Protesters face fence

BRATISLAVA citizens protested on February 21 the planned construction of a three-metre-high safety fence around the US Embassy building in the capital's historical centre.
The building is currently encircled by a wire fence and concrete barricades; any cars entering the surrounding zone are strictly checked.

BRATISLAVA citizens protested on February 21 the planned construction of a three-metre-high safety fence around the US Embassy building in the capital's historical centre.

The building is currently encircled by a wire fence and concrete barricades; any cars entering the surrounding zone are strictly checked.

According to the demonstration's organiser, Marián Nemec, they want to stop the idea because it is "a barbaric encroachment on the architecture of the [Hviezdoslavovo] Square. We don't want the era of communism, when half of the city's historical buildings were destroyed, to be repeated," he told the SITA news agency.

A hundred people of different ages joined the peaceful demonstration, supervised by around 20 policemen, to express their opinion about the fence. They held up slogans, such as "Stop the fencing", "We helped build the Berlin Wall, we can help!", and "I can deliver aesthetic ferroconcrete".

Bratislava has the smallest historical centre of any capital in Europe, and it has been under reconstruction since the end of communism in 1989. Only recently, Hviezdoslavovo Square was renovated as a pedestrian zone. Conservationists say that the fence would interfere with the promenade character of the square.

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