Foundation Estonian Concert (Eesti Kontsert) has entered into a contract with the congregation of St John’s Church at St Petersburg, pursuant to which the Estonian state obtains right of disposal of the building, free of charge, for 49 years.
Estonia to own St John’s Church at St Petersburg for half century
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The privilege carries with it an obligation to maintain the building. Also, concert activities will certainly be continued, said Public Broadcasting (ERR) radio news and Aktuaalne Kaamera.
The people gathered in Theatre Estonia winter garden, yesterday, had a lot to recall: from idea to completion, the restoration of St John’s Church in St Petersburg went on for nearly ten years. That spanned obstacles like the global recession, as well as the Bronze Night of 2007.
Renovations at the church building were finalised in February 2011; after that, builder guarantee applied. By now, all construction faults have been corrected and the contract with construction company Riito, formerly Facio, was ceremoniously concluded yesterday.
In February 2011, the church was opened again. Since March this year, its formerly unstable legal status has been solved, and the church is officially and fully in ownership of the Estonian state.
According to Jüri Leiten, director of Foundation Estonian Concert, the building fist belonged to the city; as the St John’s congregation was restored, they applied to have the building.
«In 2013, the congregation legally got the building back, even though the construction was completed before that. It’s just the red tape, in this world of today. While we used to go by one-month one-off contracts with the congregation, now the congregation owns the building and Estonian Concert is its user. This means that Estonian Concert has undertaken to maintain the building and to have activities there i.e. organise concerts, sell tickets, and by that earn some profit. Estonian Concert is like an extension of Estonian state, in St Petersburg, responsible for the maintenance and keeping of the building,» explained Mr Leiten.
Andres Põder, archbishop of Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, said the contract was reasonable.
«This has been long-time cooperation, since the restoration of the church. And, today, we heard how smooth the cooperation has been. I am absolutely positive it will be as smooth in the future, and all parties are well satisfied,» said Mr Põder.