Union of Architects of Serbia requests Government to withdraw decision on removal of status of General Staff complex

The Union of Architects of Serbia has called on the Government of Serbia to withdraw the decision by which the General Staff complex in the center of Belgrade was stripped of its status as a cultural good, it has been announced today.

In an open letter to the Government of Serbia, the Ministry of Culture and “other competent” institutions, the union warns that, by removing the protection status, the state has violated international obligations, due to which, as they said, serious warnings have already been made by the most significant international organizations for the protection of cultural heritage, such as the International Union of Architects and the organization Europa Nostra.

– With the act of adopting the decision to remove the status of a cultural good for the General Staff complex, not only is the memory of an important cultural and historical heritage of our country from the 20th century period jeopardized, but the announced future interventions would ruin the entire spatial cultural-historical whole “Area along Kneza Milosa Street”, which tells the story of the creation of the modern Serbia state through the 19th and 20th centuries – the letter says.

It is estimated that this not only creates a precedent “which entirely brings into question the protection of Serbia’s heritage and opens wide the door to doing to the cultural heritage in the entire territory of the Republic, but also our heritage outside the country’s borders, whatever anybody wants to do based exclusively on political decisions, and not a previous expert check.”

The union also estimates that the act of waiving the General Staff complex to a foreign investor “through a secret agreement that the public has learned about exclusively through the media leads to suspicions regarding the legality of that process.”

– It is clear that the subsequently made decision on removing the protection were adopted outside the Constitution, the laws and the professional principles of the protection of the cultural heritage of the Republic of Serbia, which makes them unconstitutional and unlawful – says the open letter from the Union of Architects of Serbia.

Udruženje arhitekata Srbije Beograd

Vlada Republike Srbije

Union of Architects of Serbia

Government of Serbia

General Staff building

cultural good status

Europa Nostra