BULGARIA’S PRESIDENT RADEV: KOPRIVSHTITSA DOES NOT BELONG TO A FEW MUNICIPAL COUNCILLORS

On 30th of March, in a social media post, Bulgaria’s President Roumen Radev called for all competent authorities to revise or halt the decision of the municipal council in the town of Koprivshtitsa on withdrawing the town’s status as architectural and historical reserve.

“Koprivshtitsa does not belong to a few municipal officials. Koprivshtitsa belongs to Bulgaria,” Radev said.

“I therefore urge all entities on which it depends to immediately revise or stop the decision made by the municipal council about a change of the museum-town status. Any compromise in the case would be an assault on the national memory and cultural heritage of Bulgaria,” he said.

The decision for removing Koprivshtitsa’s status as architectural and cultural reserve was made on 17th of March in a extraordinary meeting of the councillors, without the knowledge of the mayor Gencho Gerdanov. In order to abolish its status of a reserve, the consent of Bulgaria’s Council of Ministered is required because the town had received the status through a decree issued by the Council of Ministers in 1971. If the status is removed, this will allow construction of new buildings and facilities in the small town.

In an interview for BNT morning show, the mayor of Koprivshtitsa spoke against the decision and said that he would do everything possible to stop the removal of the status. He added that all investors who wanted to come to the town were always welcome, but anything done should be in tune with the architecture of Koprivshtitsa, which had become a symbol of the Bulgarian Revival .

He said that he was sure that the third Borissov government would help him in every way.

Earlier on 30th of March, Bulgaria’s Culture Ministry reiterated the need to preserve the cultural heritage of Koprivshtitsa and was convinced that the municipality and the municipal councils would not become initiators of an irreversible loss of remarkable examples of Bulgarian National Revival architectural style, the historic structure of the village and its surrounding countryside.

photo:BTA

There are over 400 immovable cultural values in the town, 15 are of national significance, including the iconic historic buildings and museums such as "Lyutova house", "Oslekov house", "Todor Kableshkov" museum, the native home of George Benkovski (a Bulgarian 19th century revolutionary and leading figure in the organization of the Bulgarian anti-Ottoman April Uprising), the distinguished Bulgarian poet Dimcho Debelyanov and the writer Lyuben Karavelov.

Change or update of the status of immovable cultural property is possible only under the cultural heritage law and its regulations of 2012, not through a decision of the municipal council, the ministry said.

photo:BTA

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