A provocative work of ‘art’ created by a Dresden collective to celebrate the lives of refugees coming to Europe, and to castigate the European Union for not having more open borders, has been burnt down.

The open doors pavilion in happier times. Flying is a custom made, black and silver EU flag / 28doors.eu

The ‘House of 28 Doors’ was a structure with one entrance for each EU member state, built on the parkland inside the former Templehof airport. It is known in Berlin as the ‘no border pavilion’ and featured a special black and silver EU flag and a multimedia exhibition inside.

The fire took the installation on Tuesday morning and despite the efforts of the fire brigade hosing the structure with fire-retarding foam it could not be saved. TheLocal.de reports Berlin police suspect it was an act of arson, rather than an accident, and a criminal investigation is under-way.

The torching is the second attack on the pavilion in a week as it has become a focus for anti-immigrant sentiment in Berlin.

Breitbart London reported last month on a similar arson attack in northern Italy, where dissenting locals attempted to burn a refugee centre to the ground. Located in an impoverished Rome suburb, locals had just been served eviction notices by their local government but were incensed to hear the state-funded refugee house had not been affected. The centre had previously attacked after complaints were made about local girls being molested by the inhabitants.

The official website of 28 Doors says of the exhibition inside: “Inside THE HOUSE OF THE 28 DOORS, three personal stories of refugees currently living in Berlin are shown on three screens. In the course of the video interviews, they talk about their personal experiences of migration as well as the fate of family members, friends or acquaintances who have died on their escape to Europe”.

The interior space of the pavilion was also used for events addressed by speakers including “activists of the Berlin refugee movement”, and with discussion titles such as “the militarisation of refugee refusal” and “nobody gives us the right to speak, we take it!”.