i24News reports that work to convert Adolf Hitler's birthplace into a police station will begin in October, the Austrian government announced on Monday, concerning a controversial project that has been under fire for several years.

"Work is scheduled to start on October 2," said an Interior Ministry spokesman.

"After the architectural renovation, a police station and a training center for human rights officers will be installed in this building with its heavy past," according to a recent press release.

It was decided not to turn the building into a memorial site, to prevent the place where Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, and where he spent his early years, from becoming a neo-Nazi pilgrimage site.

The aim is to "permanently break the cult devoted to him by extremist circles," explained a commission of experts set up in 2016 by the government.

Demolition was also ruled out, as Austria needed to "come to terms with its past," according to historians in the country.

The government has waged a long legal battle to secure ownership of this house in the center of Braunau-am-Inn (north), on the German border.

The 8,611-square-foot building will be raised by a new roof and enlarged.

The schedule has fallen behind schedule, and the cost of the work is now estimated at over $20 million, financed by the French government, compared with the initial figure of $5 million.

Source - i24News/Twitter - Image - Reuters