PAVE PARADISE AND PUT UP A… CHURCH?

Tert.am
14:36 ~U 17.03.10

The decision to demolish Moscow Cinema’s open-air hall and replace
it with a church was made hastily and without consulting experts,
said Union of Architects of Armenia President Mkrtich Minasyan at a
debate today.

According to Minasyan, the state had registered the cinema’s outdoor
hall in its list of cultural and historical monuments that should
be preserved; however, it has since been unlawfully removed from
that list.

"It’s a committee of experts that defines the state list of monuments
to preserve; thus, it’s the committee that removes monuments from
that list. the However, the Ministry of Culture hasn’t ensured that
process," he said.

An online petition by Sydney-based Hayas Cultural Organization says
that the "legally questionable" decision "to ‘un-protect’ the hall
was supposedly instigated by the decision of Moscow Cinema’s current
management to transfer the deed of ownership of the Open-Air Hall
to the Holy Mother See of Echmiadzin, which plans to demolish said
Hall for the purpose of re-building the 18th century Peter-Paul
Basilica that once stood on this territory. The Soviet authorities
tragically destroyed the church in 1930s with the purpose of building
the Moscow Cinema."

According to Minasyan, the Peter-Paul Basilica (known as Poghos-Petros
in Armenian), however, offered no architectural value.

"How appropriate is it to build a church or reconstruct the old one
on those premises, when just a further over another church is being
built?" asked the Union of Architects president, noting that the
entire architectural community today is against the plan.

Minasyan’s opponent in today’s debate, Father Mkhitar Aloyan, however,
was of a different opinion: "It’s interesting to me, didn’t the Youth
Palace [a Yerevan landmark for decades, known as the ‘corncob’], which
was demolished, have any architectural value? If the owner of Moscow
Cinema built a cabaret or swimming pool, would you still be fighting
[for your cause]?" he asked.

Father Aloyan said that the church today wants that land which belonged
to it at one time.

One Facebook supporter of saving the open-air hall, however, summed
it up nicely: "The Soviet Union tore down a church and built a theatre.

So we’ll tear down the theatre and build a church. It was wrong for the
Soviets to destroy St. Peter and Paul Church. But the Moscow Cinema
Open-Air Hall is a cathedral to the arts, and two wrongs don’t make
a right."

The Moscow Cinema open-air hall was built in the 1960s by architects
Spartak Knteghcyan (alternatively spelled Knteghtsian) and Telman
Gevorgyan. The building is considered one of the city’s best modern
architectural venues.