KOSTURNICA MEMORIAL (ВО BEЛEC BEЛEC КОСТУРНИЦАТА)

Built between 1976 and 1979, this beautiful white monument (Спомен Костурница/Spomen Kosturnica) houses the remains of 87 Veles partisans who died during World War II, including that of the poet Kočo Racin, who was killed under murky circumstances in 1943. Designed by Serbian sculptor Ljubomir Denković (b. 1936), the dome of the ossuary (10 m high and 15 m wide) evokes a German soldier's helmet from the ^Third Reich broken into four. Inside is the largest mosaic in the country (220^m2), the work of Macedonian painter Petar Mazev (1927-1993).