Ossuary

The plan of the building was formulated by the architect Edo Ravnikar (Plečnik's student) as his first major work, which was selected in a tender. The building was constructed north-east of the oldest section (A) of the Žale Cemetery. Amidst the military graves there had already been the Statue of an Unknown Soldier (by Peruzzi and Dolinar), dedicated to the victims of World War I. The cylindrical ossuary was opened at a ceremony in December 1939. The remains of 5,258 victims of World War I and war-related conflicts were moved there. It is here that lie the remains of the members of Austro-Hungarian army, Serbian, Russian and Romanian war prisoners, Judenburg rebels, the Koroška fighters, the Preporodovci, etc. On 28 September 1985, the Decree on Declaring Revolutionary Movement and National Liberation War Monuments as Historical Monuments, Official Gazette of the SRS, no. 31/85-1340 declared the Ossuary a historical-cultural monument.