The restored balustrade of the representative staircase of the church in Prčanje

The restoration of the damaged sheet metal balustrade of the representative staircase under the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Prčanje was completed just before the Feast of Our Lady, thanks to the efforts of the Kotor diocese and the priest of Prčanj, Don Željko Pasković, and the help of donors from Germany.

The challenging and difficult work of restoring the staircase of this first category cultural monument, which was damaged more than three years ago by the Podgorica company "Ekoplant", was performed by the specialized company "Klesarstvo Konavle". This company, headed by a master for working with stone and restoration of old stone buildings, especially cultural monuments, Mihovil-Miho Šuljak, made an effort to preserve about 60 percent of the twenty damaged and broken stone columns in their original form and reconstruct them by assembling them from the original ones. broken fragments.

Nine pillars were made anew as a replica, and from the stone most similar to the Korčula "Vrnik", from which the original pillars were made. It is a stone from Brac, whose composition is almost the same as the original stone used for the construction of this staircase 110 years ago.

"Klesarstvo Konavle" is a highly qualified contractor when it comes to specific works in stone on valuable old buildings and cultural monuments, and that company already worked in Boka several years ago on the demanding job of renovating the bell tower of the church of St. Eustatius in Dobrota. Master Miho and his team showed all their skill in the very sensitive and demanding work of restoring the damaged balustrade of the church staircase in Prčanje, and the entire work was carried out according to the rehabilitation and conservation project carried out by the specialized architectural and conservation bureau "Projektor" from Tivat. This project was previously accepted and approved by the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Properties of Montenegro.

Part of the Korčuan stone balustrade of the representative staircase, under the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Prčanje, was destroyed on March 31, 2020 by the carelessness of employees of the Podgorica company "Ekoplant". The workers of that company, who were engaged in removing trunks from a harmful insect - the red palm borer, 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 trunk of a palm tree, cut at the root, fell on the staircase and crushed a part of the beautiful old fence - a balustrade made of Brac stone. This caused great damage to the staircase, which was completed according to the design of architect Milan Karlovac in 1913, and which has only now been restored thanks to donations, but not the responsibility of "EKoplant", which caused damage to this protected cultural monument of the first category.

Namely, the owner and director of that company, Željko Vidaković, even though he initially acknowledged the responsibility of that company and promised that it would repair the damage caused to one of the most beautiful and representative cultural monuments in Boka Kotorska at its own expense, all these years he did not put it into practice. The money was provided by a Montenegrin family from Berlin, who wished to remain anonymous and who a few months ago donated all the money necessary for the restoration of the balustrade.

The repair of the damage caused by "Ekoplant" cost a total of 16.000 euros, and on the occasion of the completion of the restoration of the part of the stone fence on the staircase right before the religious holiday of Our Lady, who is also the patron of this church, the parish priest of Prčany, Don Željko Pasković, spoke.

"I just want to mention that the company "Ekoplant", which promised to compensate for the damage to this day, has not paid a single euro. So much for the patriotism of the former minister in the Government of Montenegro, Mr. Željko Vidaković. God is just," Don Pasković wrote on Facebook. He publicly thanked the anonymous Montenegrin family from Berlin for the monetary donation that covered the complete rehabilitation, the author of the balustrade restoration project, architect-conservator Katarina Nikolić, and the bureau "Projektor" from Tivat, as well as the contractor "Klesarstvo Konavle" which, as he pointed out, priest Pasković, "honored the agreement that everything should be finished before the patron saint - the feast of Our Lady".

"Most of all, I thank my parishioners for their patience, which some of them did not have, but now they have the opportunity to at least sweep. I hope that some of them will understand that we should protect what is ours, then we will not be humiliated by whoever arrives first. But if we don't protect our own and if we neglect everything and don't care, then why are we surprised that others humiliate us" Don Pasković wrote on Facebook.

As Vidaković said three and a half years ago

Two days after the workers destroyed a part of the balustrade on the staircase under the church in Prčanje by unprofessionally walking and felling a large palm tree, "Ekoplant" and its owner and director Željko Vidaković publicly expressed their regret for the incident and their willingness to repair its consequences at their own expense.

On this occasion, on April 2, 2020, Vidaković sent a letter to the office of the then mayor of Kotor, Željko Aprcović (DPS), in which he informed him that the workers of his company trampled palm trees in Prčanje according to the decision of the Administration for Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Affairs and "in connection with the initiative Municipality of Kotor from February 14", and that "on that occasion, quite accidentally and unintentionally, they caused material damage, damaging the existing fence in the length of one landing".

"The damage caused was not caused intentionally. During the process of working and trampling the palm tree, the tree got out of control and unexpectedly fell on the fence in the length of one landing and broke it," Vidaković wrote to Aprcovic at the time.

The director and owner of "Ekoplant" in his letter to the Kotor authorities at the time emphasized that the company had so far removed "many palm trees in the coastal municipalities of Montenegro, both for personal satisfaction and for the satisfaction of our citizens".

"We regret the damage caused and we will try as soon as the current conditions in the country allow us to repair that part of the fence and restore everything to its original state," Vidaković wrote.

At that time, by the way, there were numerous restrictive measures in force to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, but even when they were lifted and the situation returned to normal, "Ekoplant" did not fulfill the promise made publicly by its owner and director Vidaković at the beginning of April 2020.