Monument to the Revolution of the people of Moslavina

On a wooded slope of Moslavačka gora, the low range of hills east of Zagreb, a huge abstract form in concrete seems to hover above the grass: a central body with ribbed arms flung out horizontally to either side, two on one wing and three on the other, like a bird or a winged figure caught at the moment of take-off. The Monument to the Revolution of the People of Moslavina, near the village of Podgarić, is about 10 metres high and some 20 metres across, and is one of the best known of the many Yugoslav memorials to the Second World War.

The sculptor was Dušan Džamonja (1928–2009), born in Strumica and trained at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts under Antun Augustinčić. He received the commission in 1965; until then he had worked mainly on memorials to the victims of fascism, and a monument to a revolution was new ground for him. He conceived it as an architectural sculpture in which concrete volumes are balanced so as to express the movement of masses. The design draws on the image of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory: the outspread arms are wings of freedom and triumph, the square base anchors the work in the earth as if drawing energy from it, and at the centre a honeycomb emblem built from angular pieces of bright aluminium stands for life — together a symbol of life prevailing over death and defeat. Josip Broz Tito unveiled the monument on 7 September 1967.

The site was chosen for its wartime history. During the Second World War the Moslavina hills were a Partisan stronghold for the region and for the area reaching towards Zagreb; a Partisan hospital was set up near Podgarić in 1942, and the village became a centre of the uprising with workshops, courses and even theatre performances. On the approach to the sculpture an ossuary holds the remains of about a thousand fighters who were killed or died in the Partisan hospitals of the area. In more recent decades the monument has found a new audience through the photographs of Jan Kempenaers, whose series on Yugoslav memorials was exhibited internationally, and through a 2018 music video by Alan Walker filmed on the site.

Getting there

The monument stands near Podgarić in the municipality of Berek, Bjelovar-Bilogora County, about 29 km from Bjelovar. Zagreb Franjo Tuđman International Airport (ZAG) is about 56 km away in a straight line.