The monument is located in a city square in front of a historic church.

A human sized bronze woman holding a sword skyward.  The bronze statue is mounted on a marble pedestal with several brass reliefs on the pedestal sides.

The “Lovćenska vila" monument remembers the Montenegrin-Americans (and from other Balkan countries) who perished in the sinking of the Ship “Brindisi” on January 6, 1916 after it hit a mine of the coast of Albania at Shëngjin. 

Montenegro fought on the Allied side during the First World War.  During the war, many Montenegrin-Americans returned to Montenegro to fight for their country of origin.  500 Montenegrins (also some Herzegovinians, Serbs, Bosnians) departed from Halifax, Canada carrying a Montenegrin flag reading “Fighting for their People”. They arrived in Naples, Italy and on Christmas Day, 1915, they boarded the ship “Brindisi” and with Italian naval escorts departed for their former homeland.  On January 6, 1916 the boat hit a mine (laid by German Sub UC-14) and sank.  Of the 500, it is estimated that 328 people perished in the sinking.

In 1939 Yugoslavia remembered this incident by erecting the “Lovćenska vila" monument designed and created by the Belgrade sculptor Risto Stijović (1912-1974). The monument faces the Montenegrin World War 1 battlefield of Mount Lovćen.  Most of the dead from the Brindisi were buried in Montenegro’s “Blue Tomb” World War 1 national tomb.

The monument was built by Yugoslavia with assistance of Montenegrin-Americans.

In 2016 Montenegro issues a commemorative stamp on the 100^th anniversary of the ship sinking.  The Postal Service comments:

The shipwreck of Montenegrin volunteers travelling from America on the Italian steamer Brindisi, on Christmas Eve, 6 January 1916, is the largest mass tragedy in the history of Montenegrin emigrants. On board Brindisi, in front of the Albanian port of Medua (San Giovanni di Medua or Shëngjin), when the ship encountered a mine placed by the Allied forces, there were 540 volunteers from North America who wanted to help Montenegro’s defence against the enemy. The tragedy ended in death of 386 volunteers, while 145 volunteers were rescued. A monument to the unfortunate fallen volunteers, the work of the famous artist Risto Stijović, was erected in Cetinje in 1939, and was officially unveiled and consecrated a year later. The monument was named the Fairy of Lovćen (Lovćenska vila). The Montenegro Post is publishing a commemorative postage stamp and a First Day envelope within the edition “100th Anniversary of the Medua Tragedy”.

Special thanks to Donald Niebyl and his fantastic “Spomenik Database" for help with this memorial for for the use of his photos. See his website at: https://www.spomenikdatabase.org

 Three sides of the marble base have brass relief images including: the Ship Brindisi; the sinking of the ship; and of Montenegrin Army fighting the Austro-Hungarian enemy.

The forth side has an inscription in Serbian.  The translation in English reads:

TO  THE VOLUNTEERS OF THE SHIP SUNK NEAR  MEDOVO

ERECTED  BY

YUGOSLAVS FROM AMERICA AND CANADA

1939