Politička Škola Josip Broz Tito
THE ABANDONED SCHOOL IN CROATIA
This Croatian ‘Politička Škola Josip Broz Tito’ is close to the border with Slovenia. It is a giant, modernist building where Yugoslav politicians once studied socialist theory. After 2003 the school is neglected and decrepit.
Josip Broz Tito
Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito was born in Kumrovec. This Political School, in the same town, was founded by and named after him. The school was built in 1975 as the central educational institution for the staff of the Communist Union of Yugoslavia. Tito himself never got to see the finished building, as it wasn’t completed and officially opened until 1981, the year following his death. The school has 145 rooms, including function rooms, gyms, a cinema, a library, a restaurant, and a bar. The modernist building is appreciated by many architects and lovers of brutalist architecture.
Refugees
It was used for political education until 1990, when the Communism collapsed. The last president of the Political School was Ivica Račan, who in 2000 became Croatian prime minister. After 1990, the school was first taken over by the Ministry of the Interior and then by the Ministry of Defense for the training of members of the Croatian Army. From 1990 until 2003 it was home to refugees of the Balkan wars.
During my visit in 2018, ‘Politička Škola Josip Broz Tito’ was in a very bad condition, with most parts of the copper roof either removed or stolen. The building was sold in 2019.
