« Not a forest but a jungle »: and the Vrana Park was sunk in the transfer of responsibilities
« Vrana Park » Dies! The warning, published on Wednesday (April 23) on the website of Simeon Saxe -Coburg -Gotha Secretariat, opened the curtain before inaction – or negligence, the institutions expressed in justification and the transfer of responsibilities, even when it comes to a royal park with over 120 -year history, with hundreds of tree species.
The ivy is left to suffocate everything, which is horrifying proof of the negligence of those responsible for maintaining and storing the park. Dry trees spread diseases and threaten human lives. This is no longer a forest, but a jungle!
« The state has given millions of levs of fees to pursue the property of the park and withdraw it from the Sofia Municipality, but for more than a year it has not taken any professional care. The municipality is justified that the park is no longer theirs and do nothing, » the position of the royal family said.
(Without) Responsibility for the park
The Regional Government of Sofia (the manager Stefan Arsov was appointed just a year ago) justified immediately that the municipality had not yet handed them over the park. And the municipality answered questions from Dnevnik that they have been trying to hand it over a year, but the regional government is delayed.
In a message to the media, the government explained that they were not in the possession of Vrana Park and, regardless of the legal status, it continued to be managed by the Sofia Municipality, and that all revenue from the events held on its territory received the municipal accounts.
| Vrana Park is open on Saturday, Sunday and on holidaysthe fee is 5 BGN, the entrance for retirees and children under 7 is free of charge can be organized in the park. For guests up to 100 people the fee is 840 BGN, for up to 200 guests – 1880 BGN. A special two -storey bus X85 travels in the days for visits. |
For more than a year, we have been trying to hand over the property to the state represented by the regional governor, but from there they have been delaying the procedure, Deputy Mayor in the Dental of Green Systems, Ecology and land use « Nadezhda Bobcheva » told Dnevnik (April 24). According to her, the municipality has been sent letters and spoke with the regional governor to sign an agreement, to be clear whose property is.
« We spend more than we get, I wonder how we will report the funds to the Court of Auditors by investing in something that is not ours, » Bobcheva said. According to her, it was not true that the municipality did not care, even though it was no longer owned by de Jure.
Entrance fees go to the accounts of the Sofia Municipality, but the amounts were negligible compared to costs.
Hope Bobcheva.
In the position of Saxe -Coburg -Gotha, it is noted that « the care that the Sofia Municipality takes are only in a small part of the whole park, and regardless of the existing decades of traditions and practices. »
The dispute is currently in the transfer, and neither from the regional government nor from the municipality comment on the necessary care, investment, as well as the opportunities for the development of the park.
How from a royal donation to the capital’s Vrana Park became a state property
Simeon Saxe -Coburg -Gotha and his sister Maria Louisa donated in 2001 to the Sofia Municipality of Vrana with an area of 990 square meters, with greenhouses and buildings that had already restored with the Palace « Vrana+ and other real estate. A museum, and the order for the visits of the citizens of Sofia to be prepared by the municipality.
| « The construction of the Vrana Park began in 1900. The area was a naked plain deforested during Turkish times. The park was intended for the royal family as an out -of -town summer residence. It was created under the influence of European landscape parks. Its construction covers not only a large period of time (43 years), but in the first stage (1900 – 1909) is associated with great difficulties. As a shortage of seedlings due to a lack of greenhouses and nurseries for the production of flowers and wood-christus vegetation. A large amount of saplings and seeds of flowers was delivered to the park from all continents. Impressive is the wide variety of 821 tree, shrub and herbaceous species of 118 families and 435 genera in a territory of less than 100 ha, « writes in its presentation on the official site. |
However, after 2009, according to the idea of the leader of « Red, Legality and Justice » Yane Yanev, welcomed by GERB leader Boyko Borisov, began the long -standing royal property saga, which was expressed in a series of curtains from the state against the Saxe -Burgan family. One of these cases is the one for the Vrana Park.
Mikhail Ekimdzhiev: The moratorium of royal property is unlawful, restitution is decided by the Bulgarian court
How the municipality lost the park « Vrana »
The municipality does not appeal the decision of the court of first instance, which ruled it in favor of the state. Thus, in July 2023, the Supreme Court finally confirmed that the Vrana Palace was owned by the royal family, but not the Vrana Park – it remained state.
So far, no one has commented on why the Sofia Municipality during the time of Mayor Yordanka Fandakova (GERB) has abandoned appeal. The practice of the court in the royal property cases had already been changed, the basic question « why, if the property was owned by these properties were owned in 1947, » was already indirectly raised by the court. , so the outcome of the dispute could be expected for the municipality. According to acquaintances, the most likely reason is the high fee that had to be paid by the municipality in the case.
The Court Finally: and « Vrana » is owned by the royal family
However, a slight withdrawal of the municipal authorities from the park is noticeable from earlier. In 2013, the Sofia Municipality decided to close the municipal enterprise « Park-Museum Vrana », created under the conditions of the donation, and to hand over the park to « parks and city gardens » so it became an object from all parks and gardens. In this way, the autonomy of the 120 -year -old park is destroyed, which inevitably affects its today’s problematic condition – such an assessment makes the decision Simeon Saxe -Coburg -Gotha.
| Millions of lawyer’s fees: In 2017, the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Nikolay Nankov (the second cabinet « Borisov ») submitted a request to the Sofia City Court to suspend the Vrana case, in an attempt to reach an agreement with Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who had agreed earlier. But something behind the scenes happened and Nankov withdrew the application. Together with the Minister of Justice Tsetska Tsacheva gave press conferenceto explain why they give up, but Tsacheva’s exposure did not understand much about the reasons. However, it was understood otherwise – the cases that the MRDPW led were worth the budget as of December 2017. BGN 1 million and BGN 80,000 paid to the law firm. And in the forest and Vrana farm case, led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests – about BGN 1 million and 400 thousand BGN. |
To date, finally confirmed by the court as owned by Simeon Saxe -Coburg -Gotha are the winter home of the Tsar Bistritsa family and the Vrana Palace (located in the park).
Won by the state are the Chiflik « Krichim », the Rila Saragyol hut and the Sitnyakovo villa and the Vrana Park. The cases for the royal forests and the agricultural land around the « crow », known as the « UBO farm » are hanging. For the house in the village of Banya Karlovsko, which is the only property built by Tsar Boris the Third, the state did not claim. According to tourists, the Saragyol hut has suffered a fire and is practically destroyed, the villa in Sitnyakovo is robbed and dilapidated.
How long it will still take the transfer of Vrana Park from the municipality to the regional government will be understood in the coming weeks. How the park will develop and care for its vegetation – it will probably take more.
« To attract specialists who understand from park art and maintenance, not justify themselves with administrative obstacles or » modern « tendencies … Organizing parking activities requires not only good administrative management and landscape construction, but also the availability of trained employees in the field of botany and ecology. »
