The court banned the reconstruction of the “Prague” hotel

Sophia of Kyiv

Antonina Vishnevska

The sixth appellate administrative court of Kyiv completely rejected the developer’s demands for the “reconstruction” of the Prague hotel and office complex. The building is located near St. Sophia Cathedral – in the UNESCO buffer zone – and threatened to change the visual perception of the architectural ensemble.

About this reported press service of the ICIP.

On Tuesday, March 5, the Sixth Court of Appeal annulled the decision of the District Administrative Court, which supported the claims of the private joint-stock company “L-Capital”, the developer of “Prague”. Previously, the developer asked to declare the refusal to restore and reconstruct the building illegal, and also demanded to allow construction work to be carried out.

“Carrying out the restoration of non-residential buildings on Volodymyrska, 36 and Zolotovoritska, 11 streets in the planned form would lead to a negative impact on the visual perception of the UNESCO world heritage site – the component “Saint Sophia Cathedral and adjacent monastic buildings”, but the MKIP lacked legal grounds for approval of such a project“, – noted in MKIP.

It was also emphasized there that the building could disrupt the “harmonious historical axis” of Zolotovoritska and interfere with the perspective view of the bell tower of St. Sophia of Kyiv.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, as well as the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection of the KMDA, were involved in the consideration of the case.

The case of the hotel and office complex “Prague”

In 2015, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee imposed a moratorium on the construction of monuments with the status of world heritage in the buffer zones. This concerned the architectural ensemble of St. Sophia Cathedral, as well as the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

In the same year, “L-Capital” began the “reconstruction” of a four-story building at 11 Zolotovoritska Street and built an 8-story addition to the building at 36 Volodymyrska Street. UNESCO called to avoid these construction processes and preserve the original composition of the complex.

In March 2020, PrJSC “L-Capital” appealed to the District Administrative Court of the city of Kyiv with a lawsuit against the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine (then the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine) to cancel the ban on the reconstruction of the “Prague” complex. On August 18, 2020, the District Administrative Court fully satisfied the company’s claims.

MKIP contested the court decisions related to this case in the appeal and cassation procedure. As noted in the press service, despite the conclusions of UNESCO and the ban, the builders continued to implement their project and appealed to the police with the demand to initiate criminal proceedings against the MKIP.

Hotel “Prague” was built in 1880 according to the project of a Russian architect of German origin, architect Alexander-Peter-Andrian Schiele. Since then, a profit building, a hotel and a private commercial bank have been operating there.

As wrote public figure Iryna Fedorova Czech writer and satirist once lived in the hotel Yaroslav Hasekwho wrote the novel “Adventures of the brave soldier Shveik during the war”. He also lived in the building Simon Petliura.