Authorities Destroy Historical Architectural Ensemble in Hrodna

We witness the largest act of vandalism in the history of independent Belarus. The authorities of Belarusian city Hrodna plan to demolish 40% of the city’s historical buildings that comprise its Old Town part. Hrodna is the last big city in Belarus where historical architectural ensemble was preserved. Historical centers in other Belarusian cities were largely vandalized or completely destroyed by Russian imperialist regime, communists or during World War II. Even the oldest residents do not remember how other old Belarusian cities once looked like. Brest, Minsk, Mahiliou drastically changed their architecture, having become standard Soviet cities, where Belarusian history is hidden behind Soviet-style concrete monoliths. Hrodna has been saved for us by a miracle.

The worst part of the situation with Hrodna is that this time it is not an invader or alien who do not care about Belarus. Today’s vandal is Belarusian state whose duty is to preserve national architectural monuments of which only few remain. Corrupted bureaucrats are willing to break the law and lull the conscience in order to get easy money made on high prices on real estate in old historical parts of Belarusian cities.
The same situation happens in Vitsebsk where blasphemer officials ordered the building of sewer system on the foundations of ancient churches. Minsk’s heritage is in ganger too—city authorities bargained with Arab investors the construction of hotel complex with tennis courts, saunas, and other entertainments on the foundation of the medieval monastery.

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Brest, Minsk, Mahileu drastically changed their architecture, having become standard Soviet cities, where Belarusian history is hidden behind Soviet-style concrete monoliths

In the situation when the infringer is the state itself, civil society has to step forward to defend our heritage—all of us must act. Hrodna acropolis meets UNESCO requirements to be admitted to the list of world cultural heritage. If we let bureaucrats destroy Hrodna’s historical center, we will also become passive contributors to vandalism against not only our children but the entire world culture.

Belarus has a large territory by European scale. We have enough space to build offices and hotels without demolishing precious architectural monuments, don’t we? Architecture can serve to let Hrodna become a major tourist destination like Vilnius and Krakow and be pride and tourist industry center for Belarus. However, no tourist will come to visit a vandalized church, soulless offices or tasteless tiles in place of destroyed ancient masonry.

Save our history!

For Belarus! For our Hrodna!