Tall Stories 440: Motel Plitvice, Zagreb

传奇故事 440:普利特维采汽车旅馆,萨格勒布

The Urbanist

艺术

2025-01-07

7 分钟
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单集简介 ...

Guy de Launey reviews an icon of Yugoslav architecture in a motorway service station just outside Zagreb. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  • Foreign.

  • Motel was a roadside landmark in Croatia for 40 years.

  • Its distinctive pedestrian skyway above the country's main motorway was matched by equally distinctive architecture and interiors.

  • But it all came crashing down in August 2024, after years of unpaid rent led to the arrival of the wrecking ball.

  • You're listening to Tour Stories, a Monocle production brought to you by the team behind the Urbanist.

  • I'm Andrew Tuck.

  • In this episode, Monocle's man in the Balkans, Guy Delaunay, pays tribute to a Yugoslav icon.

  • The Plitvice Motel had been a survivor of a certain kind of output fixture that's in danger of going the same way as Little Chef.

  • What used to be known as Yugoslavia's highway of brotherhood and unity is littered with the skeletons of facilities that outlived their purpose.

  • Now the Plitvice Motel is not even that demolished at the end of August.

  • Along with all its distinctive Yugoslav architecture and interior features, this was a bit of a head scratcher for all of us who've endured the long drag between Croatia's border with Slovenia and and its frontier with Serbia.

  • The plains of Slavonia stretch out interminably Pancake Flat, with the road straight as an arrow.

  • With boredom and fatigue the greatest dangers to the driver, you'd think that roadside accommodation would do a roaring trade.

  • But the derelict motels and restaurants testify to the fact that lorry drivers now prefer to sleep and even cook in their cabs.

  • And modern cars are perfectly happy to purr away at the speed limit of 130km h.

  • So it seems most drivers are happy to just blast on through without an overnight stop.

  • All this and possibly some other factors which we'll come to combine to spell doom for the Plitvice Motel.

  • Despite its name, it was nowhere near the World Heritage Listed lakes.

  • But it was commissioned by the organisation which runs the Plitvice national park and proudly displayed the name in friendly orange lowercase letters on its distinctive pedestrian skyway.

  • This feature linked the two parts of the facility either side of the highway.