Memorial

Memorial Cemetery of Vukovar

Vukovar · Slavonia & Baranja

SCROLL

CATEGORY: Memorial
COUNTRY: Croatia
REGION: Vukovar · Slavonia & Baranja
DURATION: 1 day

ABOUT THIS ATTRACTION

The Memorial Cemetery is Vukovar’s sacred ground: 938 white marble crosses stand in rows over the grave where the victims of the 1991 fall of the city were buried and later exhumed and identified — one cross for each victim. More than thirty years on, the cemetery draws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, and every 18 November the whole country comes to walk its rows.

HISTORY & BACKGROUND

The story behind it

After the city fell on 18 November 1991, hundreds of its defenders and civilians were taken to farms at Ovčara outside town and killed; their bodies were buried in a mass grave at the New Cemetery. From 1996 the grave was exhumed — 938 bodies were recovered and identified — and the cemetery was arranged as a memorial with one white cross per victim, dedicated in 2000. The Ovčara site itself, 5 kilometres south, holds the memorial of the massacre.

WHAT TO SEE

What to see here

The rows of white crosses — one per identified victim.

The central memorial and the wall of names.

The Ovčara memorial site (5 km south) — visited with respect.

GOOD TO KNOW

Facts & Curiosities

938 white marble crosses stand over the mass grave — one for each victim exhumed and identified.

The victims were killed at Ovčara farm on 20 November 1991, after the city fell on 18 November.

The memorial was dedicated in 2000; every 18 November (Vukovar Remembrance Day) tens of thousands walk the white rows.

The Ovčara memorial site, 5 km south of town, marks the hangar where the victims were held and killed.

WHY IT MATTERS

Why it matters

It is the most moving memorial in Croatia — the place where the cost of 1991 is counted in white marble.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Before you go

Access

At the northern edge of town; open daily, free. Ovčara is signposted 5 km south.

Best Time

Any time of year; 18 November is the national remembrance day.

Pairing

With the water tower and the Eltz manor — the Vukovar day.

THROUGH THE LENS

From the road

MAP & LOCATION