A scandal erupted in Sevastopol over concerts at the ruins of Chersonesos
A huge concert complex was built in Sevastopol right on top of the ruins of ancient Chersonesos, an ancient settlement included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Four stages, three screens, 538 seats - a total of 15 new forms “grew” on the territory between the ancient fortress walls and the Church of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir.
The first concert on ancient stones took place on Saturday. The Sretensky Choir performed, and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev became an honorary listener.
In August, the site will host the “Opera in Chersonesos” festival. In general, cultural events are planned until November, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The author of the project for a concert complex on the ruins was the My History Foundation. Its chairman, Ivan Esin, claims that all structures were erected in such a way as not to damage ancient buildings.
“We removed 300 tons of garbage from the site and installed wooden paths to reduce the anthropogenic load. Our project has been agreed upon with the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation,” Esin told reporters.
Director of the Chersonesos Nature Reserve Svetlana Melnikova approved the construction of the complex.
However, archaeologists do not agree with this opinion. The reserve's employees, bypassing their management, posted an open letter on the Lens information portal.
“The object, unique in its historical significance and information content, has become inaccessible to tourists - it is covered with wooden sarcophagi for festivals and concerts. All principles of interpreting a UNESCO site and showing it to visitors have been violated. The archaeological landscape has become a testing ground for large-scale construction work using “contrasting materials” – a variety of concrete structures,” the letter says.
According to archaeologists, the paths of the reserve in some areas have turned “into urban highways for modern heavy equipment, mercilessly rolling archeology deeper into the ground.”
The safety of archaeological monuments in Chersonesus has been worrying the reserve’s staff for several years now. Only before they were not afraid to sign their appeals.
Archaeologist Anatoly Tumanov was fired after he wrote a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2017.
“There are many examples of barbaric attitude towards antiquities at the site. For example, screwing the most ordinary metal bolts into ancient stones, which, of course, are subject to rust and, therefore, destruction of the masonry from the inside. Another example is covering walls with completely foreign stones - they say, they fit the size, and that’s okay. On the descent to Uvarovsky beach they managed to illegally build a permanent wall with a metal lattice. One of the walls of the ancient cistern was irreparably damaged,” Tumanov said in an interview "Sevastopol newspaper".
"Chersonese Tauride" was included in the UNESCO list in June 2013. The reserve is located in the center of Sevastopol and represents the ruins of an ancient Greek polis, on the site of which a Byzantine colony later existed (V century BC - XIV century AD). Regular excavations of the site began in 1827. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Chersonesos the “Russian Mecca” because, according to legend, Prince Vladimir was baptized here.
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