Residents of Sebezh opposed the installation of a cross on the territory of the settlement

On June 15, 2011, as part of a meeting with the residents and administration of Sebezh, the governor of the Pskov region Andrey Turchak was given an appeal from a public initiative group expressing the protest of local residents about the “reconstruction” of the territory of the Castle Hill (Sebezh settlement) and the installation of a ten-meter iron cross on the site of the demolished monument.

The document was signed by members of the initiative group and accompanied by signature sheets with the names and surnames of 825 residents of Sebezh.

The reason for the meeting was the illegal start of work on the territory of the settlement - on May 20 a trench was dug, on May 27 it was filled with concrete, on June 8 a pit was dug on the site of the monument demolished in April 2011.

In addition to the justified indignation of archaeologists about the barbaric violation of the cultural layer of the Sebezh settlement, protests were voiced by the local population, which boiled down to two types of claims: against the installation of Golgotha ​​in a favorite place for wedding “pilgrimages” (“We have been living here for many years, all our lives, we grew up here , we walked here for weddings, we go here to rest - we don’t want to see a grave cross here! ”) And against the installation of a “non-Orthodox” Prussian cross (“ This is not an Orthodox cross! ”, “ This is a cemetery cross - there was a cemetery of occupiers, and it reminds to all of us about this cemetery! ”).

The governor tried to object to the local residents: “ I believe that a worship cross can stand here. This is a suitable place for a worship cross. This is an Orthodox cross .”

The discussion was attended by the curator of the Sebezh region Sergey Pernikov, deputy governor Maxim Zhavoronkov, the head of the Sebezh region Leonid Kursenkov, the head of the administration of Sebezh Galina Malyutina, deputy. Chairman of the Public Council for Cultural Heritage Professor Anatoly Kirpichnikov, and. O. Chairman of the Committee on Culture Zinaida Ivanova, archaeologists Elena Yakovleva and Alexander Mikhailov, members of the public.

The meeting resulted in a meeting of the Public Council for Cultural Heritage under the Governor of the Region, held on June 16 in Pskov, during which recommendations were made to the Committee on Culture “to organize work to prepare the necessary accounting documentation for the cultural heritage site of regional significance “Castle Hill” in Sebezh and the necessary archaeological research on the territory to be improved”, and the city and district administrations – “to develop and agree, in accordance with the procedure established by the Law, a project for the improvement of the territory of Cape Zamkovaya Gora, to hold public hearings on the improvement project in Sebezh”.

On June 20, it became known that the administration of the Sebezhsky District submitted to the Committee for Culture a project for the improvement of Zamkovaya Hill, including a "cross on Calvary."

Sources

• Schlosberg L. Standing on Castle Hill // Pskov province. 2011. June 22. No. 24 (546).
• Permanent address of this publication: http://gubernia.pskovregion.org/number_543/05.php Shlosberg L. Burglary // Ibid. 2011. June 1. No. 21 (543).