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Historic Castle CrumblingFunding problems stymie plans to transform 600-year-old fortress into a tourist attraction.An historic Belarusian castle is in danger of collapsing while politicians and local authorities squabble over who should pay for its restoration.
An attempt was made in the seventies to restore the building, but architects say that this was largely sabotaged by a lack of professionalism on the part of the contractors. Lida's chief architect Vatslav Mateiko told IWPR that builders had stolen a lot of the bricks and cement bought for the project. As a result, one of the heavily-fortified walls crumbled badly in 1986 and has been in a disastrous condition ever since, while severe cracks have appeared all over the other walls and both watchtowers. The damage is now so severe that 100,000 dollars are urgently needed to prevent the wall from collapsing altogether, while a further 20,000 dollars will be required to design a new renovation project. Mateiko believes that if the castle is properly restored, it could become one of the former Soviet republic's main tourist attractions - and may even be worthy of inclusion on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Work began on the fortress - which was designed to strengthen the grand duke's defences against the crusaders - in 1323. Down the centuries, it withstood countless attacks from invaders, and was destroyed and rebuilt more than once, before gradually losing its military significance. Five such fortresses were built to a similar style. Of these, three located on Lithuanian territory have been painstakingly restored by specialists, and are now tourist attractions. In contrast, the two on Belarusian soil are in a derelict state. As well as the problems facing the Lida castle after the poor attempt to restore it, another fortress in the village of Krevo is slowly being destroyed by impoverished people who demolish sections of it to get building materials. In the meantime, the local and national authorities continue to point the finger at each other when asked who should foot the bill for any restoration. Deputy minister of culture Valery Gedro yts told IWPR, "The Lida castle has been put on a list of [sites] given priority for restoration in the coming years. But at this point, due to limited funds in the national budget, Lida residents should rely on local funds." After it became increasingly clear that the state was not going to come to their aid, Lida's public organisations issued an appeal to the commercial sector for financial help to save the castle. The initial response was promising. Lida municipal council deputy Aleksandr Pyataev told IWPR that he had struck a deal with sponsors from Germany, Russia and the Czech Republic, who were willing to invest 200,000 dollars. If the area had a restored tourist attraction such as the Lida castle, he argued, jobs would surely follow. "Poland and Lithuania have good examples of private capital helping to breath life into small historic towns which then became tourist centres," he said. "If the castle is restored, this will provide the residents with additional work places." But the town authorities approached the initiative with caution, citing Pyataev's politics - he is known to have connections with opposition politician Sergei Skrebets - as their reason to be suspicious of the deal. The deputy head of the city administration, Nikolay Malets, dismissed the possibility of transforming the castle into a tourist attraction out of hand. "Turning [it] into a joint stock company [with foreign businessmen] is unthinkable," he said. While Malets describes the castle as "a monument of the first category and national importance", he admits that the town budget has no money for the restoration because "we have significant obligations to the subsidised state farms in the region". A spokesperson from the ministry of the economy told IWPR that priority was to be given to erecting a new building for the National Library in Minsk, which President Alexander Lukashenko announced to be a people's construction project. He confirmed that while money will be given to continue restoration of two other Belarusian castles, there are no plans to fund a repair programme for Lida. Kryscina Sadura is a pseudonym of a reporter in Minsk. This article originally appeared in Belarus Reporting Service, produced by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, http://www.iwpr.net/ on January 29 2004 This article appeared in Belarusian Review, Vol. 16, No 1 --------------------------------------------- Copyright 2004 Belarusian Review All rights reserved. belarusianreview@hotmail.com Kryscina Sadura
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