How to save architectural monuments from destruction and oblivion

In Ukraine, it is virtually impossible to protect historic buildings from destruction. The only effective method for their protection is to grant the historic building the status of an architectural monument. If this status is not available, then the background historic building itself is almost doomed.

The opposite often happens. First, a historic building is demolished, and then, when there is a public outcry, the already destroyed or semi-destroyed building is given the status of an architectural monument, as was the case with the Zelensky Manor and the Baraban Manor in Kyiv.

LIGA.net previously wrote about automatically granting any building older than 100 years the status of an architectural monument as one of the methods of heritage protection. But this is not the only mechanism for preserving heritage. One of the elements of its protection is the creation of a register of architectural monuments, which will differentiate them and increase the chances of their preservation.

What is a monument and how to protect it?

A monument – in the sense of international legal acts, is the most valuable and unique object. Therefore, it is not surprising that in Ukraine, in order for a building to receive the protective status of a monument, it is necessary to go through the "7 circles of bureaucratic hell" and involve specialized experts from various fields with the appropriate certification. However, not only unique architectural creations and the most iconic historical places are protected in the world.

Currently, Ukrainian law provides only one category of protection for historically or architecturally valuable buildings – the category of a monument. This category is further divided into a newly discovered cultural heritage object (registered with local authorities) and a monument itself (registered with the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine). However, in fact, their legal status is the same.

"The norms of European monument protection legislation, in particular the Law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Poland (USTAWA o ochronie zabytków i opiece nad zabytkami) provide, in addition to the protection of the monuments themselves, also the protection of valuable historical buildings as a separate category. One of the criteria for such an object is reaching an age of over 100 years. In Ukraine, unfortunately, such a norm is absent – and thousands of historical buildings throughout the country actually remain without legal protection," says Dmytro Perov, head of the NGO "Heritage Kyiv" in a comment to LIGA.net .

According to Perov, developers from different cities of Ukraine have repeatedly canceled or suspended the historical and architectural plans of their cities through the courts. The most famous cases are Kyiv and Lviv. The courts side with the developers, because they appeal to the law, and the law, as already noted above, allocates only one category of protection. In fact, today, Article 22 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Protection of Cultural Heritage" prohibits the demolition of monuments. Legal regulation of the development of central historical areas in cities provides for the approval of the central executive body (Ministry of Culture) for the implementation of urban planning transformations.

"That is, there is no direct ban – consult with the Ministry of Culture. If it allows the demolition of a historical quarter without monuments, so be it...", adds Dmytro Perov.

Currently, says Dmytro Perov, the so-called presumption of "valuelessness" of historical heritage operates in Ukraine.

"This means that if, for example, on the street where you live, there is a 150-year-old house where Vynnychenko lived, but it is not included in the state register, the building can be demolished the same day you find out about it. But in order to preserve it, it will be necessary to conduct comprehensive scientific research. Establish the exact time of construction, architect, style, interview the daughter of Vynnychenko's mistress, whether he really spent the night with her mother, etc.," Perov adds.

All this takes from 6 months to 2-3 years, depending on the interest or rather disinterest of the local cultural heritage protection authority to grant the building a protective status. However, the main thing is that until the building has received the status, it is considered worthless and is not protected by law. On the other hand, in the same Poland, all buildings over 100 years old are considered valuable and historical. In the future, their research is carried out, some of them are recognized as monuments, some lose their protective status. But the main thing is that during such research, the building is under state protection, and it cannot be simply destroyed by bringing in a bulldozer.

"The best, and at the same time the easiest way is to adopt Polish monument protection practices into the Ukrainian Law. Our legal systems are the most similar both historically and in terms of civil law regulation. Currently, our public organization is preparing a draft of amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On the Protection of Cultural Heritage" in terms of defining valuable historical buildings as a separate category of protection with a direct ban on their demolition until relevant monument protection studies are conducted. A similar initiative to ban the demolition of historical buildings was also registered in the Kyiv City Council at the end of last year," says Dmytro Perov.

Architect Veronika Lysenkova believes that the role of architects in this process is important. For example, in Ukraine there is no such specialization as an architect-restorer in the classifier of professions. It is necessary to create a register of such architects-restorers who understand what restoration is, so that only among them construction customers could choose restorers for historical buildings.

"Therefore, any architect can approach an architectural monument and do whatever they want with it. For example, it could be a person who simply knows how to build new residential complexes," explains Lysenkova.

She also adds that when developing accounting documentation for the restoration of architectural monuments, architects are not involved, but only art historians. Art historians find only primary sources and archives, and a practicing architect finds real facts about what happened to the monument historically, how it was designed. But now architects do not influence accounting documentation.

What can the government do?

LIGA.net spoke with MPs Olena Shulyak and Hanna Bondar about what the parliament and the government can do to preserve monuments and introduce a grading system.

According to Olena Shulyak, in order to preserve cultural heritage, the Ministry of Culture must ensure the implementation of the already adopted legislation and only after that it is appropriate to talk about further improvement. Thus, in the summer of 2022, the provisions of Law No. 1423-IX came into force, which introduced significant changes in the sphere of cultural heritage protection. But almost four years have passed since its publication (May 26, 2021), and the Ministry of Culture has still not fully implemented a number of by-laws and has not performed a number of related actions.

"It is no less important that the Ministry of Culture has not ensured the interoperability of the software of the State Register of Immovable Cultural Heritage Monuments of Ukraine with the State Land Cadastre, the Urban Planning Cadastre and other information systems. Moreover, I believe that as of now, the operation of this register has not been ensured at all, the publication of the entire list of cultural heritage objects in it has not been ensured, etc. I have repeatedly sent parliamentary appeals to the Ministry of Culture and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to accelerate the adoption of by-laws and the implementation of the tasks defined by the above-mentioned law. However, the status has not changed to date," the deputy says.

Regarding the classification of cultural heritage sites, current Ukrainian legislation focuses on cultural heritage sites. These are newly discovered cultural heritage sites, monuments of local, national, and global importance.

According to deputy Hanna Bondar, a huge mass of historical buildings has been overlooked. Thus, in 2023, Law No. 1423 introduced amendments that classified valuable historical buildings as monuments, which made it impossible to preserve the traditional environment in our cities and towns.

At the same time, the European approach has environmental features. Not only individual cultural heritage sites are preserved, but also the integrity of the historical environment (an example is the city center of Krakow). For this, city renovation programs are used.

In market conditions, restoration regulations and rules are not enough to implement such programs. Economic mechanisms should work here: freezing real estate prices during the implementation of an urban renovation project with subsequent reimbursement to the city of the renovation costs, and other mechanisms.

"We have registered the draft Law of Ukraine on Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Preservation of Valuable Historical Buildings in Settlements No. 11481 , which aims to implement the first steps towards an environmental approach to preserving a traditional center. Thus, local governments may identify individual objects that do not have the status of cultural heritage, but are valuable from the point of view of the community. Currently, the draft law has left the committee, we are waiting for its consideration in the hall. But, obviously, these are the first steps. Our cities need a legislative framework for the implementation of urban renovation projects, including the reconstruction of outdated housing," insists Hanna Bondar.

Olena Shulyak says that the biggest problem is that there is still no single source where you can check whether a particular object is a cultural heritage object or a newly discovered cultural heritage object. Thus, cultural heritage objects of national and local importance are published on the website of the Ministry of Culture fragmentarily, in separate parts and are not exhaustive, and the list of newly discovered objects is not published at all. Despite the fact that newly discovered objects have the same legal protection status as existing objects.

"The State Anti-Corruption Program directly states that there should be a single electronic register, where everything will be – both cultural heritage objects and newly discovered objects, and information about when and by what document this status was granted. All this should be in a single source, which still does not exist," adds Olena Shulyak.

Currently, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine is working on filling such a register . So far, the register is not very full.

Hanna Bondar believes that for proper control over the implementation of restoration projects, no changes to the law are needed, the law must be implemented. Back in 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided to create the State Inspectorate for Cultural Heritage of Ukraine and the State Service for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Ukraine as separate central executive bodies to remove functions not inherent to the ministry (such as approving projects, issuing permits, exercising control functions during restoration work, etc.).

"However, these bodies have never worked. There is not enough capacity in both the ministry and other cultural heritage protection bodies. For example, in the city of Kyiv, which has 3,790 cultural heritage sites, there are only 6 (six!) inspectors for the protection of cultural heritage in the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection of the Kyiv City State Administration. It is obvious that in such a case, proper control over restoration work cannot be carried out. This system needs to be developed and, by the way, the public should be involved in the inspection through the institute of public inspectors," adds Hanna Bondar.

She is supported by architect Veronika Lysenkova, who believes that the current practices of the law are sufficient.

Olena Shulyak believes that Law No. 5655 , which has not yet been signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky , could solve this problem. According to the deputy, this law provides, in particular, for filling state registers with information about existing cultural heritage sites and their protected areas, as well as creating electronic services aimed at protecting cultural heritage and enshrining them at the level of law.

This law may introduce, in particular, an automatic refusal to grant the right to perform preparatory and construction works that involve the dismantling (demolition) of cultural heritage monuments and newly discovered cultural heritage objects, as well as the reconstruction and overhaul of cultural heritage monuments.