Ownership of several of Heliopolis's landmark buildings is being contested in the courts, reports Reem Leila Baron Edouard Louis Joseph Empain (1852- 1929) may well be turning in his tomb in the Basilica that lies at the heart of Heliopolis, the fantastical desert suburb he created. For close by lies the Baron's most astonishing folly, the house based on a Hindu temple that he had built for himself, and which is now part of a court case involving his heirs. The ownership of over 10,000 square metres of prime real estate in the heart of Heliopolis is being contested by the Baron's grandsons, Edouard-Jean and Nicole Empain. Numbers 9, 11 and 13 in Al-Thawra Street, 7 Al-Somal Street, and 10 Sosostris Street, all properties of former abode of the Belgian industrialist, are included in the suit which reached court on 20 October. Edouard-Jean Empain, 88, appeared alongside the Belgian ambassador and two lawyers at the beginning of an action which they say will prove the Baron's grandchildren, and not the Nasser Social Bank (NSB) which currently claims it has legal title, are the lawful owners of the buildings. After the initial hearing the court postponed the case to 17 November. Three years ago, says Maher Milad Iskandar, one of Edouard-Jean Empain's lawyers, the NSB took out a notice in Al-Safeer newspaper requesting any claimants to the properties to come forward. That they took out their advertisement in a small circulation newspaper with a readership comprising a handful of legal professionals, says Iskander, suggests that while they were complying with the letter of the law they were ignoring its spirit. Al-Safeer was chosen, Iskandar alleges, precisely because it was unlikely to come to the attention of anyone with a legal claim on the properties in question. NSB's lawyer Nadia Hilal denies any suggestion of wrongdoing. The bank, she says, had no idea that there were claims on the properties, and points out that Empain's heirs were no longer resident in Egypt. "Should the court rule that the buildings belong to Baron Empain's grandchildren then NSB obviously, will respect that ruling," she adds. It is an event unlikely to play well with employees of the bank to whom, according to Iskander, many apartments in the contested buildings were sold. Asaad Kamel Khattab, another of the current Baron Empain's lawyers, insists that the elderly Edouard-Jean Empain appeared in court in Cairo to establish that he was still alive, and that ultimately the case will be settled through international arbitration. "The Baron is expecting to win his case in front of the international court within three months maximum," says Khattab, while legal procedures in Egypt might drag on for years. "Given that the Baron has all the legal documents proving his right to his grandfather's real estate one can only wonder why the NSP is defending the case." The lawsuit has drawn attention to longstanding problems bedeviling some of Cairo's most outstanding buildings. Egypt's urban architectural heritage is eroding fast. Many buildings of architectural value have been razed or simply neglected while the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) is not always interested in registering buildings and incurring additional burdens on already over-stretched funds. Add to this endless quibbling about ownership of the buildings, and you have a foolproof recipe for urban degradation. "Every time I stroll around the streets of Heliopolis, Downtown or Boulaq, more buildings seem abandoned, left without maintenance, on the verge of collapse," says urban planner Salah Hegab. "It feels like part of my memory is being wrenched away from me. It's terribly frustrating. Examples of distinguished architecture, buildings that are part of the character of the city, are left to crumble in full view and no one, including the authorities, appears to care." The first Baron Empain commissioned French architect Alexandre Marcel to build his Hindu temple/palace in 1906 as centrepiece to the eclectic city he was creating in the desert.
