Heritage at Risk: On the proposed Military Equipment Exhibition Park within the “Slobodište” Memorial Complex, Kruševac
DOCOMOMO Serbia expresses serious concern regarding the planned construction of a Military Equipment Exhibition Park within the protected Memorial Complex “Slobodište” in Kruševac, Serbia. The proposed intervention raises fundamental issues regarding the preservation of the integrity, authenticity, and cultural landscape values of one of the most significant works of memorial architecture of the Modern Movement in Southeast Europe.
Designed by architect Bogdan Bogdanović between 1961 and 1965, “Slobodište” represents a landmark of post-war memorial architecture in which landscape itself becomes the primary medium of commemoration. Through a radical departure from the traditional monument, Bogdanović transforms terrain, earth, and vegetation into a spatial and symbolic language of memory. In international discourse, the site is widely recognized as a pioneering example of memorial landscape design anticipating key principles of land art and humanistic approaches to memory in architecture.
The value of “Slobodište” lies in the inseparable relationship between topography, spatial composition, and symbolic meaning. Its integrity depends on the preservation of carefully constructed visual, experiential, and landscape-based relationships, where any physical intervention simultaneously alters its semantic and memorial structure.
In this context, the introduction of heavy military equipment and associated infrastructural elements within the memorial landscape would fundamentally disrupt its spatial continuity and compromise its conceptual framework as an “architecture of peace” – a space designed to articulate remembrance, life, and dignity as an alternative to the logic of violence and war.
From the perspective of international conservation standards, particularly the UNESCO World Heritage framework, integrity and authenticity are essential criteria for the protection and evaluation of cultural properties of outstanding value. Any intervention that permanently alters the spatial and conceptual structure of such a site may have serious implications for its long-term recognition and ongoing nomination processes.
DOCOMOMO Serbia, as part of its mission to document and protect the heritage of the Modern Movement, considers the preservation of the “Slobodište” Memorial Complex to be of paramount importance, in accordance with national legislation and internationally recognized principles of modern architectural heritage conservation.
We therefore call on the competent authorities to suspend the planned intervention within the protected area and to consider an alternative location for the proposed Military Equipment Exhibition Park that would not compromise the cultural, spatial, and symbolic integrity of this exceptional heritage site.
