Priest Stunned To Find Church Missing
Wednesday November 12, 2008
CityNews.ca
They say a thief will take just about anything that's not nailed down.
But an entire church?
That's what happened in the small Russian village of Komarovo,
after a parish priest called authorities to tell him his church was missing. The building
that once housed a congregation had originally been built in 1809 but had long been
abandoned in favour of new digs.
There were plans to revamp the large two-storey edifice, which unfortunately for
local officials, sits in an isolated area where few people venture. Even the village
priests rarely went out to see it, and that allowed the thieves their opportunity.
Over what must have been quite a long period, a thief - or more likely a group of
them - began slowly removing the building brick by brick, taking everything they could
find both inside and out.
When one of the pastors finally ventured out to the site last month, he was stunned
to see nothing left but the foundation and a few wall remnants.
Why steal a church? It's a good way to make a quick buck off the raw building
materials, while the religious icons inside can also fetch a pretty price. It's becoming
something of a bigger problem across the vast country, as the world economy
shrinks.
"This is not an isolated case," warns Father Vitaly, a spokesman for the local Russian
Orthodox. "In many villages in central Russia sites of historical interest are being
dismantled and people suffer by being deprived of their cultural heritage."
It's not clear how the crooks did it or how long it took them, but no one noticed until
it was too late.
A survey of the structure done only a few months ago showed that it was
structurally sound and the clergy had been pondering whether to reopen it. That's a
moot point now.
Russian police are looking into the incident but when it comes to solving this crime,
it's not clear if they have a prayer.
Snatch в русском стиле (+) -- victor -- 14.11.08@08:30 (Чит.: 232)