Fancy a stay at Tito's Yugoslav beach haven? Your room may soon be ready

A Croatian resort built by the communist leader is finally on the verge of rebirth from the ruins.

- Kim Willsher

With its spectacular views over the Adriatic and a half-moon beach, Kupari, near Dubrovnik, was regarded as the Monaco of what was once called the Yugoslav Riviera.

In the 1960s, the country's Communist leader, Josip "Tito" Broz, ordered the building of a vast holiday complex exclusively reserved for members of the military on this hilly stretch of the Dalmatian coast. For the top brass, there were individual villas; for the lower ranks, a choice of six hotels; and the foot soldiers were relegated to a camping site surrounded by palm trees and lush greenery.

Tito found Kupari so agreeable that he built his-and-hers holiday villas nearby overlooking the Adriatic Sea, where he and his wife, Jovanka, entertained VIP guests including Hollywood stars Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

In the 1990s, when Yugoslavia descended into war, more than a decade after Tito's death and during the battle for Croatian independence, the site was shelled. Today, the hotels, once the height of postwar luxury, are concrete skeletons, strewn with detritus and covered with graffiti.

Now, after three decades of neglect, locals are hoping the site will finally be returned to its former glory as part of a €150m five-star development.

"It has been an eyesore for 30 years, so everyone is pleased it will be developed and it will offer local employment," Marko Dabrović, the architect overseeing the plans, told the Observer during an exclusive visit to the fenced-off site. "But after 10 years of on, off, stop, start, will it, won't it happen, they are waiting to see if it really does."