Tito, a brutal war of resistance
Kupari was once an exclusive holiday resort frequented by thousands of Yugoslavia’s military elite and their families in its heyday. Its five extravagant hotels had enough room for some 2000 guests at a time and a nearby campsite could hold over 4000 more.
The holiday village first opened to tourists in 1919, when a Czech investor built the Grand Hotel on the shoreline. Back then, Croatia was a part of the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia. But in 1960, Josip Broz Tito, the country’s former supreme military commander and president, decided that Kupari was the perfect place to send army officers on holiday. The remaining hotels and resort area were built over the next two decades.
However, when the Croatian War of Independence broke out in 1991, the Yugoslav People’s Army destroyed the historic city.
Almost all of the valuables from the five hotels were looted and then phosphorous bombs were used to systematically burn the hotels, floor by floor.
The skeletons of this once opulent seaside resort town are now left as a ghostly reminder of a tragic past.
