Moldova's National Council of Historical Monuments cancels notifications for construction of leisure centre in place of coffee house in Chisinau

Chisinau, 17 October /MOLDPRES/ - The National Council of Historical Monuments (CNMI) has cancelled the notifications for the construction of a social and cultural leisure centre on the place of the Guguta coffee house, situated nearby the Stefan cel Mare public garden from Moldova’s capital.     

According to CNMI, the notifications released on 17 January 2019 and 19 July 2018 for the construction of a building with five underground stories on the place of the Guguta coffee house are illegal, as they infringe the provisions of the law on protection of monuments and the regulation on organization and work of CNMI. The decision was taken at a meeting on 16 October, after the Council had considered a petition by a group of civil society’s representatives, registered at the Education, Culture and Research Ministry.     

CNMI found out that glaring infringements of the national legislation on the protection of historical monuments were allowed at the release of the concerned notifications. Thus, the Stefan cel Mare public garden, within the limits of its historical perimeter and its structure set up by 1993 – the year when the garden was given the title of historical monument, is fully protected, with no interventions allowed, which can affect the authenticity and integrity of this national cultural asset.     

CNMI head Gheorghe Postica said that the project on the construction of a an underground eight-storied building in the perimeter of the Stefan cel Mare public garden seriously and irreversibly hit the authenticity and integrity of the historical monument in the heart of the Moldovan capital and created a landscape and architectural lack of balance in the central zone of Chisinau.    

More civil society’s representatives have earlier showed discontent with the initiative to build a social and cultural leisure centre on the place of the Guguta coffee house.