The construction of the enigma. Dusan Damonja and the Barletta’s Ossuary of the Fallen Slavs

Abstract

The proposed essay investigates the architecture of the Ossuary of the Slavs in Barletta (1968-70), focusing on the work of the Croatian sculptor Dušan Džamonja and setting it in the Yugoslavian spomenik tradition. Structured according to peremptory principles and shaped into dynamic and rhythmically articulated masses, this commemorative architecture is able to offer the necessary quiet for contemplation without renouncing the pathos that is typical of commemoration. The essay describes, on the one hand, the founding value assumed by the relationship with the landscape, and on the other, the intense dialogue between architecture and sculpture that animates the plastic composition of this work. The aim is to get closer to understanding the sense of a monument conceived in the form of an enigma.

Keywords

• dušan džamonja
• spomenik
• architettura e scultura