Pave Paradise and Put Up a... Church?

The decision to demolish Moscow Cinema’s open-air hall and replace it with a church was made hastily and without consulting experts, said Union of Architects of Armenia President Mkrtich Minasyan at a debate today.

According to Minasyan, the state had registered the cinema’s outdoor hall in its list of cultural and historical monuments that should be preserved; however, it has since been unlawfully removed from that list.

“It’s a committee of experts that defines the state list of monuments to preserve; thus, it’s the committee that removes monuments from that list. the However, the Ministry of Culture hasn’t ensured that process,” he said.

An online petition by Sydney-based Hayas Cultural Organization says that the “legally questionable” decision “to 'un-protect' the hall was supposedly instigated by the decision of Moscow Cinema's current management to transfer the deed of ownership of the Open-Air Hall to the Holy Mother See of Echmiadzin, which plans to demolish said Hall for the purpose of re-building the 18th century Peter-Paul Basilica that once stood on this territory. The Soviet authorities tragically destroyed the church in 1930s with the purpose of building the Moscow Cinema.”

According to Minasyan, the Peter-Paul Basilica (known as Poghos-Petros in Armenian), however, offered no architectural value.

“How appropriate is it to build a church or reconstruct the old one on those premises, when just a further over another church is being built?” asked the Union of Architects president, noting that the entire architectural community today is against the plan.

Minasyan’s opponent in today’s debate, Father Mkhitar Aloyan, however, was of a different opinion: “It’s interesting to me, didn’t the Youth Palace [a Yerevan landmark for decades, known as the ‘corncob’], which was demolished, have any architectural value? If the owner of Moscow Cinema built a cabaret or swimming pool, would you still be fighting [for your cause]?” he asked.

Father Aloyan said that the church today wants that land which belonged to it at one time.

One Facebook supporter of saving the open-air hall, however, summed it up nicely: “The Soviet Union tore down a church and built a theatre. So we'll tear down the theatre and build a church. It was wrong for the Soviets to destroy St. Peter and Paul Church. But the Moscow Cinema Open-Air Hall is a cathedral to the arts, and two wrongs don't make a right.”

The Moscow Cinema open-air hall was built in the 1960s by architects Spartak Knteghcyan (alternatively spelled Knteghtsian) and Telman Gevorgyan. The building is considered one of the city’s best modern architectural venues.