Mirko Vešovica Street has not been the same since Wednesday, neither is the center of Kolašin - in just half an hour, in the early afternoon, excavators razed the nearly 100-year-old "house on stilts" to the ground.
Immediately before that, many people from Kolašin, some for the first time, and some after a long time, took the opportunity to open the door at address number 8. They were not greeted by the usual coldness of the walls between which no one lives, but "talks" at every step and the impression that the housemates are only briefly absent. Family black-and-white, carefully retouched photos, in boxes of letters and postcards, written at a time when handwriting was taken care of, pristine porcelain in a beautiful sideboard, two or three dusty antique keys on the table, and unopened jars of winter wine on the cupboard...
This was seen by those who, for who knows what reason, wished to hear the creak of the wooden floor of the house under their feet for the last time, which defied both the style of construction and durability.
Milivoje Bulatović, the director of the Communal Enterprise and the workers, at the last moment, surprised by everything that was left in the house after the sale, hastily removed to safety a part of the former Kolasin everyday life and a part of the lives of several families to whom the house had been a home since 1929. Things, they explain, will be waiting for the descendants of the former owners.
And then came the machines and the "garden neither in heaven nor on earth", as the children used to call the house, was no more.
The next day, another house from that neighborhood was demolished, and the next week, the other two will also be demolished. It is not new news that a four-star hotel will soon appear on that location, nor is it news that the buildings were sold a long time ago and that the day of their demolition was only a matter of the investor's decision.
These are not the first houses demolished to build "some new Kolašin". Officially, none of those houses, across the street from the Memorial House, had any cultural and historical value, but, according to Kolasinci, they "had a soul" and contributed to the architectural recognition of the city core.
Biographies of the people of Kolašin are linked to each of them, intertwined and conditioned by historical events and rules of town life between the two world wars and the second half of the last century. But the neighborhood in Mirka Vešovića Street resisted all that. For this reason, for many, the farewell to that part of Old Varo's tradition and architecture, which faltered before the current investment boom, was emotional and full of bitterness.
The "house on stilts" is one of several he built Jefto Boskovic (1867-1943), called Adžica. He moved in with his brothers Arsom i Mark in Kolašin in 1879 from Bijelo Polje. They were merchants and had several houses in the town. He was, says the local chronicler and publicist Branislav Jeknic, and president of the town of Kolašin from 1893 to 1895.
"Jefto built the first of his houses in 1912... on the west side of Trg Borca. This neighborhood burned down in August 1944 during the German operation 'Ribecal', and in 1951, the Monument to Fallen Fighters was erected on the site of the neighborhood. The house on stilts was built in 1927/28. and Jephthah's eldest son lived in it Rade. In 1936, he sold part of the property Zorki Šoć, and most likely the house as well, because he is mentioned as the owner of the house right after the war in 1946 Milosava Medenica. The house was sold in 1960 Čedomir Raičević who worked in Kolašin as a member of the MUP, and he sold it to the family Vlahovic in 1966 and moved to Bijelo Polje", says Jeknić for "Vijesti".
Since 1966, the owners of the house were Vojislav-Vojka i Jelena Vlahović.
The second house from that neighborhood was built in 1936, on a plot of land that was bought from Rad Jeftov Bošković. It is popularly known as Zorka Šoć's house. Zorka, reminds Jeknić, is a daughter Janko Tošković, a teacher and deputy from the time of Montenegrin statehood.
"On the west side of the house there was a road that led from the school to the main road that went from the town to the Tara bridge. This road was left in 1887 during the division of Kolašin, and was two cubits wide (1,42 meters). The third house, in Mirka Vešovića Street, was built by the Municipality of Kolašin in 1956 for the purpose of solving housing issues for employees in the economy. As staff apartments, a large number of tenants have changed, and the last owners who bought the apartments sold the house to an investor," says Jeknić.
He built the fourth house, which is slated for demolition in that part of the city, in 1936 Savo Milovanov Milašinović (1883-1945) born in Sirovac. He was a merchant in the town and next to this house he had a shop on Gornji gradski trg in the community with Vlad Cvetov Marić. During the Second World War, part of his house served as a partisan hospital.
"Harmony of the found and created"
Hotel "Magnum" will be built in Mirka Vešovića Street, which the Government included in the list of development projects in the field of tourism.
It will operate according to the condo model, it will have 105 accommodation units, more precisely 201 beds, of different types and sizes, as well as a spa, swimming pool and fitness center.
The four-star hotel will consist of 25 apartment units and 80 rooms, and 64 new jobs are expected to be created.
The total estimated value of the investment is 13,3 million euros, from own funds in full.
It is planned that the hotel will have four floors, and the investors promise that "great attention has been paid to greening the free area at the back of the hotel".
For the facade, "gray natural concrete, glass curtain wall in a variant with low-emission glass in a double package and in a dark tone, tin panels in a dark color" will be used.
"Landscape architectural solutions are based on the form of traditional architecture with the application of modern models. The configuration of the terrain imposed both urban and architectural effects on the location. The starting point was to give an image of the space that highlights the natural characteristics of the environment and creates a harmonious relationship between the found and the newly created. Traditional architecture, as well as natural conditions highlight the sloping roof as a recognizable element, which in this project has acquired a contemporary dimension", it is written in the report on the environmental impact assessment for the hotel "Magnum".
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