MONUMENT TO THE HEROES OF KOSOVO

Installed on a hill 50 m above the plain, this monument (Monumenti memorial i Gazimestanit, Spomenik kosovskim junacima na Gazimestanu) commemorates the battle of Kosovo Polje (1389). Consisting mainly of a tower with a viewing platform, this symbol of Serbian identity was built during the socialist period in 1953. Neither the work nor the view are really interesting, but we are here in the heart of history and in a high place of Serbian nationalism. It is here that in 1989, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević delivered the famous "Gazimestan speech" heralding the wars in Yugoslavia. Placed under high protection, the place is not designated in the same way by Serbs ("monument to the heroes of Kosovo") and by Albanians ("memorial Gazimestan").

History

For more than six centuries, the Serbs have celebrated here what has become their national holiday: Vidovdan, the "Day of St. Vitus" which marks every year, on June 28, the memory of the battle of Kosovo Polje.

Old monuments. A first monument was erected here as early as 1402 by Stefan Lazarević, son of Lazar Hrebeljanović, the Serbian prince who led the Balkan coalition against the Ottomans in 1389 and was canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church. This marble column disappeared during the Ottoman period, but a reproduction can be seen on the site. After 1912, when Kosovo became a Serbian province again, the ambitious project of a "Temple of Vidovdan" was launched, entrusted to the great Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović (1883-1962). However, the idea was abandoned because of the First World War. In 1924, a new monument was erected: a small obelisk topped by a cross dedicated to the "heroes of Kosovo". The site became the place of large Serbian gatherings. But after the German invasion of 1941, the obelisk was destroyed by Albanian fascists.

Current monument. In the early 1950s, the socialist authorities entrusted a new project to the Serbian architect Aleksandar Deroko (1894-1989). Friend of Picasso, it is notably to him that we owe the cathedral Saint-Sava of Belgrade (1939). Completed in 1953, the monument became in turn an important place of commemoration for the Serbs, attracting an average of 100,000 people for the festival of Vidovdan.

Gazimestan's speech. On June 28, 1989, on the six hundredth anniversary of the battle and in the midst of rising nationalism, a million people gathered here to hear the new Serbian president Slobodan Milošević. In a long speech with a patriotic tone, some sentences appeared a posteriori as forerunners of the wars that would shake Yugoslavia: "I promise you that new battles await the Serbs", but also "I guarantee the right of the Serbs to live together in a single state".

Since 1998. The monument was relatively spared by Albanian nationalists during the Kosovo war (1998-1999). Guarded by NATO soldiers until 2010, it is since that date under the responsibility of the Kosovar police. Rallies and open-air masses continue to be held there every June 28, as in 2014, with an appeasement speech held by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić.

Visit

Once past the security checkpoint, continue on foot for 40 m to the monument designed by Aleksandar Deroko.

Architecture. A stone ramp leads up to a median, itself paved with stones and composed of two intertwined squares forming an eight-pointed star, with one of the points obscured by the ramp. In the center of the median, a stone tower inspired by the medieval dungeons rises to a height of 25 meters. It is surrounded by six bevelled concrete cylinders.

Inscription. In a niche at the foot of the tower is inscribed in Serbian (Cyrillic) the poem The Curse of Kosovo: "Whoever is Serbian and of Serbian birth / And of Serbian blood and culture / Without coming to the battle of Kosovo / May he never get the offspring his heart desires / Neither son nor daughter / May nothing grow from what his hand sows / Neither dark wine nor white wheat / And may he be cursed from century to century!" While tradition attributes this text to the Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanović, who died at the battle of Kosovo Polje (here called the "Battle of Kosovo"), this nationalist version was written in the 19th century.

Panoramic platform. The top of the tower can be reached by an internal staircase of about 100 steps. One then dominates the plain of about 75 m in height. But the view is not thrilling and the horizon is mostly blocked by grey smoke. A bronze plaque indicating the course of the battle is placed in the direction of the supposed place of the confrontation, today occupied by the cooling tower of the very polluting power plant "Kosovo B".

Next to the monument. In the enclosure surrounded by wire mesh, there is a reproduction of the column erected in 1402 by Stefan Lazarević. It is located to the west, on the grass and behind the trees. The text engraved on the white marble is the famous Kosovo Pillar Inscription (Natpis na Kosovskom stubu) narrating the battle of 1389. This is considered to be one of the earliest texts in Serbian literature.