{"id":222261,"date":"2022-11-17T12:48:04","date_gmt":"2022-11-17T10:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/sauvez-nos-ames"},"modified":"2022-12-24T23:48:15","modified_gmt":"2022-12-24T21:48:15","slug":"sauvez-nos-ames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/sauvez-nos-ames","title":{"rendered":"Sauvez nos \u00e2mes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Save our souls – translated from French. These words are a call to preserve not only Ukrainians, their houses, streets, villages, cities, but also to take care of the unique cultural heritage. According to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the russian occupiers\u2019 shelling destroyed and damaged 139 facilities. A total of 361 art objects and cultural institutions were ruined or vandalized. These are religious buildings, libraries, museums and nature reserves. The russian occupiers committed most of the crimes against Ukrainian culture in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions. The Luhansk region was also affected.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lysychansk is one of the many cities of Donbas, whose development was impossible without European capital. In the late 19<\/em>th<\/sup><\/em> century, a Belgian engineer and entrepreneur Ernest Solve together with a merchant Lyubimov founded a soda factory here. A colony with 300 apartments and three barracks for the unmarried was built for workers and their families. There was also a canteen, where plays were staged.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, some began to call this residential quarter the tenth province of Belgium, others – the Belgian heritage of Luhansk. We talked to a history teacher Valeriy Negmatov about what the Russian invasion had done to it and how it might affect the souls of Luhansk residents.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How can you describe the Belgian heritage of Lysychansk?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It is a jewel of the Luhansk region, of the entire Donbas. It is very extensive, large-scale. It is not only the most famous Belgian hospital – there is a whole complex: residential buildings of various types, a school that was actually dying, without a roof, without anything, a bunch of different technical buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had a dream to make the Belgian heritage a place of interest for tourism, various cultural events. Perhaps it would have been possible this year. I wanted to get through to people with influence, to the authorities, maybe to those who have access to Belgium, so that we could preserve it all. It was necessary to make a plan, combine everything, calculate, and most importantly, decide how that heritage could be used for tourism purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, there were attempts to organize something in the region, some projects were presented. For example, there was an idea to create a youth hub on the basis of the Belgian Hospital, with various things, from an observatory to leisure activities for young people. Why not? The main task was to implement that. Unfortunately, Mykola Lomaka, an architect from Lysychansk who was the first to raise the issue of preserving Belgian heritage, died last August. No matter how much I criticized Wikipedia, the article written by Mr. Lomaka on Belgian heritage is worth reading, it was written by an expert, and can be relied on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, there were plans to restore the heritage. We considered contacting the Belgians directly. But now we have lost it, perhaps forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What exactly is lost?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Russian army\u2019s shelling burned down the gymnasium built by the Belgians over a hundred years ago. It was among the top 100 best schools in the country and part of the Belgian architectural heritage of the city. The institution survived two world wars and the battles for Lysychansk in 2014, but burned to the ground in May 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n