To Build Or Not To Build?

A fracard has erupted amongst Polish architects and conservators over the project to re-establish Gdansk's historic Shakespearian theatre.

Hotshot Italian architect Renato Rizzi appeared to have won the International contest, but now voices are crying that the Venetian architect's design is too big to fit into the alloted plot of land.

Cracovian architect Michal Szymanowski threw the cat among the pigeons by revealing that Mr. Rizzi's measurements broke the laws of the competition. He filed a complaint with the Department of Public Order, claiming that Mr. Rizzi's victory was both unfair and invalid. At the same time, he declared that he did in fact very much like the Italian's project, and he placed all the blame on Professor Jerzy Limon, one of the key figures of the Theatrum Gedanese Folundation that is backing the project.

Professor Limon, who sat on the jury alongside a host of distinguished figures such as film director Andrzej Wajda, has now leapt to the defense of the project, touting Rizzi's work as a masterpiece.

The Theatrum Gedanense Foundation owns the exact site of the former theatre, and it has been raising funds for the enterprise since 2002. Archaeological groundwork is now virtually finished on the site and Professor Limon vows that he will not give up the fight for Rizzi's design. The professor says that he will find a loop-hole in the law and that Rizzi's masterwork will be built.

In it's heyday, Gdansk was renowned for its theatre - the original hall was located in a seventeenth century fencing school that has long since passed away. Amongst those who have shown an interest in the project are His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who is an official patron, and American First Lady Laura Bush.