The 13th Star

Nikos Salda

On the border of the Continent

It begins where Europe ends. Where the wind frays the coastline and the sky dissolves into the sea. On a decommissioned NATO base, between rusted antennas and fractured signal towers, rises a structure that feels like a mistake, too beautiful for the history it carries. Ninety meters high, built from more than a hundred thousand scaffolding bars, entirely painted in yellow.

The 13th Star

In the blinding light of the Mediterranean sea, the structure seems to shimmer, as if made of vapor. The metal catches the day’s color, white in the morning, gold in the evening, and yellow in the night. At night, it turns into a glowing signal visible far across the sea. Fishermen call it the sun of the night. For travelers, it’s a landmark, a fixed star built by human hands that endures when all others fade.

A Monument to the Unfinished

Nikos Salda, the artist behind the star, speaks softly when he talks about his work. “The twelve stars on the European flag stand for perfection,” he says. “I added a thirteenth, as a fracture.” For Salda, Europe is not a finished project but a construction in progress. The star reflects that idea, not a triumph, not a monument, but an open body, a sign in the making.

It is not a coincidence that it stands on a former military base. The concrete foundations that once stored weapons now carry a symbol of peace. A site once devoted to defense now shines as an invitation.“ I wanted this star to be more than a national emblem,” says Salda. “Its parts were produced all across Europe: Poland, Spain, Germany, Greece. Each component carries a different origin. The work itself is a lived Europe.”

Architecture as Diplomacy

From the old base, a narrow metal staircase spirals upward into the core of the star. As you climb, the wind grows louder. The structure hums; metal stretches, cables sing, the sky draws closer. From above, the horizon expands endlessly, dissolving the borders between land and sea. It feels like a place in flux, never finished, never still.

For Salda, that tension is essential. “I come from diplomacy,” he says. “My father negotiated with words. I negotiate with space.” The 13th Star is his form of spatial diplomacy. A bridge between past and future, conflict and hope, Europe and whatever may come next.

A Beacon for Peace

At night, the star glows far beyond the cliffs. The yellow bars catch the light and throw it back as if trying to lift the sky itself. In that silence, the structure feels less like an object and more like a thought that was made visible. Some call it a sign, others a memorial, some even a miracle of steel. But perhaps it is simply what its maker intended: a scaffold. Something that carries what is too heavy for words.

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DWHH.art is the personal art project of Daniel Weiss – a collaboration between human and AI, idea and image. All works are digital fictions, created through artificial intelligence and told through human imagination. For those who believe that beauty can think.