As reported by the commission this week, such issues must be addressed systematically, not on a case-by-case basis.
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This year, the commission received information about a planned tripartite agreement between the Department of Cultural Heritage, the Palanga City Municipality, and the manager of the Nemirseta Kurhaus. According to the proposed model, after removing the building’s legal protection, the authentic remains of the Kurhaus would be demolished, and a replica would be built elsewhere on the plot, further from the street.
According to the commission, the agreement had already been approved by the object’s manager and the Palanga City Municipality administration, but the Department of Cultural Heritage had not yet approved it and indicated that the content of the agreement needed to be clarified.
The commission expresses particular concern about the detailed studies of the Nemirseta Kurhaus building that have not yet been carried out. According to it, as early as December 19, 2016, the Palanga City Municipality’s Real Estate Cultural Heritage Assessment Council noted the “need to conduct detailed architectural, structural studies, and measurements,” but these works have not yet been performed.
In the opinion of the heritage commission, in cases of deteriorating cultural heritage objects, detailed studies, measurements, and documentation should be among the first steps. They provide the basis for objectively assessing the condition of the object, determining the extent of preserved valuable features, and maximally preserving authentic information about it.
According to the commission, only an assessment based on such data can serve as a basis for deciding on the further fate of the object and possible ways to preserve it.
“Therefore, at this time, the Heritage Commission does not propose specific restoration solutions for the Nemirseta Kurhaus. Before making such decisions, detailed studies must first be carried out and data collected that allow a justified assessment of its condition, the preserved authentic material, and possible further actions,” said the commission chair Vaidutė Ščiglienė in a statement.
The Nemirseta Kurhaus was entered into the Register of Cultural Values in 2009, and in 2017 its valuable features were specified, its architectural, historical, and landscape character was determined, and a local significance level was assigned.
The Heritage Commission states that it paid attention to the object’s emergency condition as early as 2016–2018, addressing the Department of Cultural Heritage and the Palanga City Municipality and raising issues of the object’s preservation, its valuable features, and the manager’s responsibility.
“According to the Heritage Commission’s assessment, the current condition of the building cannot be evaluated separately from the long-term and systematic neglect of the object. Almost a decade ago, issues of the building’s emergency condition, ensuring its stability, and the manager’s responsibility were raised. Therefore, when deciding on the object’s legal protection, it is important to assess not only its current physical condition or the extent of preserved valuable features but also the reasons and circumstances that led the object to reach such a state,” says V. Ščiglienė.
According to the Heritage Commission, linking the removal of legal protection to the deterioration or loss of valuable features of a cultural heritage object, without also providing for the manager’s responsibility for possible insufficient maintenance or failure to fulfill obligations, does not encourage the preservation of cultural heritage. On the contrary, it may create conditions for abuse and possibly deliberate neglect of the object to replace the historic building with new construction in economically attractive areas.
Currently, the applicable legal regulation, according to the commission, does not provide a preservation model that allows replacing an authentic cultural heritage object with its replica in another location – only very exceptional cases of heritage object relocation or restoration are foreseen – therefore, such decisions cannot be considered a systematically applicable heritage protection measure.
It is stated that such an approach risks forming heritage protection practices that do not meet the goals of cultural heritage protection, which focus on preserving authenticity rather than replacing it with imitative solutions.
The Heritage Commission also notes that the removal of cultural heritage from the Register of Cultural Values is a strictly regulated administrative procedure that can only be applied in exceptional cases provided by law and cannot be based on individual agreements.
The Heritage Commission views the situation of the Nemirseta Kurhaus in the broader context of the cultural heritage protection system: the Register of Cultural Values includes severely deteriorated, and in some cases practically no longer existing, objects, so questions about their presence in the register are not unique to the Nemirseta Kurhaus and should not be addressed episodically when a particular case arises.
The commission proposes addressing such issues not on a case-by-case basis but systematically, based on a list of immovable cultural heritage properties for which the Department of Cultural Heritage has pre-prepared a priority proposal to remove legal protection.
Such a model would provide opportunities to evaluate objects in similar condition consistently and according to pre-established objective criteria, ensure more transparent decision-making, and allow the problems of the Register of Cultural Values to be addressed systematically rather than through individual cases that attract public or media attention.
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