Interpretation of Monuments and Urban Settings of Vukovar – Shaping Identity and Memory of the City after the Croatian War of Independence

Vukovar, grad duge povijesti, tijekom Domovinskog rata doživio je najveća razaranja među urbanim cjelinama Hrvatske. Zbog ljudskih žrtava, razaranja njegove građevne strukture i otpora koji je pružao tijekom opsade postao je nacionalnim simbolom stradanja u ratu, što uvelike određuje njegov identitet i poratnu obnovu. Slični razmjeri stradanja i obnova urbanih struktura poznati su nam iz vremena nakon Drugog svjetskog rata, u radu prikazani na primjeru Varšave i Zadra. Prostor Vukovara prošao je kroz tri resimbolizacije u drugoj polovici 20. stoljeća, tijekom kojih se mijenjaju njegovi identiteti, te su u njemu utvrđene, nakon Domovinskog rata, dvije simboličke zajednice sjećanja s obzirom na etničku pripadnost njegovih stanovnika. Poratna obnova odvija se od 1998. godine, a rad se usredotočuje na interpretaciju spomenika, među kojima su dvorac Eltz, Radnički dom i Vodotoranj; urbanog ambijenta, koji se odnosi na baroknu povijesnu jezgru grada, i suvremene interpolacije, poslovno-stambene zgrade Blok 21A, koji sudjeluju u izgradnji identiteta grada ustanovljenoga nakon rata.Vukovar, a city with a long history, suffered the greatest devastation among the urban units of Croatia during the Croatian War of Independence. Due to the human casualties, the destruction of its buildings and the resistance it exerted during the siege, it became a national symbol of the war sufferings, which largely determines its identity and post-war reconstruction. Similar proportions of suffering and reconstruction of urban structures are known to us from the time of the Second World War, presented in the paper through the examples of Warsaw and Zadar. The area of Vukovar underwent three resimbolizations in the second half of the 20th century, during which its identities changed, and after the Homeland War two symbolic communities of memory with regard to the ethnicity of its inhabitants were established. The post-war restoration has been going on since 1998, and the work focuses on the interpretation of the monuments, including the Eltz Castle, The Workers' House and The Water Tower, the urban setting, which refers to the city's baroque historic centre, and contemporary interpolations, the Block 21A office and residential buildings, which take part in the creation of the post-war identity of the city