Competition: Brskov fortress recreation, Montenegro

The competition seeks conceptual proposals for a landmark new visitor centre and ‘pseudo-historical’ castle recreation on a prominent hilltop site located around 4km west of the remote abandoned former fortress and silver mines of Brskov.

The project – backed by the Municipality of Mojkovac – will transform a large riverside site on the outskirts of the nearby town of Mojkovac into a new ‘architectural reinterpretation of the old fortification and mining settlement’ along with a complex dedicated to culture, science and tourism.

According to the brief: ‘The goal of creating the conceptual architectural solution in question is to improve the urban identity of Mojkovac. The currently undeveloped, sprawling and unkempt space on the outskirts of the city needs a new identity.

‘It is planned to carry out the spatial and technical elaboration of the optimal variant of the reinterpretation of the fortifications in Brskov and the mining settlement with all the known elements of the old settlement at the new location, in a specific scope, whereby the methods of arranging the space would be proposed, the forms and materialization would be determined based on the available historical data.

‘The goal is also the construction and arrangement of a cultural and scientific complex with demonstrative, animating and entertainment content in the context of a tourist promotion centre.'

Brskov has been an important focus of mining since medieval times but the remote hilltop village is poorly served by transport infrastructure and the site of its former fortress and mines are difficult to access.

The latest project aims to create a historically inspired recreation of the former fortress and mining settlement on a prominent site close to a major road on the outskirts of nearby Mojkovac.