VitrA Çağdaş Mimarlık Dizisi - Arkitera

One of the most important tourism centers and a significant example of modern architecture,
Hotel Libertas was abandoned as a ruin for fourteen years after its war-time
destruction. The building, worn down by the harsh climatic conditions, has been totally
renovated, preserving only the structural system. The facility has acquired new functions
like a spa and a coastal arrangement located in the annex constructed at the
coast levels. In addition to the original middle block, the levels added to the upper
section have increased the number of guest rooms and halls. Since the renovation, the
hotel houses 315 guest rooms with a bed capacity of 625, three restaurants, a spa and
health center, leisure units and meeting and conference halls.
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Located in the Gorica Svetog Vlaha district one kilometer away from the historical city
of Dubrovnik, one of the most popular touristic cities of Croatia; Hotel Libertas constructed
within a bay surrounded by steep rocks has been designed by the famous
Croatian architect Andrije Cicin-Sain and his partner Zarka Vinceka, as the consequence
of a limited architectural competition dated 1968 where six teams were invited.
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Together with the functional mass housing blocks realised by the cheap labor of the
early socialist period, the successful examples of tourism architecture built at the Adriatic
Coast during the 1960s as most significant products of post-war architecture constitute
the architectural wealth of former Yugoslavia. With its structure that spreads out
on the steep slope like a cascading amphitheater, this 400 bed modernist hotel building
clearly reflects the purist and functionalist approach of the period. Cicin-Sain’s matured
search for clarity, boldness and the strenght of his architectural statement contribute to
the avant-garde and futurist spirit of his work. Following the natural topography of the
sloped site and the coastline with its cascaded form and horizontal lines of reinforced
concrete terraces, the hotel block successfully blends with the natural formation of the
Dalmatian coast with its green terraces that cascade and flow from the upper levels to
the lower levels.
The hotel opened in 1974 has stayed in service until the Yugoslavian Civil War in 1991,
and has been vastly destroyed during the war, leaving the building as an abandoned
wreck from the declaration of independence in Croatia until the sale of the building in
2002. Following its purchase by the Rixos hotel chain in 2004, the renovation process
has been initiated, with the construction of additional storeys above the entrance section,
the addition of a transparent vertical circulation shaft that interrupts the horizontal
effect of the facade and the construction of new sections at the coast level to convert
the existing units into spa suits. During the renovation process, the elaborate efforts to
revitalize Libertas Hotel as a part of the modern architectural heritage have inevitably
brought some changes in the original structure and appearance of the hotel, in order
to respond to the requirements of contemporary hotel management and the changed
expectations for comfort.
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