The restoration of the damaged part of the monumental staircase of the parish church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Prčanje will begin soon, thanks to a donation provided by a Montenegrin family from Berlin, who wished to remain anonymous.
Pastor don Željko Pasković He told "Vijesta" that a contractor has been chosen who will perform a very specific and demanding job of restoring part of the representative staircase, i.e. the Korčula stone balustrade, which was destroyed on March 31, 2020, due to the carelessness of employees of the Podgorica company "Ekoplant".
The workers of "Ekoplant" who were engaged in removing trunks from the harmful red palm borer insect from the destroyed and dried hundred-year-old Canary palm trees that grew next to the staircase, performed this work very carelessly and without adequate preparation. Therefore, a large and heavy palm tree trunk, cut at the root, fell on the staircase and crushed a part of the representative fence - a balustrade made of Brac stone. This leads to the staircase designed by the architect Milan Karlovac completed in 1913, caused great damage, which will only now be restored thanks to donations, but not the responsibility of "Ekoplant", which caused damage to this protected cultural monument of the first category.
"After almost three years since part of the staircase of the Church of the Virgin in Prčanje was destroyed, the procedure at the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property has been completed, which accepted and approved an extensive and studious restoration project for the restoration of the damaged part of the staircase and the balustrade, which was carried out by a specialized company" Projector" from Tivat. The value of that project is 4.000 thousand euros, and it was a donation from the company "Projektor" in order to create the conditions for the proper and professional restoration of the damaged part of this cultural property as soon as possible. In the meantime, since the person who caused the damage persistently ignored the obligation to repair it at his own expense, other people appeared, aware of the importance of this cultural asset, and helped us to collect the necessary money for the construction and rehabilitation works that will cost 12.000 euros", said Pasković.
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The specialized company "Klesarstvo" from Konavalo was chosen as the contractor, which will soon begin this work in cooperation with a subcontractor from Montenegro. By the way, "Klesarstvo" is a highly qualified contractor when it comes to specific stone works on valuable old buildings and cultural monuments, and that company already worked in Boka several years ago on a very demanding job of renovating the bell tower of the church of St. Eustatius in Dobrota.
The parish priest of Prčanj points out that "Klesarstva" has already been paid an advance and that a new, highest-quality Korčula stone has been purchased, which will be used to make parts of the staircase and balustrade, which cannot be reconstructed from the collected and preserved fragments of crushed old parts. He expects that the entire work will be completed by the beginning of the summer of next year, because the intervention is much more extensive than it seemed at first because the palm tree weighing several tons, in its fall, also disturbed part of the statics of this part of the staircase.
"Although we have spoken on several occasions Željko Vidaković, the owner and director of the company "Ekoplant" who, immediately after his workers unprofessionally trampled a palm tree, caused great damage to the staircase of the church in Prčanje, publicly took responsibility for it and undertook that his company will fully bear the cost of the restoration and restoration of the damaged part of the staircase, there is no response or reaction from him. It is sad that someone who was once a minister in the Government of Montenegro, and whose company destroyed a part of such a valuable staircase with the unprofessional removal of a palm tree, and after he said that he would bear all the costs of rehabilitation, now that the 12.000 euros have to be paid to the contractor, he does not respond and avoids responsibility", said Pasković.
He stated that the Diocese of Kotor, if "Ekoplant" and its owner continue to behave like this, will file a lawsuit against Vidaković and his company.
"Justice must certainly be served because it is unacceptable that someone, knowingly or not, destroys such cultural monuments of the first category and does not suffer any consequences for that. I'm sorry that some competent state institutions did not act on their official duty in this case, because in normal countries it would be a completely different story if someone destroyed such a valuable staircase. If there is no adequate response from "Ekoplant" again, we will certainly sue that company and demand compensation for the complete damage caused," said Pasković.
The parish priest of Prčany points out that the costs for the restoration of the damaged part of the staircase would have been significantly higher if the experts from the company "Projektor" who worked on the rehabilitation and conservation project, for two months in often unfavorable weather conditions, had not diligently collected every fragment of broken stone pillars that they could find. , and identified where it came from and how to reunite it with the rest.
"We managed to collect money for the construction works themselves, and in a very unexpected way. When I wrote on a viber group that I was asking for help to be collected for that rehabilitation, after only two or three hours I was contacted by this man, a Montenegrin who lives and works in Germany and who wanted to remain anonymous. His family and their family business paid us the entire required amount of 12.000 euros. I think that this is true patriotism and that you can see all the humanity, philanthropy and love of that man and his family for this country, and a sincere desire to help preserve and restore such a unique cultural monument in Montenegro," Pasković said. .
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