Met. Pavel denies illegal construction on the Lavra land

Vicar of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Metropolitan Pavel

All buildings erected in the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra are constructed on the foundations of buildings destroyed during the Soviet era in order to revive them. This was announced by the vicar of Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl in a video message posted on the monastery’s Youtube channel on January 10.

He called untrue a statement voiced by the former director of the National Kiev-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Reserve Sergei Krolevets that 16 buildings were allegedly built illegally on the territory of the Monastery.

“Everything revived in the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is being revived on the foundations of the buildings that they, the director of the reserve and the so-called culture workers, have destroyed in their time. If you take a lithograph of 1908 with a view of the Lavra, you will see how many buildings used to be there, which are gone,” said the vicar of the monastery.

The hierarch noted that all relevant government structures are involved in the construction of each building.

“In order to start doing something, we must, first of all, create project documentation, we must go through the town-planning council, get permission from the Ministry of Construction and Architecture, coordinate work with the UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture. And only when we receive all the necessary documents, only then will we proceed to construction,” said Vladyka Pavel.

Metropolitan Pavel connects accusations of illegal construction with the desire to transfer the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra to the "political church" OCU. The hierarch also stressed that the monastery brethren are doing everything to preserve the cultural heritage.

As the UOJ reported, on November 28, representatives of the Kiev-Pechersk Reserve (under the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine) made an inventory of property in the Near Caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. On November 30, 2018, SBU officers searched the residence of the vicar of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Metropolitan Pavel and the territory of the subsidiary farm of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in vlg. Voronki of the Borispol district, Kiev region.
 

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