May 5, 2018 - The bridge on the river Tara called the Đurđevića Tara Bridge is one of the many tourist attractions in northern Montenegro. The bridge was built a long time ago, somewhere between 1937 and 1940, when Montenegro was still a part of Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As one of the oldest bridges in the country, Montenegrins worship the Đurđevića Tara Bridge and consider it one of the symbols of the nation.
Mijat Trojanović designed the bridge as an arch bridge, and its length is 365 m. It has five arches, with the longest span of 116 m. The distance from the surface of the water to the bridge is 170 m.
During World War II, the bridge was severely damaged, and it was in desperate need of reconstruction. In the mentioned period, a raiding party blew up the central arch of the bridge. The events that include the raiding of the bridge and the death of one of the bridge’s engineers, Lazar Jauković, were depicted in the 1969 Yugoslav film called Most (Eng. The Bridge). In 1946, the bridge was fully reconstructed, and it regained its glory.
The Đurđevića Tara Bridge was used in the 1978 British action film called “Force 10 from Navarone”, which is also set during World War II. The strong connection of the bridge with World War II doesn’t end there, since the bridge is also mentioned in the Dutch novel 'Het land achter Gods rug' by A. den Doolaard (1956), which is partly based on the true story of the bridge including its destruction by partisans then.
The Traffic Directorate has examined the bridge and determined that it is in reasonably good condition and that all visitors can cross the bridge on foot and by car. Even so, they agree with the locals that the bridge deserves “special attention”. The plans for total reconstruction started during 2017, and the Chinese Government will donate the funds for the future reconstruction.
The Conclusions from the meeting on field research for the preparation of the Feasibility Study of the donor project for reconstructing the Đurđevića Tara Bridge have been signed by the Minister of Transport and Marine Affairs, Osman Nurković and the director of the Department of International Assistance of the Ministry of Trade of the People's Republic of China on 10th of May, 2017. In the past year, Montenegrin and Chinese teams have agreed on plans for the implementation of the project, specific requests and proposals. The survey of the project area was conducted by the Chinese, during which they also determined the state of the bridge in 2017. According to that Agreement, on October 20th, 2017, the two parties exchanged letters of intent, which defined obligations in connection with the elaboration of a feasibility study of the project.
The company CCCC submitted a feasibility study to the Ministry of Trade of China for inspection and approval at the end of February 2018. The feasibility study of the Đurđevića Tara Bridge is expected to be verified by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce at the latest by the end of May or the beginning of June.
The company CCCC has released the following information: "The traffic and technical requirements for the Project documents, as well as the Opinion on the need for the implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment Procedure and the Recommendation of the Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Property have all been issued so that all works are planned in a manner that does not impair the recognized cultural values of the bridge”.
The Chinese Government has determined that the cost of the reconstruction according to the elaboration of a feasibility study of the project is 940,000 yuan, but since the Montenegrin Cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policy and Financial System expressed the opinion that that amount of funds will not be sufficient for the implementation of the project, the Chinese side proposed to award additional grants of 20 million yuan to the project.
Both parties included in the project expect that the reconstruction project will increase the friendship of the two countries.
