The Mausoleum of Yugoslav Soldiers ( cs, Mauzoleum jugoslávských vojínů or also ''Jihoslovanské mauzoleum'') is a neoclassical

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

with an

ossuary An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the ...

containing remains of soldiers from what later became

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

killed in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It was built in 1926 in Bezruč Park in

Olomouc Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, Olomucium or ''Iuliomontium'') is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 99,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019). Located on t ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

(now the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

) by the Czechoslovak-Yugoslav League. The designer of the chapel was

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Hubert Aust. The mausoleum was owned by

until its breakup. It was in bad shape for long time. Its

renovation Renovation (also called remodeling) is the process of improving broken, damaged, or outdated structures. Renovations are typically done on either commercial or residential buildings. Additionally, renovation can refer to making something new, ...

was prevented because of unclear

property rights The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership) is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely and is typically h ...

. The chapel was reconstructed in 2016–2020. The mausoleum is now owned by the city of Olomouc. (A Czech court took it away from Yugoslavia. The reason was that the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had ceased to exist, and none of the former Yugoslav countries wanted to look after it.) Another, larger Mausoleum of Yugoslav Soldiers in the Czech Republic is in Jindřichovice (near Karlovy Vary). There are 7,378 bodies interred there.

Description

The chapel is 11 metres high, topped with a dome. A two-branch staircase leads to the chapel entrance behind 12 Doric columns standing in three rows. An epigraph on the chapel reads: ''VĚRNOST ZA VĚRNOST – LJUBAV ZA LJUBAV''. (The first part is in

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

and means 'loyalty for loyalty', the second part is in

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

and means 'love for love'.) The building stands on an artificial

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher ...

, inside which is the ossuary. The entrance to the ossuary is a

portal Portal often refers to: * Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel Portal may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...

with a

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

of a mourning woman and

national emblem A national emblem is an emblem or seal that is reserved for use by a nation state or multi-national state as a symbol of that nation. Many nations have a seal or emblem in addition to a national flag A national flag is a flag that represents ...

s of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. It contains the remains of more than 1,100 Yugoslav soldiers who died in Olomouc military hospitals. Image:Mauzoleum1.JPG, Mausoleum of Yugoslav Soldiers in Olomouc Image:Mauzoleum2.JPG, Damaged sandstone relief above the portal to the ossuary Image:Mauzoleum interier.JPG, Interior of the chapel with remains of frescoes

Body remains

Body remains (bones) are stored in quite small coffins (boxes). The reason is that at the time the mausoleum was built (1928) the body remains were already buried in various cemeteries across Moravia and Silesia. The body remains of individual soldiers (but not their original coffins) were taken from their original burial place and moved to the mausoleum (and put in a small box). 37 of them were Serbian prisoners of war. (During the war, Moravia was part of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, which fought against Serbia.) The rest of the bodies were those of Austrian-Hungarian soldiers who were ethnically Serbs, Slovenes or Croats. (Slovenia, Bosnia and Croatia were part of Austria-Hungary, and later became part of the

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

, which subsequently became Yugoslavia.) A few of the body remains are of ethnic Czechs (Croatian Czechs).

Condition and plans of renovation

The mausoleum is in a bad condition due to both natural effects and

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term ...

, and therefore it is not open to the public. The stairs and electrical wiring are in the greatest disrepair. Frescoes of saints painted in the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

style are also partly damaged. The entrance to the ossuary used to be closed with a grille and a wooden door, but these were destroyed by vandals who also destroyed several wooden coffins and stole some skulls and other bones. As a result, the portal was walled up in 1990. Thanks to this, the ossuary was saved from the

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

which struck Olomouc in 1997. The entrance was reopened in 1998 to assess the range of necessary repairs and to stop the spread of mould, and was then walled up again. The first attempt at renovation was begun with negotiations with its official owner, the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

, at the beginning of the 1990s, but in 1992 Yugoslavia disintegrated and the negotiations stopped. In 2006 an agreement was made with the

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

as one of the

successor states Succession of states is a concept in international relations regarding a successor state that has become a sovereign state over a territory (and populace) that was previously under the sovereignty of another state. The theory has its roots in 19th- ...

. It was expected that repairs would cost 12.5 million Czech crowns, with the money coming from the city of Olomouc, European Structural Funds and the

Ministry of Culture. However, the project was suspended by the end of the year because the problems with property rights made the request for the European funding impossible.

References

{{coord, 49.594681, N, 17.256686, E, display=title, region:CZ_type:landmark_source:cswiki Monuments and memorials in the Czech Republic Christian buildings and structures Mausoleums in the Czech Republic Buildings and structures in Olomouc World War I memorials Buildings and structures completed in 1926 Neoclassical architecture Military of Yugoslavia Czechoslovakia–Yugoslavia relations 1926 establishments in Czechoslovakia