials, which related to the deletion of the word "Đurađ" and the addition of the word "Skenderbeg" after the word "Kastrioti". At its session at the end of the same month, the local parliament adopted the program proposal, so that the Ministry would give its consent to Nrekić's request at the beginning of November.
In the new proposal, based on the project of the architect Shpetim Maraj from Ulcinj, among other things, it is pointed out that on the front of the pedestal of the monument in Latin script, "Gjrergj Kastrioti Skenderbeu 1405-1468" will be written in the Albanian language and in Montenegrin "Đerđ Kastrioti Skenderbeg 1405-1468". The deadline for erecting the monument is March this year, while the money will be provided by the Albanian-Montenegrin diaspora united in the "Simon Filipaj" foundation with the Ulcinj-based NGO "Don Gjon Buzuku", which is also the initiator of the project.
The monument will be a replica of the larger existing monument in Tirana, only of smaller dimensions.
The bust of Đerđ Kastriota Skanderbeg was unveiled in October in front of the school of the same name in the village of Zatrijebač in Tuzi.
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