Communist Ruin’s Fate Weighs on Montenegro

For many Montenegrins, the abandoned – and lethal – ruins of the House of Revolution in Niksic symbolise the failure of the Yugoslav communist experiment

Photo: Courtesy of NGO Alfa Center.

To many Montenegrins, the abandoned site of the Home of Revolution in the town of Niksic is a horrific symbol of the break-up of Yugoslavia – and of their country’s failed transition into a modern society.

For others, it is simply a very ugly and scary building, designed in “Tito style” that has also been a deathtrap for almost four decades.

Few believe the spooky-looking, deserted 22,000-square-metre site can be transformed into a Centre for New Technologies of Southeast Europe, as recently announced by the local authorities.

Under the plan, several Chinese companies from Baoding province would invest millions in the building whose construction began in 1979 and abruptly stopped in 1989, on the eve of Yugoslavia’s collapse.

The ambitious Communist-era project was supposed to result in the largest monument to the victims of World War II in Yugoslavia and a uniqe cultural centre with theatres and other artistic arenas, a congress hall and a TV station.

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It was built to “commemorate the sacrifices of war and celebrated the grand idea of a unified national identity”, as has been said of it.

According to some estimates, about 50 million euro has already been invested in it and the supporting structure alone has consumed over 400 tons of steel, enough to build 3,000 residential flats.

Hidden beauty, for some

The Home of Revolution’s Communist-style architecture, often used in Eastern bloc countries, featured in the Venice Biennale in 2014.

Together with three other sites, Hotel Fjord in Kotor, the Seagull Kayak Club in Podgorica and the Memorial House in the town of Kolasin, all built in the Eighties, the Home of Revolution was presented as part of the exhibition Treasures in Disguise at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice.

According to the catalogue for the exhibition in the Montenegrin pavilion, when the four buildings were erected they radiated their builders’ confidence in the new society they were constructing.

“Today, only a few decades later, these buildings embody the complete opposite: poorly used and maintained, if ever completed, they are a testament to the failure of Modernism and the breakdown of Yugoslavia.
“Nobody seems to be able to recognize their value, hence their fate seems sealed: decay and demolition,” the curators of the exhibition wrote.

The site in the city centre for years has also served as a shelter for stray dogs while its water-logged basements and corridors have claimed the lives of 16 people.

Hundreds of others have been seriously injured, according to official data.

Local residents have grown accustomed to its dilapidated state. They ignore and avoid the site, which stands like an obstacle, a mountain of shame and disappointment.

For years, the Home of Revolution has been the subject of a broad public debate on whether to continue construction or to raze it to the ground.

The underground passageways and basement areas have meanwhile filled up with sewage and rain water and the building has become increasingly dangerous, residents and civil society groups say.

A local NGO, the Alfa Centar, which has been the most vocal in urging the authorities to find a permanent solution for the building, wants the site fenced off before it claims more lives.

“This grim, grey pile of concrete has become an illegal dump in the city centre. Now it is life threatening,” the NGO’s director, Aleksandar Dedovic, told BIRN on Wednesday.

Ten years ago, the local government in Niksic was close to demolishing the building, but the Ministry of Culture decided to continue constructing the Home of Revolution, planning to finish it off as a “cultural and informational facility”, shopping centre and memorial complex.

Ever since, each government has promised that the building will be finished. The last pledge was made in 2014 by the former cultural minister Branislav Micunovic, who maintained that the “Home” would be functional by the end of 2016.

In the meantime, the Tourism Ministry last November invited bids for best conceptual design for re-purposing the Home of the Revolution. The deadline expires next week on February 12. The Ministry said that reconstruction will require some 50 million euros.

However, on Tuesday, Niksic Mayor Veselin Grbovic revealed a surprise new plan for the largest Communist-style building in the former Yugoslavia.

He said that a Chinese delegation from the city of Baodinga had expressed an interest in solving this long-standing problem.

‘We’ll see how everything runs but I hope the final solution for the House of the Revolution could be the construction of the Centre for Southeast Europe in terms of new technologies. The Chinese have opened such a centre in the city of Baoding,” Grbovic told a press conference, adding that in his view, there was no better chance for the building than this.

Dedovic is less optimistic that a solution to this problem lies around the corner – warning that the concrete and steel monster is still a hazard to people.

“We need to talk about the House of the Revolution – not just when it claims a life,” he said.