site.btaAcademic, Civic Organisations Want Dialogue with State Concerning Historical, Cultural Monument Reconstruction

Academic, Civic Organisations Want
Dialogue with State Concerning
Historical, Cultural Monument Reconstruction


Sofia, June 1 (BTA) - Academic and civic organisations have come
out with a declaration to the entire state leadership
expressing concern about the fate of Bulgarian cultural
heritage, which is threatened by a spreading practice of making
mockup reconstructions of immovable cultural monuments based
solely on assumptions about their original outlook and which
leads to their falsification and denudes them of their
authenticity.

The declaration was adopted at a conference titled "Cultural
Heritage: Authenticity at Risk" held in Sofia on Friday. The
forum was attended by architects, archaeologists, restorers, art
historians, and specialists in the field of tourism, who united
around the opinion that this practice in recent years
contradicts a number of international documents that Bulgaria
has signed.

"We adamantly reject today's practice of new construction of
forts, palaces and churches, which substitutes the past," says
the declaration, a copy of which will also be sent to UNESCO,
the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the
International Council on Monuments and Sites ICOMOS.

The organisations also signed a memorandum, uniting them in a
Cultural Heritage Forum, which they insist should be a party in
the dialogue with the state on matters related to the
protections of cultural heritage. Nearly 40 organisations have
signed the memorandum, including Bulgaria's National ICOMOS
Committee, the History and Theory of Culture Department at St.
Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, the Ivan Dujcev Centre for
Slavo-Byzantine Studies, the Association of Bulgarian
Archaeologists, the Institute of Art Studies at the Bulgarian
Academy of Sciences, the History and Theory of Architecture
Department at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering
and Geodesy, the Restoration Department at the National Academy
of Art, New Bulgarian University and the Union of Bulgarian
Artists, among others.

The signatories insist on a dialogue with the competent state
authorities, on the establishment of the expert opinion at
decision-making for activities involving restoration of cultural
monuments, expert analysis of all ongoing projects in the field
for which alerts from civic organization experts have been
received, as well as suspension of works on the relevant
projects when there are proven violations of Bulgarian
legislation and the international charters.

In addition, intellectuals sent a written appeal for stopping
the erection of "mock identical monuments" and for
reconsideration of the policy in the field of preservation of
cultural heritage in the spirit of democratic public and
professional debate. Signatories include philologist Prof.
Bogdan Bogdanov, singers Bogdana Karadocheva and Mihail Belchev,
architect Boyko Kadinov, sculptor Prof. Velislav Minekov, among
others.

The participants in the meeting voiced the opinion that the
expert foundation of activities involving conservation and
restoration has currently been replaced by political decisions,
because decision-making is concentrated in the political figure
of the Minister of Culture and on structures dependent on him.
Representatives of the tourist industry declared that
reconstructions result in irreparable damage, denying the branch
the opportunity to develop real cultural tourism and limiting
it to low-budget activities of low added value.

Tina Wik, a professor in construction technology at Dalarna
University, Sweden, also took part in the conference.

In May ICOMOS also sent a letter to the President, government
and Parliament of Bulgaria to tell them that a number of
Bulgarian cultural monuments have been "substantially and
visibly" endangered by the current approaches to conservation
and restoration./PK/BR


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