Vraca Memorial Park, Memorial complex in Novo Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Vraca Memorial Park is a memorial complex around an Austro-Hungarian fortress on the northern slopes of Trebević, above the Sarajevo neighborhoods of Grbavica and Kovačić. Its elements include an entrance plaza, a execution-site marker, the sculpture Monument to the Woman Fighter, a viewpoint, an eternal flame with a fountain, a ceremonial plaza, and several memorials with a ossuary. The fortress houses the exhibition "Testimony of the Struggle."
The site was originally built as an Austro-Hungarian fortress around 1898. During World War II it became a place of execution, where thousands of people from the Sarajevo area were killed.
The names carved into the stone walls represent people from across the Sarajevo region, adults and children alike. The way the site is tended shows that it remains a living place of memory for local families.
The park is best visited on foot, as marked paths guide visitors through the grounds and help with orientation. The terrain can be uneven and the mountain setting means weather may shift, so sturdy footwear is a good idea.
The fortress on the site was built by Austria-Hungary in 1898 and marked on its military maps as VRATCA, meaning "small doors". The memorial park opened on 25 November 1981, Bosnia and Herzegovina's Statehood Day, and the fortress itself was given over to a museum exhibition titled "Testimony of the Struggle".
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