The Estonian state and the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELK) on Wednesday bought the bankrupt St. Alexander's Church of Narva and its final price was 375,000 euros, half of which was paid by the state and half by EELK.
Estonia, Lutheran church buy St. Alexander's of Narva
22nd June 2016, 15:45
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«Saving the symbolic St. Alexander's Church of Narva in public interests is reasonable and necessary. I'm glad that we quickly reached the real purchase deal from an agreement with the creditors and now we can plan the future use of the church building,» Interior Minister Hanno Pevkur was quoted by spokespeople as saying.
Archbishop of EELK Urmas Viilma thanked all the donors who contributed to buying out the church.
As the next step, the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Finance is to draw up a vision by October regarding what the church would be used for besides church services.
The government has spent more than 2.5 million euros to help restore the Lutheran church in the border city now inhabited mostly by Russian-speakers, one million euros of which was provided via a regional competitiveness program of the Enterprise Estonia foundation.