The proposed Decision on the erection of a monument to the late Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Amfilohije (Radović), is on the agenda of the next session of the Kolašin Municipal Assembly, which is scheduled for October 22nd.
According to that act, the monument will be placed in the courtyard of the Church of Saint Demetrius in that city, it will be a bronze statue 2,5 meters high, placed on a granite pedestal 1,28 meters high, so that the total height of the memorial will be 3,78 meters.
The monument will be inscribed in Cyrillic script: "Archbishop of Cetinje, Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral and Exarch of the Holy See of Peć Amfilohije (1938-2020)".
The deadline for the construction of the monument is 2025, and, according to unofficial information from "Vijesti", the statue will be erected on October 31, on St. Luke's Day.
The initiative for its construction was launched by former Mayor Vladimir Martinović, and financial support was provided by the Municipality, which in 2023 signed a donation contract of 50.000 euros with the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral.
As stated in the draft decision, the Metropolitanate will be responsible for the protection and maintenance of the monument, while the implementation of the decision will be supervised by municipal authorities responsible for culture and spatial planning.
"Article 9, paragraph 2 of the Law on Memorials stipulates that a memorial cannot be erected before the expiration of a period of 20 years from the date of death of a certain person, while paragraph 3 of the same article provides for the possibility that, exceptionally and with the prior consent of the Government of Montenegro, a memorial to a prominent person may be erected before the expiration of that period... After obtaining the consent of the Government of Montenegro on 22 August 2025, and in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Memorials, the Municipality of Kolašin shall erect a memorial exclusively on the basis of the Memorial Erection Program adopted by the Municipal Assembly (MA)," the explanatory memorandum to the draft decision states.
The explanation also states that the monument will be a "permanent reminder of the strength, wisdom and love of Metropolitan Amfilohije for Montenegro and the faith", and that his image and work will "remind us of a man who successfully combined traditional values and a modern worldview".
"His actions were not only local, but universal in character; he connected Montenegro with the world, representing it not only as a cultural, but also as a moral force on the international stage," the draft act states.
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