Recent photos and videos of construction near St Roch’s Church on Zalataya Horka in Minsk have appeared on social media. The author briefly captioned the images: “My pain”.
As seen in the photos, the building is already almost completed.
The building does not appear on city plans; construction began unexpectedly on the site of a historic Catholic cemetery, replacing a park created by parishioners of the church, which was supposed to be expanded in line with development plans, the outlet Katolik.life noted.
In the comments under the photos, many Minsk residents expressed surprise, saying they had not noticed how quickly the construction had progressed and were unaware of its existence. However, some wrote that they knew the purpose of the facility — an educational institution of the KGB, a new building of the Academy of National Security. Information about the allocation of the plot for this institution on the former Zalatahorsk cemetery had previously been reported by independent media.
During construction, numerous human remains buried at the site were unearthed. They were promised to be handed over to the parish for reburial, but, according to believers, this has not yet happened. Parish announcements for a long time included a prayer appeal: “That the remains of our ancestors buried at the Zalatahorsk cemetery not be destroyed.”
In recent months, however, this prayer has no longer appeared in the announcements.
The construction violated the Culture Code and the protection zone project approved by the Culture Ministry. The site on Zalataya Horka is part of a protected area where capital construction is prohibited.
