Odesa plans to spend UAH 663 million to preserve cultural heritage

The Odesa City Council shared the results of public hearings to discuss the draft City Target Program for the Preservation of Odesa's Cultural Heritage for 2025-2028.

According to the press service of the city council, the participants of the hearings supported 17 and rejected 10 proposals to expand the program, and now it is scheduled to be considered and approved at an extraordinary session of the city council on August 27.

The program's financing envisages expenditures of UAH 663 million 490 thousand, including UAH 197 million 690 thousand from the budget of the Odesa city territorial community and UAH 465.8 million from other sources.

According to the city council, there are 1,354 monuments and cultural heritage sites in Odesa, including 40 monuments of national importance, of which 1,6 are located on the territory of the World Heritage Site "Historic Center of Odesa".

The new program includes, among other things, the completion of the restoration of the facades and roofs of 138 buildings in the historic part of the city, as well as the restoration of buildings of national importance, such as the Old Exchange building and the Vorontsov Palace Ensemble, which could not be completed as planned before the Russian aggression.

After the end of martial law, according to the program, funding for restoration work on historic buildings located within the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Center of Odesa" is expected to increase. Thus, the list of objects to be restored under the new program will be revised if necessary.

In addition to the need for restoration, the program provides for

• creation of an effective management system for the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Center of Odesa";
• research, popularization, accounting, inventory of cultural heritage monuments, tangible and intangible attributes of the universal value of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Center of Odesa"
• maintaining monumental art objects, individual elements of architectural decor, memorial (information) plaques, memorial signs, etc. that belong to cultural heritage sites or are located within the historical areas of Odesa in proper condition.

In June, city council members emphasized that the development of the draft City Target Program for the Preservation of Odesa's Cultural Heritage for 2025-2028 was under threat due to the inability of city council departments to finalize the wording and those responsible for the areas of work. At the time, the deputies emphasized that without the program, the city could lose investors.

Кирило Бойко