By Kate Kanygina
Rostov State University
Many people have heard of them. They go there to think, to take of the pure water, to throw away their rubbish or wash their car free of charge. In Rostov, experts in the occult sciences believe that all the magic powers in the city gather there at night. People show the place to tourists to surprise them, but even they do not know for sure when and why the natural spring started to well out, right from the wall. The mysterious Paramonov stores on the Don river embankment are one of the oldest architectural monuments in Rostov. They have been standing there for many years waiting for a good master’s hand.
Paramonov stores, the five red brick buildings on Beregovaya Street, not far from Bagatyanovskiy Slope, were built in middle of the 19th century. On old maps of Rostov, the complex is labelled “The Exporting-Grain Stores of the Merchant Cossack P.R. Maximov.” But according to legend, in 1917 the buildings were taken from the merchant Paramonov during the dispossession of the kulaks. Since the 1920s, the store has been rented as municipal property. But what of the strange natural spring welling out right in the wall? It’s simple. The buildings were constructed so that water from the spring fed into special canals inside the walls, so that the air temperature was continuously low. This helped maintain stored food products. In 1983, and again in 1990, fire gutted the Paramonov stores. Now a charred shell of brick and natural pools, the city has yet to decide what to do with the stores. To whom will these buildings be rented?
The five huge, two-story buildings on the embankment often draw the attention of big businessmen who want to invest their capital in something worthy. Since the Paramonov stores are a monument of federal importance, a special committee has been established for considering applications. This being Russia, if the state had need of the barns it would take better care of them. As relics, they simply suffer.
The Russian Ministry of Culture has not created a single list of historical monuments, a list whose data base would include information about what the millions of rubles donated for the restoration of old buildings have been spent on. Making such a list would not be a difficult matter; moreover most regions have long agreed to cooperate, realizing that they can’t put off potential financing: many historical buildings need immediate repair. According to an unofficial source, such a list will be made by 2010, if made at all. Then again, will five years be enough time to find all the money which was diverted into private enterprises, and return it? Maybe we’ll see preparation of an all-Russian list put off a little…
As for the Paramonov stores, in 2003 several Moscow businessmen were given the right to rent the property. Their rivals, however, were dissatisfied with the committee’s ruling, and went to court. As a result, neither side will get these five poor buildings.
If used skillfully, there is no doubt that such a large area in the city center would bring a good profit. Instead, today the Paramonov stores are just a dump. They are abandoned buildings, used by the homeless and by drug addicts as a shelter from bad weather, from the all-seeing eyes of the police, and from the fact that they have nowhere else to go. Anyone who wants to can dump garbage at the complex, including, one assumes, the workers at various cafes on the embankment above (One need look no further for proof than the piles of plastic glasses and empty bottles).
The Regional Department of Protection and Use of Historical and Cultural Monuments cannot take care of the Paramonov stores, neither physically nor financially. As recently as April of this year, workers from Housing and Communal Services once again tried to clear the complex of litter. But the united efforts of people without conscience were enough to quickly return the stores to their usual state: trash, rags, building refuse and food waste. The doors and gates of the most well-preserved of the buildings are again broken. Inside - a disgusting smell. It is clear that unless the buildings find their owner, this “litter disorder” will never end.
There is only one answer - one “from above.” The state? “The state has no money,” no matter if the sentiment is not very convincing. So we must look to tenants. Tenants who might-have-been have proposed a variety of ideas about potential reconstruction and use of the stores. These include a cultural-entertainment center with a gym, swimming pool, sauna, and bowling. There the strange pure spring water would offer a particular advantage.
Instead, what do we have at Paramonov? “The city’s black hole”; one more complex that could have been, even if only as a place for young people. There are more than a few young people in Rostov. But the mighty ones in this case won’t give their “blessing.” Other such historical buildings in Rostov are rented as offices and shops. Why won’t anyone grant a new life to this particular site? Is it better for such a place to stand covered by a meter of litter? Somebody needs the complex, don’t they? Instead, the Paramonov stores remain the only architectural monument in Rostov-on-Don whose future is unknown.
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