In recent days, residents of Tivat have noticed and reported to the competent authorities new damage and theft of stone from old parapet walls on the local Tivat-Kotor road via Prčanj.
Unknown perpetrators have once again devastated a number of parapets on the road route through the Verige Strait, from where they have already removed and taken away several pieces of large, beautifully hewn stone blocks. Parts of the parapet walls that were renovated by the Municipality of Tivat several years ago with the installation of new stone blocks have also been damaged in this manner in recent days.
Such is the case on the parapet of one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Boka Bay – on the curve above the church of Our Lady of the Angels in Verige, but also on parts of the stone wall along the road from the end of the Lepetane settlement towards Our Lady of the Angels.
"This is vandalism and a criminal act that should interest those responsible for maintaining the coast, the police, but also institutions that deal with the protection of the architectural heritage and the ambience of Boka Bay. However, for years, none of them have been able to or simply do not want to find the perpetrators and stop this criminal activity that has already occurred before," said a resident of Tivat, who sent "Vijesti" photos of the latest damage to the stone parapets on the road along the coast.
Parapets, which were mostly built during the Austro-Hungarian rule over Boka, or immediately after, are part of the traditional architectural heritage of these regions, as well as part of the recognizable visual identity of Boka's coastal roads. Apart from their utilitarian and technical functions to improve traffic safety on narrow and winding roads along the coast, their main purpose is to serve as fences or retaining walls that physically prevent vehicles from falling off the roadway into the sea, and they are also a kind of physical barrier that protects the most exposed parts of the roadway from the impact of sea waves.
In the Tivat area, the most impressive and numerous old traditional stone parapets are located on the part of the coastal road Tivat-Lepetane-Stoliv-Prčanj-Muo-Kotor, as well as on the part of the road below the Ivovića park in Donja Lastva. However, there are also more recent examples of their construction, aesthetically not much inferior to the old parapets from a century and a half ago, as stone parapets also partially exist along the Adriatic Highway from Lepetane to Opatovo.
This part of the cultural heritage and an example of the use of natural material - stone, which "works" so well in the coastal environment, is often threatened by criminal activity by unscrupulous individuals who often destroy parapets in an organized manner and steal the processed cut stone from these walls.
About ten years ago, the Municipality of Tivat itself initiated an action to restore part of the meanwhile devastated parapets towards Verige, on the plateau above the Church of Our Lady of the Angels and further towards Stoliv to the administrative border of this and the Municipality of Kotor. The parapets were then, instead of pouring concrete over the damaged areas as was the prevailing practice at the time and thus further devastating them, restored in the right and appropriate way - by hewing and building new stone blocks. The effects of this action were short-lived because criminals very quickly began to destroy the parapets again and to remove the newly laid new stone.
The Municipality of Tivat told "Vijesti" that they are outraged by the indolence of the one who, according to current legal regulations, should take care of this part of the infrastructure on the coast - JP Morsko dobro from Budva. This company, although the local administration has been pointing out to it for years about damage to the parapet and retaining walls of the coastal road through Lepetane and Verige, and other parts of the roads along the coast, is not taking any action to repair this damage.
If it weren't tragic, it would be comical.
The Tivat municipality pointed out the fact that there is some damage in the immediate vicinity of the Coastal Administration offices.
"The most drastic examples of the irresponsible attitude of the Coastal State towards the coast entrusted to their care and management are in several places on the coastal road in Lepetane, near the Veselin pier, where the retaining wall has already fallen into the sea, and the waves have undermined the road to the extent that through the holes in the asphalt that are widening every day, one can look at the sea and wait for the road and the parapet on it to completely collapse. If it weren't tragic, it would be comical that this major damage to the road is located in the immediate vicinity of the premises in Lepetane used by one of the Coastal State's services - the Maritime and Coastal Transport Sector, which manages ferries. The headquarters of that state-owned company in Budva and their Coastal State Control Service seem not to see this, just as they don't see the 5-6 meters of broken stone parapet along the main road on the approach to the Lepetane ferry port, which was destroyed more than two months ago in a traffic accident, but no one has repaired it in the meantime," an interlocutor from the Municipality's leadership told "Vijesti". Tivat.
A senior municipal official recalled that similar damage to the retaining wall, roadway and parapet on the coastal road below Ivovića Park in Donja Lastva has also not been repaired by the Coastal Administration for months.
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