Mausoleum of Njegoš

Franz Joseph on Mount Lovćen. Not wishing for a monument to the Austrian Emperor to be located on the same perch as a symbol of South Slavic national feeling, Austro-Hungarian authorities demanded that Njegoš's remains be moved back to Cetinje. The Montenegrins had little choice in the matter and the remains were removed under the supervision of Serbian Orthodox clergy so that the Austro-Hungarians would not be accused of desecration. By the end of the war, Njegoš's chapel was severely damaged. Local authorities negotiated with the Yugoslav government for years over the question of where, when and at whose expense Njegoš was to be buried. Montenegrin officials favoured restoring the original chapel, while the authorities in Belgrade opened a competition over the designs of a planned mausoleum. Some of the plans differed greatly from the original Byzantinesque building. Due to lack of funds, plans for a mausoleum were discarded by 1925 and the original church building was reconstructed. In September 1925, in the course of a three-day ceremony sponsored and attended by Yugoslavia's King Alexander and Queen Maria, the chapel was rededicated and Njegoš's remains were reburied. Historian Andrew B. Wachtel writes: "The tone of the event, which was described extensively in the Yugoslav press, bordered on a piety more appropriate for the treatment of a saint than a writer."^[2]

Second World War, Yugoslavia came under communist rule. In 1952, Yugoslavia's communist authorities decided to replace Njegoš's chapel with a secular mausoleum designed by Ivan Meštrović. Wachtel suggests that this was done to "de-Serbianize" Njegoš and eliminate any trace of the chapel's Byzantine design. In the late 1960s the chapel was demolished, and a mausoleum was constructed by 1971. Njegoš's remains were transferred back to Mount Lovćen in 1974, and the mausoleum was officially inaugurated that year.^[3]