Protecting Bosnia and Herzegovina's anti-fascist heritage: Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar
Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar, built by architect Bogdan Bogdanovic and opened in 1965.Photo by Chris Leslie. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
The most significant anti-fascist architectural landmark in the former Yugoslavia has been neglected and reduced to rubble for decades. Having survived the Bosnian War of the 1990s, the Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar now faces its greatest threat - and possible extinction, as organized neo-fascists are intent on destroying the necropolis and everything it stands for. A small group of residents and activists are fighting to preserve the cemetery and its history for future generations, but with a lack of political will and fear of intimidation and attacks, the defenders of the necropolis face an uphill battle.
Mostar is a "bucket list" city for every tourist in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its Old Town features pre-Ottoman, East Ottoman, Mediterranean and Western European architecture, as well as the rebuilt UNESCO-listed Old Bridge, which dates back to 1459. Tens of thousands of tourists and backpackers visit the Old City every spring and summer, but just 10 minutes away, in the western part of the city, is another equally important historical site, abandoned and partially destroyed, that few tourists reach.
The Partisan Memorial Cemetery has no clear ideological design or signage - it was meant to mark a common beginning for all the ethnic groups that made up Yugoslavia after World War II. Image by Chris Leslie. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
Mourners lay flowers on Victory Day at the section of the park where the remains of unknown partisans are buried. Image by Chris Leslie. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
The Partisans' Memorial Cemetery, built between 1959 and 1965, is a park dedicated to those who died fighting in the ranks of the Yugoslav partisans against the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Built and designed by the famous architect Bogdan Bogdanović, it is listed as a national monument and was once called the jewel of Mostar.
The well at the top of the memorial park was once part of a project where water flowed through the area, mimicking the Neretva River flowing through Mostar and symbolizing the tears of young partisan fighters. Image by Chris Leslie. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
After World War II, Bogdanovic was commissioned to design dozens of monuments and memorials throughout Yugoslavia. His memorials blended into the landscape, sometimes occupying it and becoming the landscape itself. The basic idea of all his works was "life triumphs over death"; his structures were conceived as public parks, places of everyday life, uniting the living and the dead.
Built between 1959 and 1965, the park is dedicated to the memory of those who died fighting in the ranks of the Yugoslav Partisans. Image by Chris Leslie. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
Bogdanovic designed the necropolis as a city with its own protective walls and walkways, unique architectural details and windows overlooking the city of Mostar. Image by Chris Leslie. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
Bogdanovic combined his emerging experience of surrealism with architectural history and anthropology to create abstract memorials of organic forms with references to the cosmos and the future. Each of his monuments was built with the intention of marking a common beginning for all the ethnic groups that made up Yugoslavia. The Partisans' Memorial Cemetery was his most famous and prominent project, a landscape on a hill clearly conceived as a "city of the dead" facing the "city of the living" to remind Mostar of the sacrifices made.
A recently restored building overlooking a crumbling building across the street. Despite 30 years of peace and an influx of tourists, many buildings in Mostar are still in ruins. Image by Chris Leslie. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
During World War II, Mostar was known as the Red City because of the particularly strong resistance put up by fighters of Serbian, Croatian, Muslim, Jewish and other nationalities. Most of the partisans who died in battle were very young, and their memory is commemorated on stones made in the form of felled trees, symbolizing fallen youth.
Edita Vučić, a cultural heritage teacher, regularly takes her students to the Partisan Cemetery. Many of them have never visited it before. Chris Leslie's image. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
Heritage may not be as important to young people, but still I think it's very important to bring them here. Because without the past, you have no future, and if you don't accept your past, you can't build your future.
-Edita Vucic
In March 1992, a grenade was detonated in the cemetery, and the sound echoed through the city as a warning, signaling the impending Bosnian war, a war that would once again devastate and divide the city of Mostar. Thirty years after the end of hostilities, the city is still divided. Like Mostar, the necropolis divides opinions and has become a fierce ideological battlefield.
Sead Julich, theater director and head of the national association of anti-fascists, is always the first to defend the site. He argues that the necropolis is more than a cemetery: "It is our Statue of Liberty, our triumphal arch, our Taj Mahal. It is a celebration of life and Mostar. It was built as a city of the dead, a mirror image of the city of the living for a city that has lost so much."
Sead Djulic, theater director and head of the National Association of Anti-Fascists, paints over derogatory graffiti depicting Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1980. Photo by Chris Leslie. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
Today it is visited by only a few Mostar residents, who complain that it is full of young people who drink and use drugs, and in general it is just an eyesore. Some residents and politicians would prefer that the memorial park disappear, claiming that it is a communist relic of the past and not part of "their history." When Julich and other anti-fascists visit the site to lay flowers, they require police protection, as there have been clashes with right-wing groups on memorial days. "Now it is dangerous to even talk about the necropolis, let alone visit it," he explains.
Memorial stones with the names, ages and places of birth and death of partisan fighters. The stones were shaped in the form of felled trees, symbolizing lost youth, as most of the fighters were between 18 and 25 years old. In June 2022, many of the 700 stones were smashed overnight in a planned and systematic attack. Chris Leslie's image. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
In the past few years, neo-fascists have gradually painted swastikas and symbols of the Ustasha, the puppet state of the Croatian Nazis during World War II, on the site. The Croatian Catholic Church has also sided with the fascists, claiming that the land on which the partisan cemetery is located was unjustly taken from them in the late 1960s and denying that the site contains human remains.
Newly painted graffiti at the entrance to the park. Image by Chris Leslie. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
The last full-scale attack on the cemetery occurred in June 2022, when hundreds of stone flowers with the names of anti-fascist fighters, their birthplaces, and the places and years of their executions were smashed to pieces. Swastikas were painted on the entrance columns. Mostar Mayor Mario Kordic denied claims that the attacks were organized by local fascist groups and blamed the vandalism on individuals. Local police said there were no witnesses, so they were unable to investigate the June 2022 attack. Some residents say police inaction is part of the problem and evidence of broader political forces at work in the city.
Mostar Mayor Mario Kordic says the destruction of the memorial cemetery and the painted swastikas were the work of individuals, not local fascist groups. Photo by Chris Leslie. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
A small group of residents, architects and activists from Mostar are fighting to preserve the necropolis and its history for future generations. In March 2023, local architect Senada Demirovic and her organization Urban House IDEAA successfully applied to have the Partizan Memorial Cemetery included on the Europa Nostra group's list of seven endangered monuments and cultural heritage sites in Europe, as a last-ditch effort to attract international attention and possibly save it. However, faced with a lack of political will and funding, harsh living conditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the 1990s war, and fear of intimidation in a divided city, the cemetery's defenders face an uphill struggle.
Marina Mimosa, local artist and director of the Rezon street art festival in Mostar, holds one of the broken memorial stones. Image by Chris Leslie. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023.
Marina Mimosa, a local artist, wants to separate place from politics. She views the memorial cemetery simply as one of the greatest pieces of land art in the country. As part of her installation, she illuminates the site at night with candles. She says, "I always view the place outside of a political context. I wanted to do something simple and spontaneous with light - to remind the people of Mostar of the beauty of this place."