All,

Famous and beloved convent in downtown Moscow has burned.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/15/russia-fire-breaks-out-at-novodevichy-convent-bell-tower-in-moscow

GB

Snip

Reports suggest renovation work on the heritage site, involving wooden scaffolding, was conducted in violation of safety regulations

Sunday 15 March 2015 18.10 EDT Last modified on Sunday 15 March 2015 19.58 EDT

The bell tower of Moscow’s historic Novodevichy convent, a Unesco world heritage site and the burial place of many prominent figures, has been threatened by a fire that broke out on Sunday night. Flames from construction scaffolding around the bell tower, which has been under renovation, rose high above the Moscow skyline as firefighters struggled to protect one of the city’s most beloved landmarks.

Law enforcement sources told Russian news agencies that the fire had started in the scaffolding about 30 metres above the ground, and moved up to the top of the tower, which is more than 70 metres high. According to the Moscow branch of the emergency situations ministry, the fire started at 10.41pm local time.

Firefighters were containing the blaze and “there is no danger of the fire spreading”, Alexander Gavrilov, first deputy director of the Moscow branch of the emergency situations ministry, told journalists at the scene shortly after midnight. No one was injured and the interior of the bell tower was not damaged, he said.

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State news agency RIA Novosti later reported that the fire had been almost completely extinguished.

Gavrilov declined to comment on the fire’s possible causes. But the city’s cultural heritage department told news agency Interfax that the renovation work on the tower was being conducted in violation of safety regulations, which likely caused the fire. The department had previously noted violations but could not dismiss the construction contractor because the convent is under federal control.

Russia’s deputy culture minister, Grigory Perumov, said those working on the tower had finished at 11am on Sunday and had turned off the electricity sources at the site, news site Ekho Moskvy reported. A spokesperson for the company overseeing renovations, Stroikomplekt, said workers had been gold-plating the tower’s cupola.

Work on the convent started at the end of last year, at which time the bells were removed from the tower, according to state news agency TASS.

Novodevichy convent was built in the 16th and 17th centuries and has survived mostly intact, remaining one of Moscow’s most popular tourist attractions. It occupies a central place in Russian history and has been mentioned in classic works of literature, including several novels by Leo Tolstoy. Legend has it that Napoleon said he wouldn’t leave Moscow until he saw Novodevichy burn, and his soldiers supposedly attempted to blow up the convent’s main cathedral. Much of the rest of Moscow was destroyed during the French invasion.

A number of well-known figures have been buried in the convent’s cemetery, including writers Anton Chekhov and Nikolai Gogol, composers Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, and former president Boris Yeltsin.

A total of 29 emergency vehicles and 113 personnel has turned up to fight the blaze, RIA Novosti reported. In footage taken at the scene, pieces of burning debris could be seen tumbling from the bell tower. Witnesses reported that chunks of flaming scaffolding had been crashing down around the building.