Vovchansk Central District Hospital’s Tragic End
2017 year
In the spring of 2017, our architectural company in Kharkov received an email invitation to co-operate with a German firm from Pirna, a town near Dresden in Saxony. They are mainly engaged in restoration projects and do it super professionally. At that time their firm won a GIZ grant for design in Ukraine. Of course, we accepted the invitation, because we realised that this is what we need, because our company slogan is ‘See the possibilities!’.
Since that time, began co-operation with partners from Germany. Our first joint work was the restoration of the historical facades of the Vovchansk Central District Hospital. It was an unforgettable experience!
First, we prepared together a presentation of the project for the hospital management and the residents of Vovchansk. There were numerous trips to the site, meetings with local historians, detailed photo shoots of the building. At that time, it was in a very bad condition, but the German partners were not afraid of it: they examined layers of plaster and paint, details of facades for authenticity, launched drones to find out the condition of the roof. Our architects learnt the history of the building. We found out that it was built in Vovchansk between 1904 and 1914 by local philanthropist Koltsov. Before the Soviets, the building was used as a meeting place for local nobility. There were balls and receptions of all kinds, there was a hotel on the first floor, and nowadays these rooms have been adapted for doctors’ offices. After the coup of 1917, the building changed its purpose, the Bolsheviks set up their headquarters in it, and by the time when the decision was made to overhaul the building, it served as a central district clinical hospital. Why am I remembering all this now?
The building, restored by the painstaking work of many specialists with money from German sponsors and our taxpayers, is no longer there. Yesterday, it was completely destroyed by Russian missiles. I will not write about the degree of savagery of the barbarians who did this. It is useless to prove to those who razed the most ancient city of Aleppo to the ground that to create something worthwhile is often the labour of many and many specialists, but it is possible to destroy the work of their hands in one second. It is painful, very painful to look at the ruins of the hospital, which was so dear to the residents of Volchansk. The building has seen both local nobility in ball gowns, arriving in carriages, and ordinary people, who gathered near it, and nowadays come to be treated…
This beautiful building is gone and will never be again, just like so many others…
No doubt we will rebuild our cities. But will they be as they were before? Will they ever be? And will the barbarians be held accountable for all they have done to my beautiful country?
https://vov.crl.net.ua/istoriia/
Article by Panova Zoia
