Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/w9hkqVSWPmQkUhgt8
Additional info: https://www.spomenikdatabase.org/knin
Directions: You can see on the map how to get to the monument from the roundabout in Knin, it's a 1 km walk. Make sure you wear footwear fit for hiking- the path in the hill is bumpy and there is tall grass in some places when you get to the top. Also, keep in mind that most of this road, some 700m, is uphill. There is a parking lot at the base of the fortress, so you can get there by car if you don't feel like walking all the way, but the last 400m is a walking path.
"The monument itself-the flower, is pointing with all its petals-concrete beams, in all directions and trails on which the fighters died that signified life and freedom. The sculpture is bumpy and irregular, but it struggles proudly like a plant through the rocks as it grows implacably upwards, like the freedom being born."
Đorđe Romić, the architect of the monument
Apart from being in the beautiful natural setting surrounded by pine trees and close to the highest point in town on the Spas hill, this fallen monument represents Knin in more ways than one. A huge stone flower seemed to grow from the land itself in the organic connection with Knin.
This monument was built in 1969 in memory of fighters of the Dalmatian 8th Partisan Corps who died in the decisive battle for liberation of Dalmatia from Nazi army and its collaborators in December 1944. The site also included a crypt with the remains of some of the fighters.
The 8th Dalmatian Corps (Dalmatia is a region in Croatia to which Knin belongs) was a part of the Yugoslav army, and in the political spins after the 90's there are some attempts to present these Partisans as strictly Croatian fighters who fought for Croatia, excluding them from the wider Yugoslav context. It's an example of how terminology can be used to create confusion and put events out of their historical context.
The monument was destroyed in 1996 well after the war ended in 1995, in what couldn't have been a random act of vandalism. Explosives were taken to the Spas hill, skillfully placed and used to blow up a strong armed concrete structure of the monument as well as the bronze plaques at its base. The use of the explosives alone would have been enough for criminal charges, unless it had been authorized by the police or military. Once again, this did not happen during the war, and it was not a consequence of the war destruction. This vandalism was executed long after the war, purposefully and professionally, and to this day no one was held responsible. The destruction of the monument that was built during the thriving days of Knin, marked the beginning of the new era.
Monument to Knin Liberators on the Spas Hill -The Flower of Knin
Directions from the roundabout (King Zvonimir's monument)
Knin after WWII
Knin was a prosperous town before the war in the '90s, it was an industrial town, a railroad nexus with a developed agriculture in the surrounding area. In a word it was all that it is not now.
If you take a look around while walking on the main square or if you happen to be in other places in Knin you'll notice that most of the buildings are from this period. Railway station with the building where the café and offices are, the other building on the main square where the supermarket is, the building across the street where the Knin tourist board is, city hall and the court house further down the road, police station, town hospital, town health center, all kindergartens, both elementary schools, the only high school in town, and almost all residential buildings are the structures from that period.
the scene from the Old market place in the '80s
Knin railway station employed 3100 people, 118 trains passed daily through the station, 128 during the summer season, transporting aprox. 2 million passEngers yearly (data from 1986)
The main street and the Fortress have been reconstructed and modernized to look good on TV when camera crews come for the yearly central celebration of the victory in '95 on August 5, but it’s maybe better not to look beyond that.
As a town that's a symbol of national pride, a royal town of king Zvonimir, one would expect it to be given a royal treatment. Instead Knin is important to politicians only as a trophy to be paraded. For some reason it appears to be constantly pushed aside-it was exempt from major infrastructural projects such as highway, the railroad is mainly ruined, as well as the industry. Economic factors combined with partocracy and other features of the new system mentioned before resulted in many young people opting to move and start their families elsewhere.
The state of the affairs is best illustrated by the depopulation of the area. According to the census of 2021 the urban area of Knin had 8 262 inhabitants. Compared to the last census before the war in 1991, when it had 12 331, this shows a population decline of aprox. 25% in 30 years. Knin marked a steady increase in population in the XX century until the last census in 1991 after which the trend was reversed.
population trends in knin urban area-croatian bureau of statistics
Devastation of the Monument-Double Standards
Some of those who fought in the Partisans in WWII and survived got disappointed with the system at one point after the war, which doesn't make their goals at the time of the battle less valid, or achievement less real.
All events must be considered within their historical moment and context. Whatever happened after the war has nothing to do with people to whom the monument is dedicated, they died long before that.
It's also important to mention that Franjo Tuđman, the first president of independent Croatia, whose monument is not far from this one on the Fortress, was in the Partisans in 1944 (the first picture below). After WWII he advanced, and obtained the rank of major general in 1960 in Belgrade, capital of Serbia and Yugoslavia at the time.
Eventually, he got disappointed with the system , but who is to say that others who didn't survive wouldn't have also got disappointed in different ways if they'd lived long enough. In a sense they were posthumously judged without a trial and sentenced to oblivion.
FRANJO TUĐMAN 1944 (WIKIPEDIA)
FRANJO TUĐMAN 1960 (WIKIPEDIA)
FRANJO TUĐMAN'S MONUMENT ON THE KNIN'S FOTRESS
The visit to this spot where the monument lies is like being within the scene of a post apocalyptic movie depicting the remains of more advanced civilization in the world that regressed into the distant past.
There is no sign to get there, the road is steep, and the whole place is increasingly covered with vegetation. But once you get there you see a fallen giant and the unparalleled view on the town from which it grew.