MÉMORIAL DE GARAVICE

Inaugurated in 1981, this memorial to the socialist period (Spomen-Područje Garavice) is installed on the small hill of Garavice, 220 m above sea level. Composed of thirteen abstract statues, it marks the memory of the massacres of July-September 1941: from 7,000 to 15,000 men, women and children from Bihać, mainly Serbs, but also Roma and Jews were executed by the Croatian army at this location and in the surrounding area. The bodies were buried on site or thrown into the Klokot River below. This is the largest World War II extermination site in the former Yugoslavia after the Jasenovac-Donja Gradina camp in the north of the country, on the border with Croatia. The memorial includes two other statues of the same type along the national road, on the other side of the Klokot, 550 m after the bridge, next to the gas station. They mark the location of another execution site. The ensemble was designed by Serbian architect Bogdan Bogdanović (1922-2010), who is credited with the famous Stone Flower of Jasenovac. The statues here are composed of cubic stone blocks engraved with symbols and stacked to give the shape of "mourning women". The local gray limestone, bihacite, was used. It is found throughout various monuments in the city, such as the mosque Fethija. The site of Garavice has suffered damage during the last war, but also degradation since the end of the conflict. A renovation project is announced since 2018.