The Russian Orthodox Church wants to get rid of “mediocre” Soviet buildings in Sergiev Posad, including residential ones

During a large-scale reconstruction, Sergiev Posad near Moscow needs to be rid of Soviet buildings that have “disfigured” the city. This applies to both administrative and residential buildings, Archpriest Leonid Kalinin, a member of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, told the Govorit Moskva radio station.

The construction plan is under development. According to Kalinin, the project received the blessing of Patriarch Kirill and the approval of Russian President Vladimir Putin. A representative of the Russian Orthodox Church said that Sergiev Posad needs to be cleansed of the Soviet legacy and “alien influences, from mediocre works that arose during the Soviet period.”

In particular, instead of the local administration building, it is possible to build a complex of synodal institutions, a youth center, and a medical center for the elderly. Kalinin also reported on the lack of full-fledged representations of other Orthodox churches with which the Russian Orthodox Church is in contact.

At the same time, the construction of new churches is not planned. According to Kalinin, it is planned to turn a field near the Trinity-Sergius Lavra into an open-air temple, where “tens of thousands of people” will be able to gather in the summer.

The archpriest also expressed the opinion that residents of Sergiev Posad will want to move from panel houses. “We must try to remove everything that was associated with the terrible architecture of the twentieth century. If these are residential buildings, I think that the residents of Posad will gladly move if they are offered the best,” said a member of the Patriarchal Council.

In April, Patriarch Kirill proposed making Sergiev Posad the “Russian Vatican” during a major reconstruction and giving it a special status. And the Moscow region authorities two years ago presented a grandiose project to transform the city into a global tourism cluster.

Residents were frightened by the scale of the officials, primarily because of the intention to make the center of Sergiev Posad pedestrian . Last year, in order to create a pedestrian road to the temple, the Alley of Veterans was destroyed.

And this year, a protest against the construction of a waste processing complex near the village of Sakharovo, Sergiev Posad district, came to the fore. For a local priest, the creator of a museum in memory of the murdered Archpriest Alexander Men, a critical speech about the project resulted in dismissal .