"The castle looked like a drug den"

Colonel Andrei Kvitko, a hero of the Russo-Turkish War, built a dacha for his wife in 1916.

After the revolution, the whole family emigrated.

The castle initially housed a juvenile colony, and then a children's sanatorium.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kvitko's dacha began to belong to the Yunost sanatorium, but the historic building turned out to be abandoned - the vacationers were settled in newer buildings.

Since 2018, local entrepreneurs have tried to restore the dacha in order to take excursions there.

For this, the patrons entered into an agreement with the sanatorium, according to which they kept order in the country at no cost.

“The castle looked like a drug den - painted with graffiti, littered with rubbish, with traces of fire,” recalls one of the entrepreneurs, Aleksey Aleksandrov.

- We restored the burnt-out floors, took out the trash, covered up with graffiti advertising drugs.

Both adults and children began to come here ”.

According to data from the page dedicated to Kvitko's dacha, in social networks, at that time several tourist groups managed to visit the castle, and inside there were wedding photo sessions and filming.

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  • © @domkvitko_sochi

At the end of 2020, the management of the sanatorium discovered that the guides had violated the agreement and demanded to stop all restoration work at the dacha, as well as stop taking tourists there.

“The agreement really meant that we had no right to change anything,” Aleksandrov admits.

- But we want Kvitko's dacha to be recognized as a museum!

The Yusupovs, Golitsyns, Romanovs stayed here, Chaliapin spoke, Beria and Stalin visited her, the Smersh administration was located here.

And according to the owner, wide access to the entire ensemble of the monument should be closed and an elite hotel complex should be created. "

"Restoration is planned"

According to Aleksandrov, the Department of the State Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites of the Krasnodar Territory indicated that due to illegal restoration, a criminal case could be initiated against the initiators of the repair in the building.

Meanwhile, the sanatorium has officially terminated the contract with the entrepreneur and his associates.

“We are forbidden to protect the monument, to carry out any restoration activities there, as well as to talk about its historical significance,” added Aleksey Aleksandrov.

"I'm afraid this is the end of Kvitko's dacha."

Meanwhile, the director of the Yunost sanatorium, Yuri Obolentsev, told RT that Colonel Kvitko's dacha would be preserved and restored to receive vacationers.

According to him, during this year the necessary design and survey work will be carried out, and only after them restoration is planned.

“This will be one of the sanatorium complexes - earlier there was already a children's sanatorium“ Krasny Sturm ”there, - explained Obolentsev.

"We are planning to restore the dacha so that it would meet its previous tasks."

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  • © @domkvitko_sochi

As explained in the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, at the moment the sanatorium "Yunost" is in the process of registering the right to an unlimited use of the land plot.

As soon as the issue of the land on which Kvitko's dacha stands is resolved, it will be possible to begin the restoration of the future dormitory building of the sanatorium, the department noted.

“According to the Urban Planning Code, we cannot carry out any work in the building while there is a question with the land under it, since the land has not yet been transferred for perpetual use.

But this is already a question for the Federal Property Management Agency, ”added Obolentsev.

The RT State Property Office reported that the land plot under the dacha of Colonel Kvitko was registered and put on the cadastral register only in November 2020 and belongs to the category of land in settlements intended for the construction and development of settlements.

In addition, according to the Federal Property Management Agency, the land on which Kvitko's dacha is located is located in the water protection zone of the Black Sea, which also imposes a number of restrictions on the territory around the architectural monument.

"We will discuss a new agreement"

According to Aleksandrov, the sanatorium is ready to renegotiate the contract with the entrepreneurs on the same terms - they monitor the cleanliness and order at Kvitko's dacha, but they no longer undertake restoration attempts.

"In March, a lawyer representing the sanatorium should arrive, and we will discuss a new contract," the entrepreneur told RT.

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  • © @domkvitko_sochi

At Kvitko's dacha, a commission from the regional department of state protection is also expected, which will assess the possible damage from the restoration work carried out at the initiative of the guides.

“We haven’t removed the new ceilings in the castle tower yet, because there are still many who want to - young and desperate - to climb there and admire the views, and the old structures could not stand it,” added Aleksandrov.