Changes in the historic part of Uzhgorod: what the advisory council at the RSA allowed, and what not (Photos)

On April 16, the new members of the Advisory Council on the Protection of Cultural Heritage at the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration gathered for the first meeting. This time, it included not only reputable architects Stepan Sholtes, Vladislav Hanzel, Petro Sarvash, but also the head of the Department for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of the RSA Ildiko Molnar, the chief architect of Uzhgorod Oleg Borshovsky, art historian Mykhailo Syrokhman, historian Pavlo Khudish, archaeologist Igor Prokhnenko, poet Vasyl Husti, journalist Tetyana Vashargeli, the author of this article for the publication Pro Zahid.

First of all, it should be clarified that the Advisory Council on the Protection of Cultural Heritage is only an advisory body, and its decisions are of a recommendatory nature, but without the positive decision of this council, any reorganization in historical areas or actions concerning cultural heritage are illegal. So, we can say that the members of the advisory council to some extent are responsible for changes on the historical face of the city. At the first meeting, which lasted almost three hours, nine projects were considered, most of which concerned Uzhgorod.

Thus, the first to be considered was a project of reconstruction with elements of restoration of the historic building of the Regional Court, which most Uzhgorod residents know as the House of Trade Unions. This building, after a long dispute with trade union organizations, was returned to the court. This year, they plan to start there a large-scale reconstruction, the project for which was developed by Lviv specialists. The designer presented for consideration of the advisory board two projects with defferent colours of tiles and facades.

There will soon be changes on Tolstoy street too. There, in the house number 3, the owner wants to do repairs with the conversion of the old apartment building into a store. The architects immediately adjusted the presented project. The owner of the building must leave all the architectural details on the facade intact.

The discussion about another house on Tolstoy Street was going on for quite some time. It’s about the scandalous illegal addition above the pharmacy building, whose owner decided to legalize already built additional two floors. The chief architect of the city, Oleg Borshovsky, said that the owner had already been fined for 24 thousand hryvnias, the fine was paid and the work continued. Now, the owner appealed to the Advisory Council to approve city planning conditions and restrictions by providing a project featuring the prospective appearance of this building in the future.

Professional architects at the meeting criticized this project, but acknowledged that there are no clear legal provisions for dismantling of illegally constructed buildings in our country and that they did not know what to do with this building. So for now, all they could do at this level was to reject the documentation provided by the owner, leaving the building in the illegal status.

Similarly, the members of the advisory council rejected the project for conversion of the public toilet building near the pedestrian bridge on Petofi Square into an art cafe.

Meanwhile the new owner of the building at Kapitulna st., 24 Alen Panov was allowed to replace the slate roof with aluminum eternit and dismantle the metal and plastic windows installed on the semi-circular balcony by the previous owners.