Storks still return each year to Vukovar to nest
On the banks of the Danube in Croatia is the beautiful town of Vukovar. Walking its streets today you come across a number of odd structures that seem to have suffered a calamity. A riverside hotel, the towns water tower, a church and the building pictured above. If you talk to locals and do some research you will find that they are memorials to war crimes.
In 1991 the Yugoslav People’s Army, with the Serb Territorial Defense forces and paramilitaries from Serbia, launched a full-blown attack with a siege on Vukovar in eastern Croatia. It started on August 25th with thousands of artillery shells raining down on the tiny town. The siege would last for 86 days and leave around 3,000 soldiers and civilians dead and more wounded before the town’s defenders had to surrender. What followed became a mass murder of many of the survivors. Later a U.N. war crimes tribunal was empaneled to try Yugoslav officers for criminal responsibility in the 1991 massacre of non-Serbs in the Croatian town with several being convicted.
A Memorial To A Siege And War Crimes
Bećarski križ (Reveller’s Cross)
The oldest and largest public crucifix in Vukovar gave name to the Old City that was centered on the Reveller’s Cross. The crucifix was originally erected in 1805 and was the first public crucifix in the city sculpted in stone. The Reveller’s Cross was demolished in 1996 by artillery during the seige of Vukovar. After the war the Reveller’s Cross was replaced with an accurate recreation of the original.
The Intentional Travelers 