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Alien to their surroundings, like spaceships conspicuously parked up in the middle of nowhere, their bizarre beauty derives from both their abstract location and imaginative symbolism.

Spomenik. In the language of the former Yugoslavia this word means monument, or memorial.

These monuments or memorials commemorate the Second World War, but before talking about them, a brief historical reminder is in order.

Follow in the footsteps of French photographer Jonathan ‘Jonk’ Jimenez as he tries to track down these super-sized public structures. Once numbering in their thousands and attracting millions of visitors every year, they were revered by the young pioneers as part of their ‘patriotic education’.

Pushing architecture to its limits, Spomeniks are what happens when brutalism, symbolism, space age aesthetics and abstraction meet on the top of a hill.