In 2003, the government decided to restore the headquarters of the Revolutionary Command Council. But since then, the building, which once hosted meetings between leaders of the 1952 Revolution, remains a wreck under the pretext that there are no sufficient funds to complete the clean up job.
When you walk into the building, which has lost its features, you will see the eagle of the old Egyptian flag on a wall in the spacious entrance hall. If you look down, you will see pieces of wood and building materials left on the floor. And if you look up, you will see the sun rays coming in through cracks in the ceiling.
King Farouk had ordered the construction of the building in 1949 to be a marina for the royal yachts. It was built over 3,200 square meters in an ancient Greek architectural style, containing 40 rooms on three floors. It cost LE118,000 at the time, and the king was supposed to inaugurate it in 1952.
But the building was seized on July 23, 1952 by the Free Officers, and the late President Anwar Sadat, who was a young officer at the time, announced the revolution from its corridors.
Since then, the building has become part of the history of the 1952 Revolution where fateful decisions were made, such as the agrarian reform law, the trials of the revolution, the Sudan agreement and the evacuation of the British occupation.
In 1996, the building was put under the responsibility of the Culture Ministry to make it into a museum. Then Farouk Hosni, the minister at that time, gave it to the National Center for Fine Arts.
It contained 11,886 registered pieces, including the microphone from which Sadat gave the first announcement, the first flag that was raised in Sinai during the October War, a collection of gifts to President Sadat, documents of the events of the revolution and a valuable collection of paintings for famous artists, including “The Man of the Dam” painting that later disappeared. It was also the starting place for the funeral of President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Those items were taken to warehouses in 2003 in order to start the restoration of the building, which was never completed.
Strangely enough, the Culture Ministry describes the restoration of the building on its website as a major cultural and national project of great historical value that adds to Egypt’s map of cultural monuments that reflect the struggle of the Egyptian people for freedom, dignity and justice.
An Al-Masry Al-Youm team went to inspect the building, which has become a shelter for stray dogs who come in through the broken windows.
The guard thought we were from the Culture Ministry. He said that he works for the Arab Contractors Company and guards the building materials that are supposed to be used for restoring the place.
He said there are five others who are employees of the Culture Ministry but have no offices to use or desks to sit at, adding that a minister or a company official visits them from time to time to look at the place, then leaves to never come back again.
Ahmed Abdel Ghany, the former head of the Culture Ministry’s Fine Arts Department, said the place needs LE80 million to be restored, of which only LE18 million is available. “Also, there is no clear vision as to what the government wants to do with it, now that the items will be displayed in the Nasser museum that will open soon,” he said. "The government should take good care of this place because it is the symbol of the1952 Revolution."
Culture Minister Helmy al-Namnam said he went to see the building, admitted that it is ignored and promised to allocate funds for its restoration.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
