From concentration camp to luxury hotel: Last look at Mamula Island as an antifascist history museum

Those who have not visited and seen the Mamula Fortress as a monument of history and culture will never again have a chance to do it. Due to construction works on a luxury hotel complex that will replace it, the island is closed for visits

The video shows the exterior and interior of the Mamula Fortress several months before it was completely closed to the public.

The estimated value of the investment is 15 million euros, while the president of the company responsible for the reconstruction, Samih Sawiris, says that this figure is likely to be exceeded, but also that the investment will pay off many times over.

On the other hand, Montenegro is maximally protected because the government can at any time terminate the contract with the Swiss company and take over the newly built complex for free.

The construction plans state that the fortress will be completely renovated while respecting its historical heritage, and will be transformed into a luxury hotel with rooms, restaurants, terraces and a spa.

Although the fortress occupies almost the entire surface of the island, there will be space to build a marina as well as a private beach with a water sports center.

The families of the victims but also those who managed to survive the Golgotha of "Campo di Mamula" concentration camp are by no means happy about the turning of the former prison into a luxury hotel reserved for the rich.

To them, it's completely unacceptable to have tourists swim and get massages in a place where our people were tortured and killed.

It is for these reasons that investors will not be allowed to damage the original appearance of the fortress or remove inscriptions reminding of the atrocities committed on Mamula.

During World War II, the Italians turned the fortress into a concentration camp, in which a total of 2,300 people were imprisoned, 130 of whom were killed.

(J.Milivojevic/Telegraf TV)