Zdenko Sila and his monument at Matić Poljana in Croatia

english

2026

volume 31, issue 1

ZRC SAZU, Umetnostnozgodovinski inštitut Franceta Steleta
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

This article examines the monument at Matić Poljana (the Matić Meadow) in Gorski Kotar, Croatia, designed by the architect Zdenko Sila and dedicated in 1969 as one of socialist Yugoslavia’s most distinctive examples of memorial culture. Tracing Sila’s formal development from early collaborations with Zdenko Kolacio through decades of work with raw, minimally worked stone, and situating it within the traditions of the Slovenian znamenje, a postwar self--built memorial practice theorized by Marjan Tepina and Edvard Ravnikar, and the broader European trajectory, this article argues that Sila’s key contribution was the replacement of monumental centrality with a memorial flow. By setting the visitor in motion through a sequence of nearly identical objects, and by having the protected zone defined in 1976 as the full three kilometres of trail rather than the monument alone, Sila transformed walking itself into an act of commemoration, advancing the thesis that movement is the essential human act in the experience of space.

01.09.2026