The Bucharest City Hall said it did not have the required “competence” to start the procedures to demolish the office building Cathedral Plaza, located next to the capital’s Saint Joseph cathedral, a historical monument.

A court issued a final demolition order for Cathedral Plaza in 2013, after years of lawsuits between the building’s developers and the Catholic Archdiocese in Bucharest. Instead, the City Hall said the National Commission for Historical Monuments and the owner of Cathedral Plaza have the exclusive competence in approving the building demolition.

The approval for demolishing a building located in the protection area of a class A historical monument is issued by the Culture Ministry, after consultation with the National Commission for Historical Monuments, upon the request of the owner, the City Hall explained. An approval from the Culture Ministry is compulsory for any construction work taking place in the protection areas of historical monuments.

The capital’s District 1 City Hall approved the construction of Cathedral Plaza in February 2006. The same year, the developer Millennium Building Development started work on the building, which was delivered officially in June 2011.

Between 2007 and 2011, the construction was interrupted several times because of the legal disputes between the Catholic Archdiocese in Bucharest and the developers. The Archdiocese said the building affected both the image and the structure of the St. Iosif Cathedral.

In May, Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea wanted to poll the citizens of Bucharest on whether they agreed to spend “several millions of euro” to demolish Cathedral Plaza.

Greek real estate investor Ioannis Papalekas currently owns the office building.

editor@romania-insider.com