Zaporozhian Sich complex 70 percent completed

Deputy Governor of Zaporizhia oblast Mykola Frolov announced at a briefing that the construction of the Zaporozhian Sich complex is now 70-percent completed. All that is left to do is finish the interiors, and then stock the exhibits. The board of the Khortytsia National Preserve together various scholars has decided that this will be not a replica of the Zaporozhian Sich but a generalized picture of all eight Siches that once existed on the territory of Ukraine. In other words, it will be a memorial and tourist complex rather than a historical and ethnographic one, with all that this implies.

It is too soon to say that it will open this fall because it will take a few more years to decorate the complex and fill it with exhibits. A subvention of UAH three million to complete the construction has already been allotted from the state budget. The directors of the preserve are requesting another three million hryvnias for 2007. These funds are needed to buy an iconostasis (for half of this amount) and various exhibit items, make authorized copies, and pay for certain commercial operations.

A competition was announced last May for the best interior design. A group of Zaporizhia-based artists headed by Iryna Hresyk is going to realize its vision of this historical facility. The job of creating the iconostasis was assigned to Kyivproektrestavratsiya, the Kyiv Institute for Designing and Restoration.

According to the deputy governor of Zaporizhia, a schedule of commissioning the whole complex first has to be drawn up. Then a list of exhibits has to be prepared while the facility is still under construction. Finally, an on-site meeting has to be organized with the Ministry for Culture and Tourism because, as Frolov emphasized, the Zaporozhian Sich Historical and Cultural Complex has national, not just regional, importance.