A luxury resort in Montenegro opened to the public in April, starting at 500 euros a night.
The Mamula Island Hotel used to be a former concentration camp in World War II.
The new luxury hotel has angered some locals for converting the Austro-Hungarian fortress.
A new luxury hotel in Montenegro opened in April with the tagline: "A hotel surrounded by the sea, with you at its heart."
For a minimum of 500 euros ($543) a night, guests can expect beautiful views, fine dining at one of three restaurants, and access to pools and a spa.
But the remote hotel on Mamula Island has a dark history — it used to be an Italian concentration camp during World War II. More than 2,000 people were imprisoned there, and more than 100 people died.
When the plans to refurbish the fortress were first announced in 2016, it was met with resistance from locals. But the government awarded the Swiss-Egyptian developer Orascom a 49-year lease, saying there were limited options for the future of the fort.
Now, the refurbishment is done and the hotel is open to visitors.
Since 2007, when Montenegro got its independence, the government has focused on boosting its economy largely through tourism. It backed the building of Porto Montenegro, a marina for superyachts, and the development of a resort town called Lustica Bay.
But one of its economic ventures has been particularly controversial. In 2015, its plan to allow Swiss-Egyptian developer Orascom to convert a remote, former concentration camp into a luxury hotel was met with disbelief and resistance by some locals.
The hotel is on a tiny island called Lastavica Island, popularly known as Mamula Island. It's in Boka Bay, located on the border of Montenegro and Croatia.
The island is about 600 feet in diameter. Since 1853, it's been dominated by an Austro-Hungarian fortress, which was built to stop enemy ships from accessing the bay.
A view of the fortress on Mamula Island.
Sebastian Condrea/Getty Images
It's named Fort Mamula after General Lazar Mamula, who had it built.
The refurbishment was so controversial because during World War II Italian troops converted the fortress into a concentration camp and renamed it "Campo Mamula."
During the war, about 2,300 people — mostly locals — were imprisoned there. Many were tortured, and about 130 people were either killed or died of starvation.
Jovanka Uljarevic, whose grandmother was a prisoner at the camp, researched the war camp. She told Balkan Insight that prisoners were kept in overcrowded cells, and if someone tried to escape, they were severely punished.
Birds fly in the air above Mamula Island.
Getty Images
She said the conditions were terrible and people starved in the cold.
"If the baby cried, soldiers would come in and beat everyone up until there was silence," Uljarevic told.
In 2015, she told Balkan Investigative Reporting Network that plans for Orascom to build a luxury hotel on the island would "ruin every memory of Mamula and what it really was."
Olivera Doklestic, who had three family members imprisoned on the island, told AFP the decision to build a luxury hotel where "so many people perished and suffered is a blatant example of lack of seriousness towards history."
A woman reads inside one of the rooms at the Mamula Island Hotel.
Mark Anthony Fox/Stromberger PF/Supplied
"No concentration camp in the world has been transformed into a hotel," she said.
Former United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali
wrote to Parliament about his surprise that "the only solution for preserving and using the fort is a mere business arrangement and privatization agreement."
Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Razali Ismail at UN General Assembly
But Olivera Brajovic, head of Montenegro's national directorate for tourism development, told AFP they only really had two options. The first was to let the concentration camp "fall into ruin."
A boat passes near Mamula Island.
Vladimir Nadtochiy/Getty Images
Since the end of World War II, the fort was largely abandoned other than tourists visiting.
In 2016, the Montenegrin government approved plans for the luxury hotel and granted Orascom a 49-year lease. Orascom got the site for a nominal sum of $1.64 per square meter, and the company promised to invest about $16 million in the project.
The Mamula Island Hotel.
Mark Anthony Fox/Stromberger PF/Supplied
A representative of Orascom told The Telegraph that the island would remain open to the public.
In 2019, a local heritage group called the Bokobran Initiative accused the hotel of going too far by digging 30 feet down into the fortress to build a swimming pool, as well as destroying sections of the original wall.
But the developers said everything they were doing was complied with local heritage preservation laws. A spokesperson told Insider "every brick, wall, and feature has been carefully restored to its origin."
Inside the Maluma Island Hotel.
Mark Anthony Fox/Stromberger PF/Supplied
The spokesperson also noted the restoration of some of the rooms which were formerly commander's officers.
A team of seven worked to restore and reveal nine layers of paint to show the original artworks in these rooms.
However, when the proposal was approved in 2016, the government said the hotel would pay its respects to the war camp victims by building a museum or some form of memorial.
Windows as seen inside the Mamula Island Hotel.
Mark Anthony Fox/Stromberger PF/Supplied
"We will create a museum with the best restaurant and the best hotel on the Mediterranean," Orascom President Samih Sawiris said.
While it wasn't clear from photos of the resort where the memorial was, a spokesperson told Insider it had been built and was located at the entrance to the fortress.
