Memorial complex Slobodište was built on the southwestern edge of the city, on the slopes of the hill Bagdala, where during the fascist occupation (1941‒44) there was a concentration camp with an execution ground for over seven hundred recorded civilians and patriots. The biggest shooting took place on June 29, 1943, when the occupier, as a form of retaliation, shot 324 people. On the area once was the camp, today is the memorial complex with the mass graves.

The central part of the monument belongs to the concept that was realized by the architect Bogdan Bogdanović in the period 1961‒65, based on the idea of Dobrica Ćosić. Monumental elements are the Execution Site  and the Mounds, as well as two amphitheaters – the Valley of the Respect, with a flock of stone birds reaching for the sky, and the Valley of the Living, which can be accessed through the circular Gate of Sun.

In 1978, according to the projects of architects Bogdan Bogdanović and Svetislav Živić, the House of Slobodište was built, intended for research work and exhibition activities. After the extensive reconstruction of the building, it housed the permanent museum exhibition, THE PENITENTIARY: CONCENTRATION CAMP IN KRUŠEVAC 1941–1944, dedicated to the wartime suffering on the slopes of Bagdala.

The entire complex was declared a cultural asset, a famous place of great importance (Official Gazette of RS 28/83).