Nursery school converted to culture venue in Kamehyuki, 2009
Events, fact, documents and evidence: A large culture venue was built in the village of Kamenyuki, the administrative center of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park, in the late 1980’s. The venue accommodated a movie theater, a gym, a hobby room, a music school and the offices of the village government. The venue was under the jurisdiction of the National Park.
The national park administration’s attitude to culture took a drastic turn for the worse starting with 2001, when new officials were appointed. Amid outright persecution and humiliation of the local residents, the venue was neglected. Heating supply to the building was cut off that winter. The building began to crumble, becoming completely dilapidated within years. In 2007, authorities decided to demolish the building, remove the remains to a nearby landfill and bury them there, although construction professionals said that in our era of space exploration, we have the technology to repair even fragile buildings.
The shots below show the demolition process as a sequence of stages.
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| (1 and 2 - June 13, 2004; 3 and 4 - December 2005) | |||
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| (1 - May 5, 2006; 2 and 3 - July 26, 2006) | ||
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| (1 - June 8, 2007; 2, 3 and 4 - June 9, 2007) | |||
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| (1 - August 21, 2007; 2, 3 and 4 - September 19, 2007) | |||
Details in chronological order and the background to the demolition can be read and seen in:
- in The "Taliban" movement and oppression of local people, 2004 under Photofact .
- In The destroyed and then blow up house of culture in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, 2006 - 2007 under Photofact, and
- Culture of Belovezhskaya Pushcha to be ruined! by Heorhi Kazulka;
- A House of Culture to blow up in Belovezhskaya Pushcha under News;
- In Belovezhskaya Pushcha to pull down the ruin of a house of culture under News;
- The ruin of a house of culture in the administrative centre of Belovezhskaya Pushcha is complete to be removed under News.
The plan of preparations for the 600th anniversary of Belovezhskaya Pushcha’s nature protection in 2009 provided for an overhaul of a nursery school, or more precisely, its conversion to a culture venue.
This is the information board with the project details that could be found on the site.
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The photographs below show the appearance of the nursery school before the overhaul began.
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| (1 - March 26, 2009, 2, 3 and 4 - 1 - March 26, 2009, 2, 3 and 4 - April 3, 2009) | |||
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| (April 3, 2009) | |||
The project provided for a complete overhaul of the old building and some extensions to the west side. To do that, the builders had to cut down some of the trees that grew next to the building. The shots below show the felled maples.
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| (1 - March 31, 2009; the rest - April 3, 2009) | |||
Later somewhat brought a funeral wreath next to the pile of branches, perhaps as a practical joke.
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| (May 5, 2009) |
The photographs below show the nursery school amid the repair work in the spring of 2009
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| (1 and 2 - April 3, 2009; 3 - May 5, 2009) | ||
This is the nursery school in the early summer of 2009. The roof is being reconstructed.
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| (1, 2 and 3 - June 25, 2009; 4 - June 30, 2009) | |||
In midsummer, the workers began to build on to the nursery school.
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| (August 9, 2009) | |
These shots show the new culture venue in late August and early September.
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| (1 - August 28, 2009; 2 - September 6, 2009) | |
Below: the annexes are being heat-insulated.
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| (September 16, 2009) | ||
(To be continued)