Perhaps the most curiosity-inducing relic of Yugoslavia (1918-2006) comes as a series of larger-than-life Brutalist monuments, or “spomenik,” as they are known in Serbian. Inherently more Star Wars than Cold War, the concrete structures dot the southeastern European countryside (in what is today Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia), memorializing the World War II concentration camps and battles that ravaged the region. Commissioned by Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito and devised by the state’s most notable architects and designers, the monuments rose in a fervor for two decades following 1960, echoing the era’s love affair with Brutalist architectural styles. A surge of tourism in the 1980s brought the quirky structures onto a global stage until the Yugoslav wars began in 1992. Fascinated by these concrete wonders, French photographer Jonk recently completed a 3,000-mile-long pilgrimage through the Balkins to photograph the monuments, which have, for the most part, been abandoned and left for decay in the years following the Yugoslav split.
Podgora, Croatia
Built in 1967 and designed by Dušan Džamonja, the Monument to the Revolution memorializes the lives lost in the coastal Croatian region of Moslavina during World War II.
Kosmaj, Serbia
Conceived by an unknown artist in 1970, the Kosmaj monument is comprised of six separate concrete volumes and commemorates a battle south of Belgrade in which 5,000 lives were lost.
Jasenovac, Croatia
Designed in 1966 by Serbian architect Bogdan Bogdanović, the Monument to the Victims of Ustase honors the many lives taken by the Croatian terrorist organization of that name.
Nis, Serbia
Designed by Croatian sculptor Ivan Sabolić in 1963, the three clenched-fists that comprise this sculpture honor to the 10,000 lives lost in the area during World War II.