The Gerdauen railway water towers are now almost lost (due to the analysis of bricks at the direction of the municipality) water towers, which are located on the street. Depovskaya in the village of Zheleznodorozhny Pravdinsky district . These are unique twin towers both in the Kaliningrad region and in Russia [1] .
| Water towers | |
| Gerdauen Railway Water Towers | |
|---|---|
 year 2012 | |
| A country |  Russia |
| Build Date | 1890 year |
History
Two nearby railway water towers were built in 1890, at that time in the town of Gerdauen [2] . The base of each of the towers, which are made of brick, has the shape of an octagon. The upper part is the container itself, sheathed with wood [2] .
Since the beginning of the 2000s, the towers have been on the balance sheet of the municipality, as Alexander Pershin, head of the corporate communications department of KZD, said [1] . Wood cladding was able to survive without damage until 2013 [2] . The owner of the towers is the municipal enterprise “House Service”, however, the section under them belongs to the railway [3] .
After prescribing the Kaliningrad Railway, municipalities decided to get free bricks from the towers in order to use them for soy needs. The destruction of the historical object caused great public protest, but the authorities did not listen to the voice of the people [2] . The head of the administration of the Pravdinsky urban district Pavel Baranov said that the towers were allegedly in disrepair, but this is not true [4] . At the time of Baranov’s statement, the towers not only looked very strong, the brick from them not only did not crumble, but there was not even a single crack on the buildings, moreover, reinforced concrete floors were also intact [4] .
According to the head of the department of the State Monument Protection Service Yevgeny Maslov:
These towers have certain signs of a monument of history and culture. But at one time they were not included in the list of even identified cultural heritage sites. Therefore, the service, unfortunately, does not have legal tools to intervene in this situation [1]
He also added that the case is complicated by the very long procedure adopted by the State Duma last year to include objects in the register of monuments of cultural significance, about six months [1] . According to Maslov himself, the non-inclusion of towers, which are older than the station building itself, which is listed as an object of the beginning of the 20th century, into objects of cultural significance was the omission of a state agency [5] .
The Prussian Heritage Public Initiative Group did everything possible to circumvent the bureaucracy and save unique historical objects from parsing into bricks. The group coordinator and member of the Public Council at the OKN State Guard Service Oleg Li commented on the situation as follows:
Given that the station building is an identified object of cultural heritage (OKN) and its items of protection are not defined, it would be worth waiting for their determination, without destroying the towers. The OKN State Guard Service is now actively conducting the GIKE (Gosexpertiza - ed.) Of all identified objects, ”the coordinator of the Prussian Heritage explained. - However, even in case of refusal to include towers in the station’s security items and in the OKN list individually, their dismantling is a moral crime against the appearance of our region and its tourist attractiveness, especially in light of the recent proposals of the interim governor to revive the network of historical stations of the region [4]
During the campaign to preserve the unique towers, the people relied on the help of the interim governor Anton Alikhanov, and a petition was also created to stand up for historical sites [4] . However, this did not help and the analysis of the towers for bricks continued. According to the workers who dismantle the towers of the building are still strong, and it is a pity to dismantle them, but the authorities ordered [4] . The brick itself - high-quality German (sold for more than 10 rubles apiece) is taken away by the boss [4] .
On March 20, 2017, the north tower was completely destroyed. According to the investigation, the media has now attracted equipment, but "in the city district they are in a hurry to destroy unique historical buildings completely - until today, work has been progressing slowly, with only three men who dismantled the building manually" [6] . As a result, thanks to Alexander Georgievich Yaroshuk, one and a half towers were destroyed.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 In Zheleznodorozhny, the German twin water towers are dismantled into bricks
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Sanctioned vandalism: Despite public protests, the twin towers near Kaliningrad still demolished
- ↑ Hunting season for railway towers is in full swing
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Twin towers in Zheleznodorozhny dismantled by decision of the authorities. Strong in appearance historical object, the authorities of the Pravdinsky city district considered emergency
- ↑ Demolition of twin towers in the village of Zheleznodorozhny suspended
- ↑ One of the twin towers in Zheleznodorozhny completely destroyed