"A justified way to eliminate an emergency threat and restore order." Minsk Regional Executive Committee supported the demolition of a 19th-century church — perhaps the first in the last half-century

As the telegram channel "Spadchyna" (Heritage) reports, the department found no violations of cultural heritage legislation in the Dzyarzhynsk District Executive Committee's decision to liquidate the historic building. As we wrote earlier, the remains of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul were put up for auction as an "unfinished unpreserved capital building" with an area of 129 square meters. According to the auction terms, the buyer, for a starting price of 3100 rubles, is obliged to completely dismantle the building and carry out land reclamation within a year, keeping only the building materials from the demolition.

The response from the Minsk Regional Executive Committee notes that the building was never included in the State List of Historical and Cultural Values. The mention of the church in the encyclopedic publication "Collection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of Belarus" from 1987, according to officials' explanation, is exclusively of an "informational and reference nature." The department calls the Academy of Sciences publication a "popular science publication" that has no legal force and imposes no protective obligations.

It is enough to open any of the volumes of the Collection of Monuments to read the following in the preface: "The Collection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of Belarus is an official document that includes monuments that have been taken or should be taken under state protection." And it remained so during independent Belarus, until a new, shortened State List of Historical and Cultural Values was formed, where the church in Starynki was "forgotten" to be included.

Павялічыць

The document also provides historical information from the regional executive committee: it states that the object was erected in 1863 as a Catholic church, later consecrated as a Uniate church, and then transferred to the Orthodox community. However, this chronology contains a factual contradiction: the Uniate church on the territory of Belarus was officially liquidated in 1839, 24 years before the construction date stated by the officials. According to historical reference books, the brick church in the late Classicism style was built earlier — in 1836 under the patronage of the estate owner Alyaksandr Lenski. Despite this, the Minsk Regional Executive Committee reports that there is no archival data on the original appearance of the building, and its connection with prominent figures or events has not been proven.

The main reason for the demolition, authorities state, is the physical condition of the object. The building lost its roof during World War II and has not been restored since. According to the technical conclusion of LLC "Belzhyllyo" from May 2026, at least 20 percent of the supporting structures are in critical condition (category IV), which poses a threat of collapse.

Based on this, the Minsk Regional Executive Committee recognized the decision to put the building up for auction for demolition as "a justified way to eliminate an emergency threat and restore order on the land."

The practice of official destruction of historical religious buildings was characteristic of the BSSR in two waves: during the anti-religious campaigns of the 1920s-1930s and during the Khrushchev-era policy of the 1960s, when a number of architectural monuments were demolished.

Today's auction with a direct legal requirement for the demolition of a 19th-century church is perhaps the first such case in the last half-century.

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