PERCHED by the glistening waters of Croatia sit the sinister-looking ruins of a luxury hotel complex that was once bustling with tourists.
But the resort now provides an eerie backdrop for sunbathers and even films as its bullet-riddled walls crumble and hold nothing more than debris and graffiti.
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Scarred by Croatia’s war history, the ghostly complex is in Kupari village – just a stone’s throw from Dubrovnik’s busy beaches.
But as well as being gawped at by tourists, the ruins have been used for filming of the upcoming biopic Lee, about renowned World War 2 Vogue journalist Lee Miller.
According to local reports, it was one of several locations in Croatia Kate Winslet and Jude Law shot scenes last September.
With the Grand Hotel as its crowning jewel, the site features several other hotels – Pelegrin, Goricine I, Goricine II, Kupari and Galeb – able to accommodate thousands of guests.
The Grand Hotel flung its doors open in 1919 after a forward-thinking Czech investor realised the area’s tourism potential.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, several other hotels popped around it – largely bankrolled by the military.
It then became a huge draw for the Yugoslav military elite and their families – and Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito even had his private villa there.
Spots at the hotel became harder and harder for normal holidaymakers to snap up – with rooms often prioritised for those with military connections.
But when the Balkans conflict kicked off in the 1990s, the Yugoslav People’s Army dramatically bombed their own precious holiday project in a bid to push out the Croatian soldiers.
They then badly vandalised the once-plush hotels, igniting phosphorous bombs and looting the rooms.
Following the destruction, Croatia’s army used the complex as a base before it was abandoned for good as the new millennium dawned.
The few remaining relics were then stripped out by locals, and the site has stood empty ever since and never returned to its former glory.
Once a revolving door for high-ranking officers, its only visitors now are curious explorers.
But there remains hope for the stagnating site as it sits on prime tourism turf, with many investors and developers understood to be eager to snap up the plot.
In recent months, it has been reported a contract has been signed by Kupari Luxury Hotels to renovate the site, now nicknamed the “bay of abandoned hotels”.
It is understood the Grand Hotel would be kept as the centrepiece, but the other hotels demolished to make way for new constructions.
Minister of State Property, Branko Bacic, told Poslovni: “According to the plan of the District of Dubrovnik, a period of 12 months is prescribed during which the investor is obliged to obtain a valid building permit, and within a further period of four years to realise the project.”
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