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The Pidhoretskyy Castle was built in 1640 to the project of the famous architect Andre del'Aqua. It still impresses casual travelers with its grandeur and exquisite beauty of Renaissance forms.
It is one of the best samples of combination of an imposing palace with bastion fortifications. European kings admired the castle (meetings of the crowned persons were held here). Honoré de Balzac and Peter the First stayed in the Pidhoretskyy Castle. Peter the First took away from the castle two busts of Jan III Sobiesky and Mary Casimer to St. Petersburg as a souvenir. Now they decorate the Summer Palace in St. Petersburg.
It is included into the so-called "Golden Horseshoe of Ukraine", although tourists don't visit it so often. Its doors are closed, because the renovation works were declared over ten years ago. But it is hard to say when the works are completed... Meanwhile the World Monuments Fund, NY, included the castle of a small Western Ukrainian village of Pidhirtsi into the list of 100 endangered objects of the World Historical and Architectural Heritage, which can be lost for mankind already in 2008.
At the beginning of June the World Monuments Fund, which has already worked on salvage of masterpieces of the world architecture for 40 years, announced its traditional two-year list of object, which can be ruined in the nearest future. The only Ukrainian object in the given list - the Pidhoretskyy Castle - is being ruined through carelessness. During two weeks which have passed since the list was published, the representatives of some diplomatic missions showed interest in the project of renovation of the Pidhoretskyy Castle. Moreover, there is an active cooperation within the framework of one of the TACIS programs.
One should say that the example of solving similar problems can show our closest neighbours, and not even the countries of Western Europe, where most of the castles and palaces remain private property for centuries. Poles, Czechs and Slovaks managed to turn their historic monuments into modern business centers, recreation establishments, etc. In Europe they depart from the ordinary renovation and they work in the direction of objects revitalization. The revitalization foresees the complex planning of the future object, starting with the issue of what kind of materials should be used during construction and ending with its functional assignment. In many countries of the world such architectural pearls as the ensemble of the Pidhoretskyy Castle are used for tourism development and give a big share of currency profit. They help not only enhance the culture, but also boost the economy.
The time has come in Ukraine when patrons can donate their money for the renovation of the old castles. There is a necessity to create a non governmental and nonprofit structure which could concentrate efforts and resources for the efficient solving of the problems, connected with the renovation works in the Pidhoretskyy Castle.
Everything passes by in this world. There is nothing eternal under the sun. But at the same time we understand how much depends on a human being, his ideas and deeds: we can create or ruin, protect or damage, remember or be lost in oblivion...
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