Upper Station of the Mount Srđ Cable Car

The current upper station stands on the site of a building that no longer exists. The tourist company Atlas built the first cable car here in nineteen sixty-nine. Two cabins carrying fifteen passengers each linked the Ploče district with the summit of Mount Srđ. At the time, it was the only cable car on the Adriatic coast.

During the night of December fifth to sixth, nineteen ninety-one, units of the Yugoslav People's Army approached the station covertly. They intended to capture the neighboring Fort Imperial, which Croatian defenders were holding. The terrain allowed the infantry to climb up unnoticed and wait for the attack to begin near the tourist pavilion. The upper station stood beside the fort and made it possible to keep the approaches to and openings in the fortification under fire.

At a quarter to six in the morning, artillery bombardment began. Under its cover, the infantry moved from the station toward the fort. The defenders could not get outside and retreated within; the attackers occupied part of the terrace and the eastern wing of the fortification. The station, abandoned by tourists, became the attack's forward strongpoint.

At about half past ten, two groups of Croatian special police set out from Dubrovnik for Mount Srđ. Six police officers were to make their way to the encircled garrison. They climbed to the very foot of the fort and destroyed the position at the upper station with a rifle grenade. At least one soldier on the attacking side was killed. Having lost this strongpoint and failed to take the fort, the units of the Yugoslav People's Army began to withdraw after half past twelve. The garrison held the summit; two defenders were wounded.

The old station was heavily damaged during the war. When the decision was made to restore the cable car, builders dismantled the remains of the upper pavilion and erected the building anew. In two thousand ten, after a nineteen-year break, the cabins once again ran to Mount Srđ. The modern terminal, with thirty-passenger cabins, terraces, and a restaurant, is entirely new. This was the site of the strongpoint destroyed by the six police officers; not a single one of its walls has survived here.