VILLA GORICA

A derelict three-story concrete shell in a clearing: that is all that remains today of Villa Gorica, the most famous building in Bugojno. It was Tito's (1892-1980) favorite residence among the thirty-four villas he owned throughout Yugoslavia. Built in 1974 as a hunting lodge for the president of socialist Yugoslavia, it was designed by the Bosnian architect Zlatko Ugljen (born in 1929), who is responsible for the White Mosque in Visoko (1980) and the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul in Tuzla (1989). But the villa was destroyed thirteen years after the death of Tito, during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina: the troops of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) blew up the explosives they had stored there during their retreat against the Bosnian army, at the end of the battle of Bugojno, July 29, 1993. Since then, despite several rehabilitation projects, the Gorica villa remains open to all winds, covered with graffiti and sometimes used as a shelter for the herds of shepherds.

Bear hunting and sale of weapons. From now on, one has to be content with imagining the luxury of this hunting lodge with the appearance of a large chalet: balconies in each room, an elevator, electric sliding doors, an underground swimming pool... Nothing was too good for Tito who adored this region he discovered during his war years, when he was hiding in the great forest of Koprivnica, between Bugojno and Kupres. In 1968, he built the "Kupres villa" between the two towns, which was also destroyed in 1993. But the altitude of the villa did not suit him. So a new residence was built in Bugojno, here, in the clearing of the small forest of Gorica. From then on, from 1974 on, the Yugoslav leader spent most of his "vacations" here: 165 days in the space of six years, divided into 17 stays. Tito did not come here only to bask or to kill bears and pheasants. He also worked here and enjoyed receiving friends and heads of state. Thus, in 1973, Muammar Gaddafi (1942-2011) could attend the construction of the villa and walk through the streets of Bugojno between two phases of negotiations for the sale of Yugoslav arms to Libya. These "golden years" remain engraved in the memory of the old inhabitants of the city. Many people remember the still shiny interior of the Gorica villa between 1984 and 1990, when it was transformed into the museum "Tito in our region".