SMETOVI MONUMENT

Installed since 1968 on Mount Smetovi, at an altitude of 1,025 m, this memorial to socialist Yugoslavia (Spomenik Smetovi) offers a magnificent view of Zenica and the surrounding mountains. Surrounded by some pine trees, it is dedicated to thirty-two partisans of Zenica who were massacred on this site on May 8, 1942 by Serbian Chetniks. It is an aluminum obelisk topped by two "horns" reaching 13 m in height and bearing a red star on its north face. It is the best known work of the Bosnian painter and sculptor Arfan Hozić (1928-1991). The base consists of marble slabs bearing the names of the 32 partisans who died here as well as two inscriptions. One recalls the event. The other is an excerpt from a work by Izet Sarajlić (1930-2002), the most famous poet of socialist Yugoslavia, a native of Doboj: "And don't ask 'Could they come back'/And don't ask 'Was it possible to come back'/When, at last, red as communism, burned the horizon of their desires." Below the obelisk remains the shape of the amphitheater where the memorial ceremonies in honor of the partisans were held. Another small monument has been added on the other side. This one honors the soldiers from Zenica who were in the Bosnian army and died during the 1992-1995 war. Finally, along the road, 1.4 km before the monument, the Salčinović restaurant is at the starting point of several hiking trails through the nearby mountains.